Where to eat and drink in Madrid: Treats and sweets

Four food experiences in Madrid are featured in this article in a narrative way (listicle hater here). If you are searching for where to eat and drink in Madrid, you may click on the name of the restaurant in the list below to jump to the section related to the said restaurant/food plaza. If you are here solely as a reader and not just as a planner, I encourage you to read the piece as a continuous whole.

Where to eat and drink in Madrid

Restaurante Villa Magna

Platea

Taberna Puertalsol

Patio de Leones

Restaurante Villa Magna: Elite dining

Restaurante Villa Magna is a part of the Green Globe certified sustainable hotel Villa Magna, an erstwhile heritage property built by a rich Madrileño as a mark of status many years ago. Transformed into an impressive hotel with a granite and glass façade, Villa Magna still holds onto that status since 1972, the year the hotel was inaugurated. After touring the high-street stores like Loewe, Carolina Herrera, Purificacion Garcia in neighbouring Calle Serrano and famished by the walk, I tuck myself into this plush five-star property’s restaurant, conveniently located at Paseo de la Castellana.

From behind the glass walls of this marble-clad restaurant, I observe the sunlit patio garden. Unfortunately, the sun’s glare doesn’t allow outdoor dining. I am served the starters — crispy bread with olive oil, chilled gazpacho soup and tuna tartare. Soon it is followed by creamy risotto with sage butter and some seasonal wild meaty mushroom to provide the perfect Italian comfort food (though I am in Spain).

For the main course, a baked Turbot fish, white and soft, arrives on my plate, carefully placed on a pool of crustaceans’ sauce. Turbot is a brackish water fish naturally found in Atlantic, Mediterranean and Baltic. I have no previous experience of having turbot, much less a baked one— in ordinary Indian kitchens, fish and meat are mostly fried, boiled or steamed but never baked.

The crustaceans’ sauce is a complicated dip whose base comprises of shells, vegetables, aromatics and wine. The most popular choice of shells seems to be crab. The fish arrives with sautéed pok choi, slightly caramelised. Pok Choi or Bok Choy is a leafy vegetable with a crunchy bottom.

Spain being one of the largest wine producing regions in the world, it is no wonder the range of food is served with ample quantities of wine. Since the main course is a fish dish, I expect white wine only, however, I am stoked to find two glasses have been set out for me already, for both white and red wines. The fruity white wine comes from Rueda region of Spain and the stronger red wine from Ribera Del Duero.

My favourite part of the meal is finally here—the dessert. The lime and framboise(raspberry) parfait with crushed almonds and red berries sponge cake arrive, so aesthetically appealing that I feel bad clearing the plate. Following the true Spanish spirit, I guzzle down coffee before concluding the lunch.

Platea: The fun gastronomy point

For dinner, my guide brings me to Platea, the biggest gastronomy and leisure centre in Madrid, to experience a tapas dinner. When I arrive at Platea, the first emotion I feel is confusion. Is it a mall, a movie theatre or a public square? It feels like a mall at the entrance point, but at the next moment, I am on a stage and behind me on a huge LED screen, Spanish TV channels are playing. From here, I see the two floors of Platea below me, and three galleries above me on the opposite side.

I am relieved that nobody is bothered by my presence onstage or minds me blocking any part of the LED screen. Soon we settle in chairs on the second level (Indians would call this the first floor), block a table, and start deciding what to have. Food and drinks variations run galore— sashimi, pizza, pasta, acorn ham, grilled octopus, margherita, wine, vodka and the rest I honestly don’t remember. The items always arrive in small portions and we take our share from a single platter.

Platea is noisy with a club-like vibe. The stage where we were roaming a few minutes ago is the screen of the previous Carlos III cinema. The theatre went through a metamorphosis and was remodeled as a gastronomic point in 2014. However, the screen was kept intact and integrated with the current décor—the stage is where the live performances happen these days.

We are at El Patio, the bar and tapas area, below us is El Foso, a patisserie bar with food from around the world like Japan, Peru, Mexico and Italy. Above us, on the first level of gallery is the Canalla Bistro, a dining experience by three times Michelin Star awardee Valencian chef Ricard Camarena. On the second level of gallery is El Palco, a cocktail bar. The topmost gallery is a private club.

Taberna Puertalsol: Food in Madrid’s touristic centre

Next day I am on a touristy run through Madrid. As I hop around the city from its palaces to its public squares, lunch at a rooftop restaurant overlooking Madrid’s famous Puerta del Sol and its star, the clocktower, fits into the itinerary naturally. Taberna Puertalsol is a restaurant by Chef Alberto Chicote who is famous all across Spain for his experimental cuisine that marries Asian elements with Spanish.

From my seat on the high bar stool, viewing the leisurely pace of Puerta del Sol is just a turn of the head away. While we wait for the entrée, I dip the sourdough bread into the extra virgin olive oil and munch. Soon the table is occupied by a cold creamy Russian potato salad with langoustines and tuna belly served in glasses. Meanwhile, crispy fried chunks of cod come with a sauce of garlic, salt and olive oil – the chef calls it orly-style chunks of fried cod with ali-oli. Simultaneously, charcoal grilled artichoke laid on ajoblanco, which is an almond and garlic soup with origins as old as the Roman times, is placed on the table.

White wine from Rueda and red from Ribera del Duero that I had consumed the day before again make appearances here. But in order to experiment and make myself develop a taste for beer (yeah I don’t like beer) I forego these and pick up a glass full of Mahou, a local Madrid beer. While I know Madrilenos (and I really met many, considering the shortness of the trip) love Mahou, it fails to bring any change in my ‘beer-love’. I quickly keep it aside and go back to wine.

There are three choices for mains—vegetables, cod or ham. Not keen on the vegetables and already done with cod during starters, I go with the charcoal grilled Iberian “Secreto” with the chimichurri sauce. I have seen enough Spanish movies to understand their reverence towards Iberian hams obtained from free, happy, acorn chewing pigs. The Secreto served here is marbled pork, a ham cut from the Pata Negra pigs (100% Iberian pig). The Chimichurri is an Argentinian condiment prepared by mixing parsley, oregano, garlic, olive oil and red wine vinegar.

Now, here is the climax of the meal, the one for which I live. On my plate are three sweet delights from France, Austria and Spain. The Spanish cake with a Geographical Indication tag of Cantabria, sabao pasiego, is lemony and made with loads of butter. Since it appears to be the lightest, I take down the Spanish one first. Next, the mille feuilles is a three-layered French pastry. The top layer of this confection is open for variation. Puertalsol has topped it with a dollop of vanilla crème and a berry. Last, I delve into the most sinful of them all, the sacher cake. The chocolate cake from Austria, an absolute devil in terms of calories, closes the meal.

Patio de Leones: A quintessentially Spanish meal

My last lunch in Madrid is in a new establishment, one that is bold in its expressions—Patio de Leones. In the seating area, the tile murals pay tribute to flamenco artists while in the exquisitely decorated restroom, sculpted lions sprinkle water. Patio de Leones, which means the court of lions in English, is named after the ‘lion hall’ of a Moorish palace in Alhambra.

Spanish tortillas are potato and egg omlettes, shaped like a pizza and eaten in slices. I have come across it multiple times since arriving in Madrid. Spaniards use it as a snack, comfort food, random guest reception food and what not! At one point, I feel they are as ubiquitous as the chai in India. Befittingly, my meal starts with these freshly made Spanish tortillas.

Since I am always accompanied by my colleagues and my Spanish hosts, I have ample people to share food with, but this makes me wonder how Spanish cuisine has been developed to feed people in groups. It shows that Spanish lives revolve around socializing over meals.

Next, come crispy round Iberian ham croquettes—minced ham coated by breadcrumbs and deep-fried. The vegetarian version of these are called ‘Vegetable chop’ in Kolkata. After a round of cod fritters, chilled gazpacho soup is served.

In this quintessentially Spanish menu, as a main course, I experience for the first time Spain’s national dish—Paella. Rice, vegetables, meats, seafood and spices are all cooked together in a frying pan to give shape to paella. This dish originated in Valencia under the influence of the Muslim Moors who introduced rice in the Spaniards’ diet. Some compare paella with Biryani. Though cooking methods of the two are similar, they taste very different mainly because of the very dissimilar rice grains used.

I wash down the paella with a red wine made from tempranillo grapes that has spent just one year in an oak barrel – a crianza. As soon as I am done, Madrid’s favourite dessert, churros con(with) chocolate is served on the table. Dough made with flour, butter, sugar, salt and eggs are transferred into a piping bag and deep-fried in oil to make churros. They are generally spiral in shape, crunchy from outside, soft from inside and coated in sugar dust. I dunk my churros in thick chocolate and smother my mouth with deplorable amounts of sweetness.

With such meaty and sugary memories, I bid adieu to this food paradise, until we meet again. 🙂

I hope some of your questions regarding where to eat and drink in Madrid have been answered here. Have you experienced these food/restaurants? Do you have anything to add here? Please leave your additions in the comments below!

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Disclaimer: Tania was hosted by Spain Tourism Board. All thoughts and opinions expressed in the post are of her own.

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