Located across from the fronton (the traditional court for playing pelota, present in nearly every Basque town or village), this humble little restaurant has continued to over perform through visits spanning many years.  At lunch, there is a daily chef’s menu with 2 choices each for entree, plat and dessert, is a steal at 26 euros. On a recent visit, the starters were a delicious leeks vinaigrette, the vinaigrette more like an herby sauce gribiche with chunks of hard cooked eggs, and an escabèche of aubergines, thick slices of eggplant first fried, then left to come to room temperature in a slightly sweet combination of vinegar, olive oil and diced tomatoes, finished with a crumble of feta cheese. For plat, I had a lovely trout filet, perfectly cooked and served with braised lettuces and a rich shellfish broth, Sheila had paleron of beef, slow cooked, shredded and served liquor redolent of red wine,  with chickpeas and courgettes. For dessert, on offer was either local sheep’s milk cheese or a panna cotta scented with fig leaves, served with red cherries macerated with basque sour cherry liqueur.

Evenings, the ambiance is much more bar than resto, with a menu composed of raciones, or small plates.  We especially enjoyed a plate of green beans dressed with a tahini vinaigrette, a perfect tortilla espagnol and a very generous bocadillo stuffed with grilled chicken and caramelized onions. On Thursdays, the bar features pintxos, with your choice  from the bar display offered free with each glass purchased. This weekly special is a promotion arranged by the city of Ciboure and is available in most of the nearby bars.  Ambiance assurée!

For wine, Maitenia features an impressive list, especially deep in  Basque wines from both sides of the Pyrenees and leaning heavily toward organic, natural or  biodynamic.  This is no surprise, as the same team owns an excellent cave a vin across from the Halles of St-Jean-de-Luz called Canon.

Maitenia
Address:  8 Pl. du Fronton, 64500 Ciboure
Tel:  (011 33) 05 24 33 45 68
Reservations: advised, especially for lunch in the summer.  Not available for evenings.

Literally across the street from the Bay of Biscay, Le Socowa is the  French version of a beach front fish shack. With that in mind, you would expect that organization would not be a strong point, which it is not:  they almost never answer the phone if you call for a reservation and as far as I can tell, they don’t have a website.  Similarly, the service is a bit casual:  the waiters are clearly stretched to cover all the tables on the terrace when the sun is out, chatty and easy-going when the clouds scare away the tourist hoards. But where Le Socowa punches above its weight is in serving very fresh, very simply prepared seafood sourced that day from the fishing boats docked at the port of Ciboure, 5 minutes away.

Consider the meal we had there this spring.  With aperos, crisy croquettes a la morue, moist salt cod barely held together with béchamel sauce, then breaded and deep fried. To accompany a bottle of rosé from the Basque countries, a number of small plates including very fresh sardines grilled on the plancha with only a squeeze of lemon, slow simmered octopus with plenty of Spanish smoked paprika, and anchovy filets, house cured with white wine vinegar and olive oil.  For the main course, a “parillada de mer”, a seafood mixed grill including head on pink prawns, merluchon (the arch-typical white fish of the bay of Biscay, a relative of cod that I think corresponds to “hake” in English) and chiperons (tiny squids cooked whole), all served with saffron rice pilaf and broiled tomatoes. To finish, a plate of Basque sheep’s milk cheese.  All impeccably fresh and very very simple.

Le Socowa is the sort of simple, honest, regional restaurant it is a pleasure to run across when discovering a new city.

Le Socowa
Address: 45 Av. du Commandant Passicot, 64500 Ciboure, France
Tel:  (011 33) 05 24 33 37 05
Reservations: accepted but not really necessary outside the season…in July and August, why are you in a beach town anyway?

The last time I had the good fortune to dine at Chez Mattin in Ciboure was pre-covid.  This family-run Basque restaurants has been consistently one of my favorites for years, see my recommendation from 2013! But a lot changed during covid, and many wonderful restaurants have either not opened or never re-found their pre-covid form, in terms of hours, services or quality. Thankfully that is not the case with Chez Mattin…if a recent lunch is any indication, they have thrived and are maybe better than ever.

Our recent lunch included a creamy shellfish bisque as an amuse bouche, then a plate of the excellent 2 year old jambon Ibaiana from Maison Ospital, followed by starters of house-made boquerones (anchovies  preserved with vinegar and olive oil) served on Japanese rice (an inspired, if not traditional, pairing) and  tiny Bay of Biscay clams simmered with purple artichokes.  Main courses included veal sweetbreads roasted whole with puree of sweet peas and baby goat cooked two ways, as a roulade stuffed with green chard, and its meaty bones slow simmered with piment d’Espelette.  For dessert, a simple but perfect profiterole with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce.  Yum!