El Planeta Gijón

Best Restaurants in Gijón

El Planeta Gijón

If you love seafood, you will love eating out in Gijón. The city is famous for its many restaurants that serve fresh fish, cooked in the best ways possible. Furthermore, it is quite affordable to eat out here. So let’s get into it – a guide to the best restaurants in Gijón!

We all know that Gijón is a very underestimated tourist destination. But that does not result in a lack of nice restaurants – because the city certainly has a lot. The locals love eating out, so you will find plenty of great options. The restaurants in Gijón are known for their nice mood, and of course for their speciality in seafood. However, you will also find other dishes, so don’t worry if you are into other things.

El Planeta

Cuisine: Spanish, seafood

If you want seafood at a good price and at a good location, simply go to El Planeta. This restaurant is located in Cimadevilla, arguably the most fun part of Gijón in the latter part of the day. El Planeta is a restaurant you will not read about in travel magazines, due to its down-to-earth, common-man vibe. But it is loved by the locals, and the restaurant certainly serves great food. It has been open since 1865.

El Planeta is fairly cheap, as you can get a nice meal within the price range of 15-30 euros per person. Some of their most popular dishes are sardines, octopus, shrimp, but you have several dishes to choose between. If you’re not into fish, try a steak instead. A bottle of local cider will be 4 euros and should be enough for two persons. Other drinks can also be bought, such as beer, wine and soda, but you will find that most people inside are simply drinking cider!

No side dishes are served next to the main meal, so it can be a good idea to buy an entrance meal and then move on to the fish/meat. It’s a very social restaurant, not a quite place, so it’s perfect for an ordinary local restaurant experience and not so much for a quiet romantic night out.

The bottom part of El Planeta is a bar, while the floor above has the restaurant: You can easily move downstairs and get an extra drink after you’re done eating, something we highly recommend. Doing the night time, the bar is full of people, with the conversations even moving out to the streets.

On weekdays, no reservation is required, you can go right in and eat. During busy nights (Friday and Saturday), it can be a good idea to book a table in advance. Be sure to ask for a window table!

Address: Tránsito de las Ballenas, 4, 33201 Gijón, Asturias

Restaurante Auga

Cuisine: Spanish, seafood

Restaurante Auga can be considered the fancy version of El Planeta. On a normal night in Gijón, get your meal at El Planeta, and on the special nights, go to Auga. They are located pretty close to each other, both in the northwestern part of Cimadevilla.

They also serve a lot of nice dishes, mostly Spanish and Mediterranean food. You can find a bit of everything, although the fish are particularly great. As one of the few top restaurants in Gijón, Restaurante Auga also provides vegetarian and vegan options.

The restaurant is really loved by everybody that visits it – locals as well as tourists. The price range is around 50-100 euros per person, depending on what you order. But notice that the meals are quite a bit smaller than they are at El Planeta – so Auga is a place with a clear focus on quality, and not necessarily on quantity.

But visiting this restaurant will be one of your absolute best experiences in Gijón. We recommend it if it falls within your budget. The service is also tremendous. We should also mention that Auga has a Michelin-star, making it a really interesting visit.

Address: Calle de Claudio Alvargonzález, s/n, 33201 Gijón, Asturias

V. Crespo

Cuisine: Mediterranean, exclusive

A small hidden treasure in Gijón. V. Crespo is one of the city’s best restaurants. It is an incredibly stylish place and you can expect to be in great surroundings when you step in. Also, the service is usually amazing. The location is not directly by the coast, but rather inside the Centro-neighborhood, close to the Jovellanos theatre and the casino.

Regarding the food itself: V. Crespo primarily serves seafood. That should come as no surprise, so seafood lovers will once again have a great option here. But V. Crespo also provides several meats, such as high-quality steaks, along with several pork dishes. But we do believe that the highlights are the octopus and the lobsters.

Although paella is a Valencian dish and not an Asturian one, you can still order it here, and they make it quite well.

We highly recommend going to this restaurant, and if you need one last argument – V. Crespo is rated as the #3 best restaurant in Gijón on TripAdvisor, with most reviewers giving it five stars!

Address: Calle Periodista Adeflor, 3, 33205 Gijón, Asturias

La Divina Commedia

Cuisine: Italian

If you want some Italian food in Gijón, check out La Divina Commedia. It’s a nice place to visit if you’ve been eating fish for a couple of days in a row. And they definitely do serve nice and typical Italian foods here – something that’s always good!

The restaurant is easy to spot, as the face of Dante is shown on the windows. The main dishes served here are lasagna, gnocchis, spaghetti alla carbonara, and several pastas. When ordering dessert, you can get tiramisù or panacotta. Both excellent choices!

It’s quite cheap to eat here. Expect to pay around 20 euros per person for the main meal, a drink and a dessert. Highly recommended if you fancy some Italian food, as this is a really solid restaurant. It is located close to the beach, so a nice walk along Playa de San Lorenzo is a great idea after you have enjoyed your meal!

Address: Calle Marqués de Casa Valdés, 10, 33202 Gijón, Asturias

La Zamorana

Cuisine: Asturian, Cantabrian

Another affordable restaurant that is very cosy. La Zamorana offers typical Asturian and Cantabrian dishes, cooked in a simple way, yet it tastes amazing. This restaurant is recommended by many, and you will most certainly like it too.

Their grilled octopus is a highlight, but you have a large menu with several options. The cider served in this Gijón restaurant is also highly popular, as it is the traditional Asturian variant.

Address: Av. Hermanos Felgueroso, 38-40, 33209 Gijón, Asturias

Cuisine in Gijón: What you should know

If you want to eat out in Gijón, you will find that most of the popular restaurants will specialize in seafood. That makes it a great city to visit if you love fish, and perhaps that is why so many people return again and again to Gijón.

Cider restaurant GijónHowever, not everybody loves fish, so it is a good thing that most restaurants also have other dishes on the menu. Even most of the fish restaurants will still have a couple of meat options, and as we said earlier, there are also restaurants such as Auga where you can find nice vegetarian options.

Be sure to grab a cider in Asturias as well. Almost all restaurants serve it, and the ciders are not very expensive. Most restaurants will charge between 2 and 8 euros for a large bottle. If you don’t like cider much, then order wine from La Rioja – most Asturian restaurants will also be able to provide this.

Cachopo is a very common food in Gijón, quite typical for the area. Be sure to try it.

Alternative options

The options above are all great if you want to eat at a classical restaurant in Gijón.

But what if you just want something quick? Visit one of the many bakeries and get classic Asturian pastries. There are great bakeries all over the city, so take a look at them yourself and pick your favorite.

You can get some fastfood too. Gijón, like any other city, has McDonald’s, Burger King, Subway, and so on. But they have them in smaller amounts. In the central part of Gijón, there’s just one McDonald’s and two Burger King’s. So you probably need to look it up on the map. Spanish chain 100 Montaditos is nice for a quick drink and if you want some cheap, quick food after a long walk.

Overall, there’s a lot of great options when eating out in Gijón. The seafood restaurants are the best, so be sure to visit at least one of them. We hope you have enjoyed this guide!

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