Bar-Restaurante Jakue — pintxos and Navarrese wine
Tucked just off Calle Mayor, Jakue is the kind of unpretentious local bar where the pintxos counter is replenished every hour and the house Navarra rosado is poured with the confidence of a place that has been doing this for decades. It is the go-to spot for pilgrims who have earned a proper meal and for locals who simply want lunch without theatre.
What to Order
Start with the gildas — the classic Basque-Navarrese skewer of guindilla pepper, anchovy and olive — then move to the revuelto de hongos, a loose scramble of wild mushrooms and egg that arrives in a small clay dish still sizzling from the pan.
The chuletillas de cordero al sarmiento, tiny lamb chops grilled over vine-wood embers, are the dish that regulars return for; the smoke from the sarmiento gives the meat a faintly sweet, resinous edge that is impossible to replicate with gas.
Finish with a cuajada — a traditional Navarrese set-curd dessert served with honey and walnuts — and a small glass of local Pacharan sloe liqueur, which the bar makes in-house from wild sloe berries macerated in anise spirit.
The Wine and the Atmosphere
Navarra's DO rosado, made primarily from Garnacha grapes, is one of Spain's most underrated wines — salmon-pink, dry and freshly acidic, it cuts through the richness of lamb and mushroom alike and costs around €2.50 a glass here.
The bar fills up between 1 pm and 3 pm when the local lunch crowd arrives and conversation ricochets between Spanish, Basque and at least four other languages from the pilgrim tables — a genuinely cosmopolitan atmosphere in a town of fewer than 3,000 people.
The terrace on the side street is shaded by a canvas awning and catches the afternoon breeze; it is the ideal place to spend a long, unhurried Navarrese lunch.
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