Basque Tapas Bar Near Me in Marylebone: Donostia on Seymour Place

If you are near Marble Arch and typing tapas bar near me, walk five minutes north to Donostia at 10 Seymour Place. The name is the Basque word for San Sebastián, and the kitchen cooks the way that city eats: small pintxos, grilled fish and serious steak, washed down with Txakoli poured from a height. It is a 40-seat room, so it feels like a neighbourhood bar rather than a destination dining room.

Donostia's own wine list explains the origin story. The idea for a Basque restaurant in London was hatched on a sourcing trip for the owners' wine import business, which in 2026 marks its twenty-third year. Several bottles on the list are imported and delivered by that same company, which is why you see unusual grapes and producers alongside familiar names like Rioja and Ribera del Duero.

The list makes a point of Basque wines in particular: Txakoli from Getaria, Irouléguy from the French side of the Pyrenees and a sparkling wine from Zarautz. That focus gives the place a clear identity in a part of London where most Spanish restaurants lean on Andalucía or Madrid. The menu is built around seasonality and the quality of the ingredients rather than a fixed list of classics.

The ground floor is the main event. Diners sit at a dining bar facing the open kitchen and watch the chefs plate pintxos a few feet away, or take one of the small tables along the wall. Downstairs there is a separate dining room that can be booked for private sharing dinners, and the restaurant has also run Basque cider and pintxo festivals on Seymour Place during past summers.

The kitchen keeps its à la carte card short and seasonal, but the group menus published for 2026 show the core repertoire. Pan con tomate and three-year-aged 5J jamón ibérico de bellota open most meals, followed by Gernika peppers, the small green peppers from Bizkaia that are blistered on the plancha and finished with flaky salt. A classic potato and egg omelette is always there for the table.

For the main part of the meal, the Classic group menu at £85 per person lists black cod with arroz negro, wild red prawns cooked a la plancha, and ibérico de bellota pork shoulder with romesco, plus a tomato salad. It is a good map of what the kitchen does best: simple grill work on excellent produce, with the rice and the romesco carrying the Spanish flavour.

The Gourmet menu at £110 per person adds 5J jamón croquetas, white anchovies with piquillo peppers, a crab and caviar pintxo and Galician octopus. The centrepiece is a 14-year-old Rubia Gallega rib-eye dry-aged for 40 days, served with patatas bravas. Rubia Gallega is a Galician cattle breed prized for long-aged, well-marbled beef, and the rib-eye is the dish to order if you come in a group.

Both group menus carry a discretionary 12.5% service charge. Smaller parties order from the daily menu, so expect the same building blocks in single portions: a pintxo or two each, a plate of peppers, the omelette, then one fish and one meat to share between two or three people.

Agerre Txakoli 2025 from Getaria is £10 for a 125ml glass, and it is the drink to start with. It is light, slightly spritzy and very dry, and it suits peppers, anchovies and jamón. Godeval Godello from Valdeorras is £13 a glass and La Casa de Las Locas Albariño is £15. For reds, Telmo Rodríguez's Gaba from Valdeorras is £12 a glass, and Remelluri Reserva 2017 from Rioja is £18.

Sherry is poured in 70ml measures. Cesar Florido Fino from Chipiona is £9 and Manzanilla Gabriela from Sanlúcar is £10, with two Lustau almacenista bottlings, an amontillado and the Pata de Gallina oloroso, at £15 and £16. The cocktail list has a saffron margarita and the Marianito, a Basque take on the negroni, at £15 each, while the Gilda martini is £21. Estrella Galicia is £6.5 a bottle.

Donostia is open Monday to Thursday from 5:30pm to 11pm. On Friday and Saturday it adds a lunch service from noon to 3pm before reopening at 5:30pm, and on Sunday it runs from 4pm to 9pm. Bookings are taken online, by email at bookings@donostia.co.uk.

With only 40 seats, Thursday to Saturday evenings fill up, so book a counter seat if you want to watch the kitchen. Weeknights at opening time are the easiest moment for walk-ins. Outside the regular hours the team runs a pop-up called Donostia x Maset, which has its own booking link on the website, so check that option if you want lunch early in the week.

Large groups are steered toward the set menus and the downstairs room rather than the counter, which keeps the ground floor for couples and solo diners. To celebrate, the by-the-glass list stretches further than most bars: Papet del Mas cava is £12 a glass or £50 a bottle, Testulat Blanc de Blancs Champagne is £18 a glass, and the cellar opens Viña Tondonia Tinto Reserva 2013 at £24 and Pintia 2020 from Toro at £36 per glass.

Marble Arch station on the Central line is the closest Underground stop, roughly a five-minute walk south. Edgware Road on the Bakerloo line is a similar distance to the west. The walk from Marble Arch takes you up Great Cumberland Place past the Georgian terraces of Bryanston Square, one of the quieter green squares in this corner of Marylebone.

Before dinner, cross to the north-east corner of Hyde Park at Marble Arch to see Speakers' Corner, where public debate has been tolerated since the nineteenth century. After dinner, Marylebone High Street and its late-opening bars are about fifteen minutes east on foot, an easy stroll along George Street.

Address: 10 Seymour Place, London W1H 7ND. Email: bookings@donostia.co.uk. Hours: Monday to Thursday 5:30pm to 11pm; Friday and Saturday noon to 3pm and 5:30pm to 11pm; Sunday 4pm to 9pm. Seats: 40, including a counter facing the open kitchen, with a downstairs private dining room. Group menus: £85 and £110 per person with 12.5% discretionary service.