Fodor's Expert Review Casa Botín
$$$
La Latina
Spanish
According to Guinness World Records, Madrid is home to the world’s oldest restaurant, Botín, established in 1725 and a favorite of Ernest Hemingway (the final scene of The Sun Also Rises is set in this very place). A menu must, by all accounts, is the cochinillo asado, which is stuffed with aromatics, doused with wine, and crisped in the original wood-burning oven. There are four floors of tile and wood-beam dining rooms, and, if you're seated upstairs, you'll pass the centuries-old ovens. Musical groups called tunas (mostly made up of students dressed in medieval costume) rove between tables. It's rumored Goya washed dishes here before he struck out as a painter.
Quick Facts
Known For:
- World\'s oldest restaurant
- Roast lamb and suckling pig
- Roving traditional musical groups
- Being the world\'s oldest restaurant
