The Basque restaurants are the reason most travellers actually pull off the highway in Winnemucca. The two long-standing institutions, the Martin Hotel and the Winnemucca Hotel, serve traditional family-style Basque dinners — meaning communal long tables, a fixed multi-course meal that arrives in waves (soup, beans, salad, bread, the main course of lamb or steak, dessert), and pitchers of red wine. The food is plain, generous, and excellent.
These places are not faux-Basque tourist traps; they are working bars and dining rooms where the actual Basque-American community still gathers. The Martin Hotel, especially, is one of the great American regional eating experiences. Outside the Basque rooms, the town has the standard Nevada highway selection — diners, chain fast food, casino buffets, and a couple of Mexican restaurants.