Vitoria is a pintxos town. The pintxo — a small slice of bread topped with anything from omelette to anchovies to slow-cooked octopus — is the staple of Basque snacking, and the city's bar concentration along Calle Cuchillería in the old town and Calle Eduardo Dato in the Ensanche is as good as anywhere in Spain.
The local rules are simple: each pintxo costs one to three euros, you eat standing up at the bar or out on the street, you order a small glass (a zurito of beer or txakoli, a local dry white) with each, and you move on to the next bar. Three or four stops makes a meal. Among the city's signature dishes are perretxikos (early-spring wild mushrooms) and revueltos (scrambled eggs with anything good).
For sit-down meals the Basque kitchen runs to grilled fish, beef chops on hot stones, salt cod (bacalao a la vizcaína), and stews of beans and chorizo. Wine country starts ten kilometres south at Rioja Alavesa, and the txakoli vineyards of the coast are about an hour to the north.