Madrid Restaurants

Madrid Restaurant Reviews

Spain in general has become a popular foodie pilgrimage, and Madrid showcases its strengths with a cornucopia of cuisine, cutting-edge decor, and celebrated chefs who put the city on par with Europe's celebrated dining capitals.

Top Spanish chefs fearlessly borrow from other cuisines and reinvent traditional dishes. The younger crowd, as well as movie stars and artists, flock to the casual Malasaña, Chueca, and La Latina neighborhoods for the affordable restaurants and the tapas bars with truly scintillating small creations. When modern cuisine gets tiresome, seek out such local enclaves as Casa Ciriaco, Casa Botín, and Casa Paco for unpretentious and hearty home cooking.

The house wine in basic Madrid restaurants is often a sturdy, uncomplicated Valdepeñas from La Mancha. Serious dining is normally accompanied by a Rioja or a more powerful, complex Ribera de Duero, the latter from northern Castile. Ask your waiter's advice; a smooth Rioja, for example, may not be up to the task of accompanying a cocido or roast suckling pig. After dinner, try the anise-flavor liqueur (anís) produced outside the nearby village of Chinchón.