Madrid Restaurants

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• Zalacain International, Phone: 91-561-48-40 Google Map
  • Frommer's Exceptional Rating: "Outstanding in both food and decor, Zalacain is credited with bringing nouvelle cuisine to Spain when it opened its doors back in 1973."

• • Fodor's Choice: "It's particularly known for using the best and freshest seasonal products available, as well as for having the best service in town."

• • Zagat Well Rated: "'It's seldom that a restaurant can keep its standards up for more than 30 years'..."

• Santceloni Mediterranean, Phone: 91-210-88-40 Google Map
  • Concierge.com Recommendation: "The setting, the dining room of Hotel Hesperia (Madrilenos love hotel restaurants), is a skylit cellar, elegantly appointed with warm, rich wood and stone, checkerboard tiles, and ample fresh bouquets."

• • Frommer's Exceptional Rating: "Santi Santamaria is ranked among the top three chefs of Spain, along with his chief rivals, Juan Mark Arzak and Ferran Adria. Santamaria gets my vote as the leader of the "troika," as these chefs are often called by food critics."

• • Fodor's Choice: "Lighter and more original than Arzak, less playful and bizarre than Adria, Santamaria serves up exquisite combinations of Mediterranean ingredients accompanied by a comprehensive and daring wine list."
• La Broche Spanish/Portuguese, Phone: 91-399-34-37 Google Map

• • Frommer's Very Highly Recommended: "Deluxe ingredients, personally selected by the chef and changed to take advantage of the best in any season, are fashioned into some of the capital's most flavor-filled dishes."

• • Fodor's Choice: "The minimalist dining room allows you to concentrate on the hot-cold, surf-turf counterpoints of the seasonal menu."

• Viridiana International, Phone: 91-531-52-22 Google Map
  • Frommer's Recommended: "Menu specialties are contemporary adaptations of traditional recipes, and they change frequently according to availability."

• • Fodor's Review: "This place has a relaxed, somewhat cramped bistro feel, its black-and-white scheme punctuated by prints from Luis Bunuel's classic anticlerical film, the restaurant's namesake."

• • Zagat Well Rated: "[C]onsidered 'one of Madrid's best', it's 'worth taking out a mortgage for.'"

• Casa Lucio Spanish/Portuguese, Phone: 91-365-32-52 Google Map
  • Concierge.com Recommendation: "When you want to eat nothing that's been deconstructed or otherwise engineered, when you yearn for honest Castilian food in a simple setting, there's nowhere better than Lucio Blasquez's restaurant near Plaza Mayor."

• • Frommer's Highly Recommended: "Dozens of cured hams hang from hand-hewn beams above the well-oiled bar. Among the clientele is a stable of sometimes surprisingly well-known public figures -- perhaps even the king of Spain."

• • Zagat Well Rated: "'[V]ery good' food is found at this popular Castilian in Latina, where an 'attentive' staff serves 'classic' dishes..."

• Casa Paco Steaks/Chops, Phone: 91-366-31-66 Google Map
  • Frommer's Very Highly Recommended: "Located in the Old Town, this two-story restaurant has three dining rooms, but reservations are imperative. If you face a long wait, sample the tapas at the bar in front. Around the walls are autographed photographs of notables."

• • Fodor's Review: "This Castilian tavern wouldn't have looked out of place two or three centuries ago. Squeeze past the old, zinc-top bar, crowded with Madrilenos downing shots of Valdepenas red wine, and into the tile dining rooms."

• El Mentidero de la Villa International, Phone: 91-308-12-85 Google Map
  • Frommer's Highly Recommended: "One notable dessert is the sherry trifle. The postmodern decor includes trompe l'oeil ceilings, exposed wine racks, ornate columns with unusual lighting, and a handful of antique carved merry-go-round horses."

• La Cava Real French, Phone: 91-442-54-32 Google Map
  • Frommer's Very Highly Recommended: "If your wine is as important to you as the meal itself, this is the Madrid restaurant of choice for connoisseurs of vino."

• Viuda de Vacas Spanish/Portuguese, Phone: 91-366-58-47 Google Map
  • Frommer's Highly Recommended: "Service is informal, and ultratiled walls and basic wooden tables complete the unspoiled castizo setting. Inventive dishes, accompanied by an excellent-value Jumilla house wine, are the order of the day."

• • Fodor's Review: "Simplicity is key, from the furnishings, which still preserve some of the old tiles, to the traditional, high quality food -- cooked in a coal kitchen."

• Iroco International, Phone: 91-431-73-81 Google Map
  • Condé Nast Official Selection: "At the back of the long room is that rarest of Madrid rarities, a private garden with a few tables. (In summer, it goes without saying, these are among the most sought-after and fought-over in town)."

• • Frommer's Highly Recommended: "This well-run and popular Salamanca restaurant, known for its nueva cocina (nouvelle cuisine), attracts businessmen and -women for its lunch and a trend-setting and younger crowd in the evening."

• Cafe del Circulo Spanish/Portuguese, Phone: 91-521-69-42 Google Map
  • Frommer's Highly Recommended: "It's the best place to take a refueling stop when you're so tired you confused van Gogh with the Goyas at the Thyssen or the Real Academia de Bellas Artes."

• • Fodor's Review: "Circulo de Bellas Artes, feels more like a private club than a cafe; expect a bustling, intellectual crowd."

• Automatico Spanish/Portuguese, Phone: 91-530-99-21 Google Map
  • Frommer's Highly Recommended: "This classic tapas hangout is among the most popular in Lavapies, and in summer its terrace -- one of many in lively Argumosa street -- draws animated crowds of habitues and visitors."

• La Terraza del Casino Spanish/Portuguese, Phone: 91-521-87-00 Google Map
  • Frommer's Exceptional Rating: "The decor is classically restrained with high ceilings and crystal chandeliers. The exquisite food uses fresh seasonal ingredients and reinterprets Spanish dishes."

• • Zagat Well Rated: "[I]t's 'quite expensive' but the experience is 'incomparable.'"

• El Amparo Spanish/Portuguese, Phone: 91-431-64-56 Google Map
  • Frommer's Very Highly Recommended: "Behind the cascading vines on El Amparo's facade is one of Madrid's most elegant gastronomic enclaves."

• • Zagat Well Rated: "'It really doesn't get much better than this'..."

• Los Galayos Spanish/Portuguese, Phone: 91-366-30-28 Google Map
  • Frommer's Very Highly Recommended: "Some visitors consider an evening here among the highlights of their trip to Spain."

• Sobrino de Botin Spanish/Portuguese, Phone: 91-366-30-26 Google Map
  • Frommer's Very Highly Recommended: "As you enter, you step back to 1725, the year the restaurant was founded. You'll see an open kitchen with a charcoal hearth, hanging copper pots..."

• El Estragon Phone: 91-365-89-82 Google Map
  • Frommer's Recommended: "The menu offers an eclectic choice of vegetarian dishes, from a vegetable-filled risotto verde to soy albondigas (meatballs) -- even a cordon bleu steak that contains no meat (only vegetables)."

• • Happy Cow Highly Recommended (Note: Community User Ratings; Subject To Change)

• Ceres Phone: 91-553-77-28 Google Map
  • Frommer's Recommended: "Opened over a decade ago in the northwestern corner of the city, this is one of the longest-running green restaurants in Madrid, with a dedicated and faithful band of regulars so best to book a table before calling in."

• Artemisa Phone: 91-429-50-93 Google Map
  • Frommer's Recommended: "There are two branches of this very popular and established vegetarian establishment. The most popular is probably this modern and simply decorated eating spot in the heart of bohemian Huertas parallel to Calle Echegaray."

• El Septimo Phone: 91-562-29-40 Google Map
  • Happy Cow Highly Recommended (Note: Community User Ratings; Subject To Change)

• Happy Cow: Vegetarian Restaurants In Madrid