Madrid restaurants: places to eat out with charm

Internationally known museums, emblematic buildings and avenues, the notorious nightlife, a pleasant climate… just some of the attractions for a few days’ break in La Capital. If you do so, we recommend you complete your visit enjoying some of the following Madrid restaurants.

Beyond the local traditional recipes (Madrid stew, tripe, fried bread and honey torrijas or the legendary calamari sandwich), the restaurants of Madrid currently offer a great variety of gastronomic ideas influenced by flavours and recipes from around the world. With this in mind, a must visit is to the market of San Miguel, a pioneer in shopping for and tasting gourmet products. You also cannot miss the chance to visit some of the Madrid restaurants that we suggest below 😉

Trotamundos restaurant

The Trotamundos restaurant is located in the central Hotel Only You Atocha, in Paseo Infanta Isabel, opposite the Madrid Puerta de Atocha train station and close to the famous Retiro Park. It is a historic building with an eclectic interior design that gives it an easy-going and cosmopolitan character.

As its name indicates, they provide a wide gastronomic range in which the most traditional flavours are mixed with oriental cuisine. So ham croquettes share the menu with teriyaki chicken wings and Japanese pickles, among many other ideas. After the starters we find the “gourmet” dishes such as monkfish, gazpachuelo and wasabi, or the New York style wagyu hamburger. They also have a tasting menu and a tempting list of desserts.

The careful presentation of the dishes harmonises perfectly with the room’s decoration, which mixes, with balance and elegance, vintage furnishings with more modern touches. The use of MY DRAP cotton napkins and placemats also shows this commitment to the small details that mark the difference. Without doubt, one of the restaurants you should visit in Madrid 😉

Taberna Pedraza

The Taberna Pedraza is also close to the Retiro Park, less than ten minutes from the historic garden, at Calle de Ibiza 38. The Carro-Pedraza couple (she in the kitchen, he in the dining room) is a dream come true and their passion for cooking materialises in one of the Madrid restaurants with most charm.

They offer a wide range of Spanish cuisine, where the tavern classics can be found, such as fresh anchovies, Russian salad, spicy potato bravas or mussels, among many others. They are followed by tasty suggestions from the land and the sea: meatballs stewed with cuttlefish, Bellota end loin, and Galician style skewered hake with Manchego-style vegetable mix, grilled octopus with mojos canaries sauces… Without doubt, a reflection of the best traditional flavours and recipes.

The decoration of the restaurant, with wood, ceramic tiles and leather armchairs, gives off the typical warmth of the traditional taverns and combines with some more modern details in the lighting or in the use of placemats on the tables.

La Lonja del mar

The La Lonja del mar restaurant is in the mythical Plaza de Oriente, very close to the Cathedral of the Almudena. As they explain themselves, their goal is “to bring the best of the sea to Madrid”, and they do it with a fusion of high cuisine and tradition.

Directly from the fish market, and with the guarantee of maximum quality, they offer us the possibility of enjoying the fine clam from Galicia, the Asturian prawn or Galician lobster. Among their fish we also find turbot with seasonal wild mushrooms, pickled sage and garlic or hake jaw to taste, while the meat section features the T-bone steak from the sierra of Madrid or the crumbled bull’s tail.

The atmosphere of the Lonja del mar is calm and pleasant, with spaces decorated down to the last detail. It is, in short, one of the coolest Madrid restaurants, in which you can enjoy a good seafaring meal and even organise private celebrations and corporate events.

*Photos obtained from the websites of the restaurants: Trotamundos and Taberna Pedraza