Hi! I'm going to be in Madrid for St Patrick's Weekend (17 - 20 March) and I'm looking for recommendations for cafes, bars and restaurants. Which ones are good/bad?
Thanks!

in spain for those dates and you are not coming to valencia to see "las fallas" for two days???!!!!

see www.fallas.com and do a google for many more websites. you will soon be asking for recs in valencia.. that weekend.. not madrid.

Honestly, the most common places to go on St. Patricks in Madrid are the Irish pubs.
I can't recall the name of the one in Sol we ended up at eventually, but it was an Irish pub with live music and was larger and more packed than any of the others around. The band did U2 and Pogues covers...
There are more Irish pubs than you would expect in Madrid -- and they all seem to be packed on St. Pattys!
Anyway, there is also a pub called Moores right off the Plaza Mayor that is really popular and we used to go to once in a while when we lived there.
Have fun!

Hi! Thanks for the recommendations for Irish pubs but are there good atmospheric Spanish places to go? I don't know if Patrick's Day is celebrated in Madrid. Anyhow are there any good places to go in Madrid to eat / drink?

If you mean on St. Patricks day, I am sure that all the normal Spanish spots are still happening, but probably less so than a normal night -- I am not sure that the Spanish actually celebrate St.Patty's in a Spanish sense --they seem to consider it an Irish holiday for "partying" purposes anyway.

There are plenty of atmospheric places around Sol and Plaza Mayor too. Chueca (spelling?) is also a really hip part of town that is not too far.

Sorry I don't recall all the names of the places I used to frequent.

fyi - it's usually known as Paddy's Day and not Patty's. Paddy is the shortened version of Patrick. Patty is not very common in Ireland, but when you hear it it's normally a womans name - short for Patricia.

I was in Madrid a few months ago, there's a pub we went to called James Joyce that we enjoyed. Also we went to Spanish places; Casa Mingo, great for Cider and roast chicken, Cafe Gijon, an old authentic cafe, and for niteclubs, "Confidencial". All of which can be googled.