Named by Viajar magazine as the Galician village with the best food, Combarro sits on the Pontevedra estuary and has fewer than 1,500 inhabitants. Here, there are no tourist menus or fancy presentations. Seafood comes straight from the mussel rafts, fish goes directly from the port to the kitchen, and the approach to food is inherited rather than taught.
Where to eat in Combarro
Combarro’s culinary scene is remarkable given the town’s size. There are no franchises or large hotel chains – just traditional establishments with short menus and fresh, daily produce.
- O Bocoi has been a local benchmark since 1990, with mussels from the estuary as the undisputed star of the menu.
- Codia offers a more relaxed experience, with seafood stews meant to be savoured slowly.
- The Chill Out restaurant overlooks the estuary directly, making even the simplest dishes taste exceptional against that backdrop.
- In the heart of the old town, the Ateneo bar is the kind of place you only discover through word of mouth, serving seasonal tapas on a terrace beside a centuries-old granary – at unbelievably affordable prices.
Why does seafood from the Pontevedra estuary taste different?
There's a simple explanation for the exceptional quality of Galician seafood. The upwelling of cold waters from the North Atlantic, combined with the Rías Baixas' geography, creates ideal conditions for breeding mollusks and crustaceans. This phenomenon is particularly apparent in the Pontevedra estuary.
The result goes straight to the table: mussels from the estuary rafts, clams, cockles, razor clams and barnacles. Galician seafood isn’t about transforming the product – it’s about preserving its natural quality.
The best time to visit is from February to April, when the waters are richest in nutrients, and the seafood is at its peak.
Combarro's hidden gems
After lunch, the afternoon is best spent strolling to O Padrón beach, where you can admire the village with its waterside granaries, the open estuary and the island of Tambo on the horizon.
Just a few minutes away, still in the municipality of Poio, stands the San Xoán de Poio monastery. Dating back to the 12th century, it houses the largest granary in Galicia, supported by 51 pillars.
Combarro isn’t a destination to tick off a list or explore according to a fixed itinerary – it is meant to be savoured. One night is enough to understand why people have been coming here for years: good food, stunning scenery, rich history and that increasingly rare feeling of being somewhere truly authentic.
The most photographed village in the Rías Baixas
The village is home to around sixty hórreos (traditional Galician granaries) that overlook the estuary, almost touching the water. Their granite-and-wood silhouettes are among the most iconic sights in Galicia.
The historic centre, declared a Site of Artistic Interest in 1972, is a maze of cobbled streets, stone houses and wayside crosses erected between the 18th and 20th centuries, all leading down to the estuary.
Despite its charms, the village remains relatively unknown outside Galicia. Less than 30 minutes from Vigo and Pontevedra, many travellers pass through without stopping, unaware of what they are missing.
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