77 Best Restaurants in Madrid, Spain

A 19th-century bodega (wine vendor), with barrel tables and dusty gewgaws hanging from the walls, Bodega de la Ardosa is a welcome anachronism in modern Malasaña and a tourist magnet for good reason. The bar's claim to fame—and the dish Madrileños make special trips for—is its award-winning tortilla española, or Spanish omelet, always warm with a runny center. The fried ortiguillas (sea anemones) dunked in lemony aioli are the menu's sleeper hit.

If you can't make it to the windmill-dotted planes of Don Quixote's La Mancha, you can at least get a taste of that region's flavorful, rib-sticking cuisine at this beloved neighborhood bar within walking distance from the Matadero. Beyond the Manchegan classics—atascaburras (potato-bacalao mash), machacón (mashed fresh tomato-pepper salad), and asadillo (cumin-scented roasted red peppers)—there's a long ever-changing list of Spanish craft beers.

Casa Dani is a legendary bar in Mercado de la Paz whose tortilla de patata (potato omelet) is easily the best in town, and perhaps the country (if first place in a recent National Spanish Omelet Championship is any indication). Each hefty wedge is packed with caramelized onions and served hot and slightly runny. Adventurous eaters should opt for the con callos version, topped with spicy tripe.

Carabanchel's best-known bar, Los Minutejos, is synonymous with distressingly inhalable griddled sandwiches of crispy pig ear doused in fiery brava sauce. Tamer tapas are available for the squeamish. To drink? An ice-cold Mahou, of course.

Tinajas, huge clay vessels once filled to the brim with bulk wine (but now defunct), sit behind the bar at this raucous no-frills 1895 bodega specializing in Spanish cheese and charcuterie. Ask the waiters what they've been drinking and eating lately, and order precisely that. The washed-rind cheeses from Extremadura (Torta del Casar or similar) are always a safe—and pleasantly putrescent—bet.

This gourmet shop (established 1931) doubles as a cozy bar where you can sample most of the stuff on the shelves, including canned asparagus, charcuterie, anchovies, and a varied well-priced selection of Spanish cheeses and wines. It also serves good inexpensive breakfasts.

Whether you pull up a stool at at the marble bar or sit down for a soup-to-nuts feast in the azulejo-lined dining room, you're in for some of Madrid's finest traditional tapas with a twist here. Madrileños come from far and wide to share heaped plates of ensaladilla rusa, a house specialty, as well as textbook-perfect croquetas and hefty steaks served with sherry gravy and house-cut fries. Vermouth (on tap) is the nonnegotiable aperitif, and there are always several Spanish wines to try by the glass.

Crackly fried pig ear, fat wedges of tortilla de patata (potato omelet), and garlicky rabbit al ajillo are a few of the many old-school standbys that have kept this cubbyhole bar in business since 1934.

Always crisp and never greasy—that's the mark of a well-made churro, and Madrid Chocolat's piping-hot baskets of fried dough always hit the spot.

This cheery yellow-tiled café serving Middle Eastern-inflected sandwiches and pastries is packed from breakfast to lunch, when neighborhood-dwellers show up for falafel, shakshuka, and spinach pie. At 8:30 pm, Golda morphs into "Golfa," its boozier late-night alter ego serving tapas and natural wine. 

This tony gastro bar serves newfangled tapas that are well worth their higher-than-usual price tag. Spring for the tempura soft-shell crab bao with chive mayonnaise, garlicky artichoke flatbread, or any other tapa del día, but whatever you do, order the famous tortilla de patata, irresistible with its molten core and handfuls of caramelized onions. The dulce de leche "volcano," cooled off by a scoop of banana ice cream, may be Madrid's most craveable dessert.

La Catapa's tapas are classic but never old hat, inventive but never pretentious. The burst-in-your-mouth croquetas and garlicky razor clams may lure the crowds, but the hidden gems are in the vegetable section: it's hard to decide between the artichoke menestra with crisped jamón (cured ham), ultra-creamy salmorejo (gazpacho's richer, more garlicky sibling), and umami-packed seared mushrooms. Be sure to ask about daily specials.

This laid-back Andalusian barroom embodies the joyful spirit of that sunny region. Let the cheerful waitstaff guide you through the extensive menu, which includes specialties from Cádiz such as fried seafood, unconventional croquetas (flecked with garlicky shrimp, for instance), and heftier shareables like creamy oxtail rice and seared Barbate tuna loin. The ensaladilla rusa (tuna-and-potato salad) is one of Madrid's best. In summer, outdoor seating is in high demand.

This beloved bar changed hands in 2021 to three twentysomething Madrid natives who couldn't bear to see their favorite neighborhood hangout disappear—but the menu of eight infallible dishes has miraculously stayed the same. Come for the blistered Padrón peppers and griddled football-size zapatilla sandwiches; stay for the dressed-down conviviality and the cuncos (ceramic bowls) overflowing with slatey Albariño. A newer second outpost, Malos, can be found in Malasaña at Calle de Velarde 13.

Madrileños pour in from far and wide for Esther's famous patatas bravas, fried potato wedges cloaked in vinegary paprika-laced chili sauce. A menu brimming with snails, fried lamb intestines, pork rinds, and Castilian blood sausage confirms that you're in el Madrid profundo. Breakfast is also served.

Of all the marvelous bakeries in Madrid, Panem (take-out only) is the most technically skilled, churning out impeccable croissants, baguettes, and a wide range of Spanish and French pastries including Kouign-amanns, roscones (Three Kings cakes), and torrijas (Spanish "French" toast).

At this sun-drenched two-table coffee shop, grab a café con leche before perusing the shelves, which are stocked with Spanish conservas (preserved foods), natural wines, and other culinary gems that make great gifts or picnic fare. In 2024, a new second location opened inside Mercado de Vallehermoso ( see Chamberí section).

Plan on a siesta after dining at this phenomenal down-home restaurant that hasn't changed a lick since opening a half-century ago. Whether you're in the boisterous downstairs bar or cozy upstairs dining room with cloth napkins and popcorn walls, you'll be blown away by Sylkar's lovingly prepared specialties including creamy ham croquettes, braised squid in ink sauce, battered hake, and the best tortilla española in Madrid for those in the runnier-the-better camp. If the torrijas (custardy Spanish "French" toast) aren't sold out by the time you order dessert, don't miss them.

The old-fashioned azulejo (glazed tile) walls, painted red facade, and squat wooden barstools might fool you into thinking this newcomer is any old tavern, but behind the swinging door, cooks are busy plating novel takes on tapas that you didn't know needed improving. Take the crispy pig ear, doused in the usual spicy brava sauce—it gets an unorthodox hit of freshness from tarragon-packed mojo verde. Then there are the stuffed mussels called tigres, amped up with defiantly non-Spanish amounts of chiles, and a bounty of seasonal tapas that always impress.

This cozy tiled bar will teleport you to the coastal Andalusian city of the same name with briny olives, bone-dry Manzanilla sherries, and shatteringly crisp tortillitas de camarón (shrimp fritters).

A mano means "by hand" in Spanish, and lest this experimental white-walled tapas and wine bar come across as pretentious, there's an entire section of the menu devoted to finger food. Whet your appetite with one-bite wonders like fried eggplant drizzled with honey and garlicky salmorejo (a cold tomato soup), then settle in for heftier plates like stewed oxtail, which basically melts on fork impact.

Step back in time in this pocket-size seafood restaurant specializing in boquerones en vinagre, freshly shucked oysters, and prawns a la plancha.

Scarfing down a hot calamari-filled baguette (bocadillo de calamares) while strolling through the Plaza Mayor is a Madrid tradition, and this bar's rendition is a cut above the rest.

Overlook the soulless IKEA furnishings of this family-run dinette and instead focus on the honest home-cooked food served at exceptionally reasonable prices. Try Cordoban-style flamenquines (ham-and-cheese-stuffed pork), salmon tartare, or (on Sunday) a crave-worthy paella Valenciana.

Reservations are a must for Sunday lunch; call ahead or visit the website to book a table and preorder your paella.

This take-no-prisoners abuelo bar near the top of El Rastro is famous for griddled sardines, served hot and greasy in an odiferous heap with nothing but a flick of crunchy salt. Beware, super-smellers: eau de sardine is a potent perfume.

Thanks to independently owned gems like Toboggan, La Chopera neighborhood is beginning to attract a younger, cooler crowd. This corner bar with outdoor seating serves well-priced international tapas ranging from tacos to tortilla to homemade hummus, all in a sunlit space. It's a five-minute walk from Matadero.

Salt cod croquettes, fresh tomato salad, roast suckling pig—these are some of the comfort-food classics you'll find on the menu at this neighborhood haunt whose diner decor (steel bar, beige awnings, paper place mats) hasn't changed in decades. If you can snag a patio table in the summer, you've hit pay dirt.

When this centenary café—one of the oldest in Madrid—shuttered in 2015, ostensibly for good, the public outcry was so great that it inspired a local restaurant group to buy the property and give it a much-needed revamp. In a dining room that combines original elements (huge mirrors, carved wooden columns) with new high-design fixtures, feast on a menu that's a dance between Café Comercial classics, including ham croquetas and tuna-topped ensaladilla rusa (potato salad), and novel creations by chef Pepe Roch.

The grandmotherly upholstery, fringed lampshades, plush wingback chairs, and wooden bookshelves make Café de la Luz a cozy spot to curl up with a book, catch up with friends, or get some work done. Coffees will run you about €2 apiece, and if you're peckish, there's a good variety of sweets and open-faced sandwiches to sate your appetite. Come evening (closing time is 2 am most nights), the lights get dimmed and coffees turn into cocktails.

Open for over a century, this Madrid institution is as famous for its callos a la madrileña (Madrid-style tripe) as it is for gallina en pepitoria, an old-school Spanish stew of wine-braised chicken thickened with hard-boiled yolks that's become increasingly hard to find.