Restaurants in Spain
-
A
Sula Madrid
A gastronomic temple that combines stellar cooking with clean-lined sophistication, Sula Madrid – a superstylish tapas bar, top-notch restaurant and ham-and-champagne tasting centre all rolled into one – is one of our favourite top-end restaurants in Madrid and we're not the only one - when master chef Ferran Adrià was asked to nominate his favourite restaurant, he chose Sula. The kitchen, its seasonal menu and the extensive wine list is overseen by wunderkind Quique Dacosta (voted Spain’s best chef in 2005) and there's a leaning towards Navarran cuisine, the finest jamón (ham) and creative twists on old staples. Design touches added by Amaya Arzuaga help to make…
reviewed
-
B
Zalacaín
Where most other fine-dining experiences centre on innovation, Zalacaín is a bastion of tradition, with a refined air and a loyal following among Spain’s great and good. Everyone who’s anyone in Madrid, from the king down, has eaten here since the doors opened in 1973; it was the first restaurant in Spain to receive three Michelin stars. The pig’s trotters filled with mushrooms and lamb is a house speciality, as is the lobster salad. The wine list is purported to be one of the best in the city (it stocks an estimated 35,000 bottles with 800 different varieties). You should certainly dress to impress (men will need a tie and a jacket).
reviewed
-
C
Restaurante La Troya
Famed for its copious servings of no-frills comida casera (home-style cooking), Troya enjoys a prime location on the main town square. On entering, you'll be directed to one of several dining areas, to be presented with plates of tortilla and chorizo, followed by a three-course menú. It's all about quantity, and queues stretch out the door on weekends.
reviewed
-
D
Jockey
Fine Spanish cooking, with the occasional nod to international sophistication, and celebrities and royalty dotted around the dining room (Prince Felipe, heir to the Spanish throne, and Letizia Ortiz chose the Jockey chefs for their wedding banquet in May 2004) make for a top-quality dining experience. The menu is more traditionally European than most in this price range, although there are some innovative flourishes. Otherwise, it’s along the lines of Persian caviar, snails and soufflés. If we could choose one dish, it would probably be lobster ragout with truffles and fresh pasta. Men must wear a tie and a jacket.
reviewed
-
E
El Racò d’En Freixa
On a quiet residential street deep in the Zona Alta, this hushed designer hideaway offers all sorts of little surprises from one of Spain’s top chefs, Ramon Freixa. Let’s see: what about the Big Duck, a hamburger of duck meat served with bread made of cereals, crystallised red onion and frozen mustard, for a starter? You can follow with one of six seafood options. A coolly elegant place, with clean cream-hued lines and flawless service, it’s little wonder Freixa has a Michelin star and has twice been voted Spain’s chef of the year by the country’s Gourmetour good food guide.
reviewed
-
F
José Luis
Welcome to Madrid! Long established in the Spanish capital, the Barcelona branch occupies a privileged spot. It is said this place introduced the montadito (delicious little canapés) to Barcelona. Pick and choose from these and a long list of pinchos and raciones, including the all-time Madrid favourite, callos (tripe). Otherwise you could sit down in the elliptical basement for a classy meal served by brisk waiters in black jackets and bow ties. Mains of fish and meat come in at about €20. You can also opt for morning bocadillos at the bar.
reviewed
-
G
Santceloni
The Michelin-starred Santceloni is one of Madrid’s best restaurants, with luxury decor that’s the work of star interior designer Pascual Ortega, and nouvelle cuisine from the kitchen of chef Óscar Velasco, protege of master chef Santi Santamaría. Each dish is an exquisite work of art and the menu changes with the seasons, but we’d recommend one of the menús gastronómicos to really sample the breadth of surprising tastes on offer. Make no mistake: this is one of Madrid's best restaurants.
reviewed
-
H
Casa Alberto
One of the most atmospheric old tabernas (taverns) of Madrid, Casa Alberto has been around since 1827 and occupies a building where Cervantes is said to have written one of his books. The secret to its staying power is vermouth on tap, excellent tapas at the bar and fine sit-down meals; Casa Alberto’s rabo de toro (bull's tail) is famous among aficionados. As the antique wood-panelled decoration will suggest straight away, the raciones (large tapas servings) have none of the frilly innovations that have come to characterise Spanish tapas. Jamón (ham), Manchego cheese and croquetas (croquettes) are recurring themes.
reviewed
-
I
Restaurant Evo
For a five-star dining experience beneath a transparent UFO-style dome, 105m above ground, grab a cab to Restaurant Evo, located in Hotel Hesperia Tower in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat. This is gourmet dining literally under the stars (of which one comes from Michelin). Lean lines dictate decor, with lacquer-finished tables, low white chairs and the inside of the dome lit up. The high point is the presentation of Mediterranean market cooking (say, the consomé de faisà amb els seus raviolis de foie i tòfona negra – a pheasant consommé with foie-gras ravioli and black truffle).
reviewed
-
J
Mitsui
For a city that until the early 1990s barely counted a couple of Japanese restaurants, Barcelona has turned Japanese. Or rather Sino-Japanese. The bulk of the cheaper Japanese eateries now scattered across the city are Chinese run and often not bad value, even if the quality may fail to satisfy more discerning palates. A popular formula is the all-you-can-eat option, where you may take endless portions of sushi and sashimi, grilled seafood and vegetables (they are grilled in front of you), salads, Chinese-style dumplings and an awful lot more. Typical of the genre is Mitsui.
reviewed
Advertisement
-
K
Nina
Sophisticated, intimate and wildly popular, Nina has an extensive menu (available in English) of nouvelle Mediterranean cuisine that doesn’t miss a trick. We like the decor, all exposed brick and subtle lighting, we love just about everything on the menu, but we adore the honey-and-sobrasada-glazed grilled ostrich steak with a salmon and raspberry crust. What we’re not so keen on is the policy of two sittings (at 9.15pm and 11.30pm), which inevitably means that staff can start to hover when your time’s nearly up. The weekend brunch (€21.90, noon to 5.30pm Saturday and Sunday) is excellent.
reviewed
-
L
Via Veneto
Dalí used to regularly waltz into this high-society eatery after it opened in 1967. The vaguely art-deco setting (note the oval mirrors), orange-rose tablecloths, leather chairs and fine cutlery may cater to more conservative souls, but the painter was here for the kitchen exploits. Catalan dishes dominate, with delicacies such as roast suckling pig or salt-baked sea bass with black rice and razor clams.
reviewed
-
M
El Alboroque
The new home kitchen of Madrid’s hottest home-grown chef, Andrés Madrigal, is all that you’d expect from a temple of gastronomy, with experiments in flavours and textures that never miss a beat. Dishes like cherry gazpacho, smoked crayfish with cardamom and pear, and rocket and parmesan ice cream are the star turns, but everything’s a revelation. The evening set menu for €55 gives you a range of the chef’s latest experiments. Fine wines and a refined setting in a mid-19th-century palace make it one of Madrid’s best new restaurants.
reviewed
-
N
La Musa
Snug yet loud, a favourite of Madrid’s hip young crowd yet utterly unpretentious, La Musa is all about designer decor, lounge music on the sound system and food (breakfast, lunch and dinner) that will live long in the memory and is always fun and filled with flavour. The menu is divided into three types of tapas – hot, cold and BBQ; among the hot varieties is the fantastic jabalí con ali-oli de miel y sobrasada (wild boar with honey mayonnaise and sobrasada – a soft, mildly spicy sausage from Mallorca). It doesn’t take reservations, so sidle up to the bar, add your name to the waiting list and soak up the ambient buzz of Malasaña at its best. If you don’t fancy…
reviewed
-
O
Cal Boter
Families and noisy groups of pals are drawn to this classic eatery for cargols a la llauna (snails sautéed in a tin dish), filet de bou a la crema de foie (a thick clump of tender beef drowned in an orange and foie gras sauce), and other Catalan specialities, including curious mar i muntanya (sea and mountain) combinations like bolets i gambes (mushrooms and prawns). The menú del día (lunch Tuesday to Friday) comes in at a good-humoured €9.80.
reviewed
-
P
Dolso
There is a good reason for saying ‘no’ to dessert in nearby restaurants and coming here for the final dish of the evening. A constantly changing menu of sugary delights, from standards such as tiramisu to concoctions like the nemesi de chocolate (a chocolate pastry with cream of passion fruit), makes dessert in this laid-back spot a great temptation. A small selection of savoury dishes, such as the coques (a kind of open toasted broad baguette with toppings like goat cheese with honey and nuts) means that you can contemplate a full meal.
reviewed
-
Q
Embat
Enthusiastic young chefs turn out beautifully presented dishes in this basement eatery, the brown and cream decor of which might not enchant all comers. You can eat three fish or meat courses for around €20 to €25 at lunch.
Indulge perhaps in raviolis de pollo amb bacon i calabassó (chicken ravioli bathed in a sauce of finely chopped bacon, zucchini and other vegetables) followed by melt-in-the-mouth lluç amb pa amb tomàquet, carxofes i maionesa de peres (a thick cut of hake on a tomato-drenched clump of bread dressed with artichoke slices and a pear mayonnaise).
reviewed
-
R
Coure
The minimalist decor gives away that a chef with avant-garde ideas is at work in his laboratory-kitchen. The end results are far from over the top, leaning to nicely elaborated dishes such as the cochinillo ibérico con manzana al horno (oven-roasted suckling pig with apple). The set lunch menu (€18) is a great-value sample, popular with office workers all over the area. There’s also a tasting menu at €45. A curtain of copper chains hides the dining area from the bar in the entrance (the name is a play on words, meaning both ‘copper’ and ‘to cook’).
reviewed
-
S
Estado Puro
Most places to eat along or around the Paseo del Prado are either tourist traps or upmarket temples to fine dining, but this place bucks the trend. A slick but casual tapas bar attached to the NH Paseo del Prado hotel, Estado Puro serves up fantastic tapas, many of which have their origins in Catalonia’s world-famous El Bulli restaurant, such as the tortilla española siglo XXI (21st-century Spanish omelette, served in a glass). The kitchen here is overseen by Paco Roncero, the head chef at La Terraza del Casino, who learned his trade with master chef Ferran Adrià. Most of the tapas involve spectacular riffs on traditional Spanish themes. The outdoor tables are often…
reviewed
-
T
Noti
Once home to the Noticiero Universal newspaper, Noti has an ample dining room plastered with mirrors that seem to multiply the steely designer tables. Try the fresh fish from the Boqueria market with ratatouille of courgette and lemon butter or perhaps a meat dish – anything from steak tartare to chicken curry. Start the evening with the cocktail of the day at the bar.
It has lunch menus from €14 to €24, and an evening set menu at €36.
reviewed
Advertisement
-
U
El Sortidor
Step back in history. Hot food has been dished up here since 1908. The ceramic-fronted fridge, tiled floor and bar seem to have changed little since then – but appearances can deceive. Turin-born Flavio runs this place, and offers a typical menú del día that isn’t that typical – how many Catalans have eaten handmade pappardelle (a broad ribbon pasta from Italy)? On Friday nights he serves up couscous and live Irish music. And on other nights he’ll only open for a reservation of 20 or more!
reviewed
-
V
Bodega Sepúlveda
This tavern has been showering tapas on its happy diners since 1952. The range of dishes is a little overwhelming and mixes traditional (Catalan faves like cap i pota – chunks of fatty beef in gravy) with more surprising options like carpaccio de calabacín con bacalao y parmesán (thin zucchini slices draped in cod and parmesan cheese). You can hang out until 1am.
The main dining area is out the back and downstairs, with a small, low-ceilinged area upstairs.
reviewed
-
W
Sua
Sua is the height of softly lit sophistication and cooking that provides a new slant on nouvelle cuisine. Dishes are organised around four temperatures – 25°C, 50°C, 75°C and -2°C (desserts) – and it draws its inspiration from the Basque Country, Spain’s hothouse for culinary innovation. The service is faultless and adept at helping you negotiate your way through the menu, but we suggest the €36 menú de degustación (tasting menu) , which gradually increases the temperature.
reviewed
-
X
La Parrilla del Humedo
This place is always packed with euro-economising leonéses, here for the remarkably good house wine and accompanying free and good-size tapas; both for the bargain-basement price of €1.50. These tasty bites include fried potatoes with alioli (garlic mayonnaise) and sauteed mushrooms. Head for the dining room out back for heartier portions, including the city's fabled el morcilla de León (León-style blood sausage) or, for lightweights, a plate of tasty pimientos de padrón (small roasted peppers).
reviewed
-
Y
L’Havana
Little has changed in this cavernous, family-run place since it opened in the 1940s. The front dining area, with frosted glass windows, Modernista design touches and spaciously spread tables, is a touch more severe than the better-lit rear area. A great starter is the combinat, with three mussels, a smidge of amanida russa (potato salad), esqueixada and more. Meat and fish options follow, and the calamars farcits (stuffed calamari) are filling. Round off with homemade crema catalana.
reviewed