Madrid

As usual check the web sites www.booking.com and www.hotels.com and there are lots of new boutique type ones such as the Spanish chain Room Mate Group, their hotels are modern, the staff friendly and helpful so keep an eye out from them.

An alternative is an apartment, Habitat Apartments www.habitatapartments.com have some excellent apartments around Madrid including some in La Latina area which is central and good for restaurants and tapas bars. The staff are helpful and efficient if you have any queries. Friendly Rentals www.friendlyrentals.com is another highly recommended company with apartments in a large number of cities.

Room Mate hotels www.room-matehotels.com  are a small but rapidly expanding chain and having stayed at their hotels in many cities we love the modern style, the young friendly and helpful staff and the general feel of the hotels. Check out their choices in Madrid where they started.

The tapas bars and restaurants of Madrid are great and set three course lunches known as menu del dia and usually including wine are still a bargain. This means that at night you can join the locals and wander from bar to bar sampling the variety of tapas. It is not always the cheapest option but it gives you a chance to try the wide range on offer. The further away from the centre, the more chance of a free tapas and go back to ones that give you more than just olives. The current economic climate means that more & more places now seem to be giving cutomers a tapas with any drink.

The same group who have the Quinze Nits and many more places in Barcelona brought the same formula to Madrid years ago. Great design, reasonable prices, food varies depending what you chose. The no reservation policy is the same, they include La Finca de Susana, C/Arlaban 4 near Metro Sevilla, La Gloria de Montera, C/Caballero de Gracia 10, near Gran Via and Bazaar, C/Libertad, Chueca they now have three more in the city.

Around the Puerta Del Sol

There are dozens of bars in this area and perhaps surprisingly given how touristy it is there are many good ones and new places seem to be opening all the time.

Casa Labra, CTetuan, just beside El Cotre Ingles is one of the oldest bars in Madrid it does great salt cod croquettes and deep fried fish, an institution in the city and where the Spanish socialist party was founded.

En Busca del Tiempo , C/Barcelona 4, popular with locals and the food and service is good, excellent value menu del dia.

Malaspina , C/Cadiz 9 and Taberna La Descubierta C/Barcelona 12 are owned by the same people, both offer good value food and reasonably priced drinks and are very popular with both visitors and locals.

La Pulperia de Victoria, C/ La Victoria 2 is a must for people that like octopus. The bar is modern and service good the free tapas of pulpo that we had was excellent.

Tapas & Mas, C/Espoz y Mina 18, is a relatively new addition to the area. Friendly staff and a wide range of food and drinks on offer.

La Fragua de Vulcano, C/Alvarez Gato 9 is a basic bar which opens late and does good and cheap tapas, a big variety including mussels, prawns etc, it is very good value.

Fatigas del Querer, C/de La Cruz 17, it looks like at lot of others but good staff and free good tapas and an excellent menu del dia.

Casa Toni, C/Cruz 14, has the feel of a real locals bar and the tapas we tried were good, a regular stop now on visits to Madrid.

Las Bravas, C/Alvarez Gato 3 and C/Espoz y Mina 13, are reputedly the best patatas bravas in town, they are good but not sure they warrant that title, do pop in and try them.

Circulo De Bellas Artes, C/Alcala, is an arts venue with a beautiful bar and restaurant and also now access to a roof top terrace with amazing views over the city. There is a small entrance fee but worth it, especially for the very good menu del dia.

Plaza Santa Ana

This is a lovely square and you should without doubt visit and sit outside one of the many bars, but in many these days the service is offhand and the prices high. Cervejaria Santa Ana, one of the original bars in the square has lost all the staff who had been there for years and is not nearly as good as it was. There are many in the surrounding streets however that are worth discovering.

Casa Alberto, C/de la Huertas 18, is a lovely old fashioned zinc bar and the sort of place that takes you back in time. The tapas and food are good and it is very popular.

El Lacon, C/Manuel Fernandez Gonzalez 8, just off Plaza Santa Ana, I cannot belive that in all our visits to the city we have never been to El Lacon before. This is an old school bar and restaurant frequented more by locals than visitors, probably as it is not on any of the main roads. Exceptionally friendly staff and a choice of free tapas with each drink. The menu del dia choices also looked good and looking forward to returning to trying it.

Lateral, Plaza Santa Ana, is a very smart modern bar, part of a small chain, which does good food and is probably the best of the bunch to try on the square.

Huertas – Between Plaza Santa Ana and the Paseo de Prado

La Dolores, Plaza de Jesus 4, is another Madrid classic, a lovely tiled bar with tapas. Mainly it serves conservas, often seafood and fish, preserved in tins and highly prized in Spain. This bar is popular with well heeled locals as well as visitors.

La Fabrica , C/Jesus 2, is another rather upmarket tapas bar across from Los Dolores which does excellent tapas

Los Gatos , C/Jesús 2, is next door to La Fabrica, it is a very local bar with a quirky décor and variable service but worth including if you are doing a tapas wander in this area. Tia Feli de Las Letras, a couple of doors away at No 4 specialises in vermut and very friendly staff.

La Plateria, C/Moratin 49, is just round the corner from the above and a great friendly bar with excellent wines and tapas. We have been going there since it opened and it has grown in size but not lost its atmosphere or good food and service.

The area between the above and Plaza Santa Ana is a bar area very popular with a young crowd and can be rowdy at the weekends but definitely worth exploring for the wide range of places on offer.

Gonzalez, C/Leon 12, when we first found it many years ago it was a grocers and wine shop where you could also get a glass of wine and a tapas, on our last visit there was not a table to be had. They have as you would expect a wide range of wines both for drinking and to take away and incredibly reasonable prices.Lovely staff, great wines and food a real gem.

Alimentacion Quiroga, C/Huertas 19, is a relatively new addition to this area although it looks like a grocers shop that could have been there for years inside is a very cool bar specialising in wines and cold meats and cheeses. You can choose a bottle from the wide selection on display and pay 4 Euros corkage to drink it there, a very good deal. The staff are friendly and helpful and we thoroughly have enjoyed our visits during recent stays in the city.

Casa Varona, Plaza de Matute 13, is a very new opening and is owned by Raquel and her husband who own Quiroga. This is similar but with more space and with some seafood dishes. We really enjoyed it and is firmly on the list for future visits.

Near Plaza Mayor

Unfortunately most of the bars in the square are for visitors and overpriced with poor food although sitting out once should be done to enjoy the beauty of the square and the lively atmosphere. On the way out of Plaza Mayor going towards La Latina is Bodegas Ricla C/Cuchilleros a family run, old fashioned and traditional bar, now featuring on some organised tapas tours.

Mercado San Miguel just south west of the Plaza Mayor used to be a local produce market but was revamped as the first “Food & Drink” market.. It is permanently busy these days, the prices have increased and it lacks space to eat & drink comfortably but still worth a visit at least once.

La Latina

This is a wonderful area for eating and drinking, C/Cava Baja and to a lesser extent C/Cava Alta are the best known. The surrounding streets, in particular C/Calatrava also have a good selection of places and are slightly less raucous at weekends as C/Cava Baja now seems to attract more cocktail type bars than traditional tapas & wine bars although some of the best old favourites remain.

Pajaritos Mojados, C/Humilladero 3, is a modern quirky bar with a wide range of drinks including excellent cocktails. The food is highly rated and the lovely staff have made this a firm favourite.

Casa Lucas, C/Cava Baja, is an excellent tapas bar, it was one of the first in the street and it has some unusual tapas which are the signature dishes, all freshly cooked. Try and get a table and order some tapas and also raciones. The owners and staff are lovely, and in all our years of visiting, still the best in the street.

El Tempranillo, C/Cava Baja 38 has an excellent selection of wines,including many of the less well known Spanish types, so a great place to sample some different ones. It also has tapas and raciones of cold meats and cheeses and other dishes. Another of the original ones on the street. The good ones last, as can be seen by this and Casa Lucas.

Almendro 13, C/del Almendro 13, another long standing place, with good food, fino sherry and always very popular with locals and visitors. You order the food at the hatch and wait for the bell to ring.

Vinos Gerrado, Almacen de Vinos, C/Calatrava 21, is a great traditional old bar with a very large selection of good wines, cava, and food, try the tostas especially the Lacon (Galician Ham) and Cheese. This is a real local bar, always busy, and is a firm favourite.

Casa Dani, Vinos 11, C/Calatrava 11, is another old fashioned traditional bar, tends to be quieter than Vinos Gerrardo.

Taberna Almeria, C/de las Aguas, is incredibly popular with a youngish crowd partly I suspect because of the great range of tostas, they also have a good wine choice.

Quinteria El Bombin, C/Tabernillas 23, we found on a previous visit and returned this time twice and were impressed with the service and the quality of the free tapas which here are Basque Pinxtos. Excellent value and nice live music on one visit.

Anton Martin & Tirso de Molina

Although part of this area is really also in La Latina, the streets near the Mercado de Anton Martin seem to have had a burst of new openings and there are numerous bars and restaurants worth visiting as well as the market itself.

Vinoteca Moratin, C/Moratin 36, was on my list to try and then was also recommended by my trusted Madrid source. We booked for lunch and were welcomed by Marcos the owner and chef who explained the menu. We shared four dishes and they were all exceptional, the wine choice by the glass is fantastic and good value. We returned on our most recent visit and again were amazed by the quality of the food, wine and service.

La Trangantua, C/de la Veronica 4, another one on the list to try this time and thank goodness we booked for lunch, it is a small restaurant and we were lucky to be able to get a table. The staff were lovely and the choices on the menu del dia were all good, definitely a cut above the average as shown by it’s popularity with local regular customers. On our most recent visit we were told they were changing the name to La Malontina but this does not yet appear to have happened.

Mercado Anton Martin has a number of places to eat and drink, one to particularly recommend is Donde Sanchez run by a lovely lady called Paz. There is a very good wine selection and a selection of meats and cheeses. the market has a wide variety of stalls offering food from various parts of the world including Japan and Mexico and other bars including a Vermuteria but stop at Donde Sanchez first. A good local market with eating and drinking that has not been spoiled.

Ferreteria, C/Attocha 57, was the best find on our most recent trip, an old hardware shop turned into a cool bar and restaurant. We loved the place, great staff and excellent wines and a speciality of ham. A must for all future visits.

La Esperanza, C/Torchilla de Leal 3, was a great find on our most recent visit. This used to be an old school Galician restaurant but has been turned into a modern, cool bar while keeping many of the old features which makes it a lovely place for a drink or food. On our most recent visit service seemed less friendly than previously.

Mas El Sur, C/Santa Isabel 35 was an excellent new find, lovely staff, excellent generous tapas and very popular. Their original bar is Taberna El Sur nearby at C/Torrecilla del Leal 12 is also worth trying, it has become a favourite and the tapas are execellent, very popular tables can be hard to come by.

Bodega Lo Maximo, C/de San Carlos 6, is an old school bar, a cool local crowd, very cheap drinks and tapas. Worth a look if you are exploring this area.

Calle Argumosa, which runs from nearby Lavapies Metro is packed with a wide variety of bars from old school traditional to modern stylish places, a great street for a some drinks & tapas.

La Fisna, C/Amparo 91, was recommended by one of my most trusted sources in the city and lived up to expectations. Wonderful selection of wines and tapas and larger dishes this is one to seek out.

La Berenjena, C/Marques De Toca 7, just off C/Atocha this is another excellent local bar with very good food and friendly staff, another good find in this area.

Los Caracoles , Casa Amadeo, Plaza de Cascorro 18, this is must if you go to the Rastro on a Sunday. It is run by Don Amadeo who is in his 80’s, the speciality is snails cooked in a broth with chorizo and many bits of animals which you may not wish to identify. He usually gives you some of the broth to try, lots of other tapas to choose from.

Sala Equis (X), c/Duque de Alba 4, is an old porn cinema turned into a cool venue for drinks, food or films (not that sort). Worth popping in to see the interesting building conversion and for a drink, food gets mixed reviews.

Chueca

This is a interesting area to explore with a real mix of tapas bars and restaurants and also a mix of age groups.

Restaurante Babel, C/Libertad 23, has an excellent menu del dia, really good cooking and friendly service. A real find in an area that has loads of choice, you only have to look at the number of people turned away to see how popular it is. Now a must on any visit, this time the food was was really excellent, every choice for each course was tempting.

Taberna Angel Sierra, Plaza Chueca is an excellent example of an old zinc bar taberna, sample the vermut and some of the traditional tapas.

El Bocaito, C/Libertad 6 is a very smart, busy, but slightly pricey tapas bar which even given the slightly high prices deserves a visit. Old school staff, good cooking and feels wonderfully old style Madrid.

Momo, C/Libertad 8, is another great option for a menu del dia. Very popular with excellent cooking and service it also offers a set price dinner menu.

Definitely worth a visit is the re-vamped Mercado San Anton, C/Augusto Figueroa, they have totally modernised the market and while it still has the normal meat, fish & vegetable stalls, albeit upmarket ones, it has some great places to sample wines and eat tapas. On the first floor get a glass of wine or beer then try some of the many food stalls, the top floor has two restaurants and an outdoor bar. A good place for a drink or to eat.

Malasana

Another interesting area to explore is Malansana and the surrounding area. This is where the ‘movida’ movement in Madrid started, it is a trendy area and there are lots of interesting shops, bars and restaurants. The square Plaza dos de Mayo is a good starting point and although late at night it is a party zone there are lots of places to try earlier around C/de la Palma, C/San Andres & C/Manuela Malasana, the area slightly west around Conde Duque is quieter and also has some good places to try.

Mercado San Ildefonso, C/Fuencarral 57, is a new venture in this trendy area, it has a variety of food stalls and a central eating & drinking area on the first floor and an upper floor bar. I found it less “touristy” than San Miguel and although some things were quite expensive others were reasonably priced. It is certainly worth a visit.

Bodega De La Ardosa, C/De Colon 13, an authentic old style Madrid bar, a good place to sample a vermut and try the tapas.

Casa do Companeiro, C/Vincente Ferrer 44, another great old fashioned place, this is however a Galician style one so expect to try delicacies from that area.

Bar El 2 De, C/Velarde 24. seems like it has been here for ever and another of the original ‘movida’ hang outs, always welcoming and a great feel with the tiled walls and mirrors.

El Mano, C/Palma 64, you will feel like a local if you pop in here, relaxed feel although gets very busy later on at night.

Salamanca

This is the smart shopping area with as you would expect very smart tapas bars, there are many in C/de Serrano and the nearby side streets. In the area around Metro Goya there is also very good shopping and some good bars and restaurants, many in C/Dr Castelo.

Jurucha, C/Ayala 19, is an old school bar which has been around for years as have the staff, The array of pinxtos (canapes) is second to none.

Mercado de la Paz, in C/Ayala opposite Jurucha is worth a visit. The restaurant inside the market is highly rated for it’s menu del dia and tortillas, which are top class.

Platea, C/Goya 5 -7 is yet another building transformed into an eating and drinking venue. It was an old cinema and the building and the conversion is spectacular. There was not a huge choice in food outlets and what there was is expensive, the service was also poor. Worth popping in for a drink as they have live music.

Chamberi

This is one of the oldest “barrios” areas and one of the most “castizo”, meaning authentic Madrid. Start at Metro Bilbao and visit Café Commercial, Glorieta de Bilbao 7, it is a Madrid institution although sadly sometimes with poor service. There are many bars around C/ del Cardenal Cisneros and C/Hartzenbusch and the nearby square Plaza de Olavides.

Calle Ponzano has become one of the best “foodie” streets in the city, start at Metro Alonso Cano or Iglesia. Two seafood bars are reputed to serve the best beer in the city, Fide at No.8 & El Doble at No. 58, there are actually two branches of each nearby.

Sala de Despiece, C/Ponzano 11 is very highly rated with new wave tapas, no reservations so get there before it opens or be prepared for a wait.

Taberna Alipio Ramos, C/Ponzano 30, old style Madrid bar giving free canapes with each drink.

Abaceria Tapas Lambuzo, C/Ponzano 8, is a modern cool bar doing fabulous Andalucian style fish and seafood. Top notch service and food.

Bacira, C/Castillo 16, is up near the top of recommended Madrid restaurants and no wonder. The food, Spanish & Japanese fusion, is fantastic. During the week they offer a menu del dia at 14 euros an absolute bargain, at night it is either a la carte or a tasting menu. Whenever you are going you need to book well in advance. Lovely service, brilliant food at a very reasonable price, I cannot wait to return.

Between Metro Iglesia & Metro Quevodo is Restaurant Sagaretxe C/Eloy Gonzalo 26, it has a fabulous selection of pinxtos, but the service is variable, also nearby is Taberna La Nueva, C/Araplies 7, a lovely old fashioned bar with good tapas.

Drink

Madrid is the only capital city in the world that has it’s own DO (designation of origin) for wine production but it is still relatively unknown outside the city itself. Red, white and rose wines are produced in an area south of the city and a visit to the city gives you a chance to try some of the local wines. As you would expect bars and restaurants have a wide selection of Spanish wines and it is a great opportunity to try wines from other regions that you may not have come across at home as Rioja is still the best known exported wine. Excellent red wines from the Bierzo region have started appearing in various places and are really worth sampling. Craft beers are now starting to appear in many bars and restaurants.

The local beer in Madrid is Mahou and is normally served in much smaller measures than in the UK particularly, go with the locals and order a cana and a tapas, then move onto another bar and enjoy the Madrid pastime of “ir a tapear” going for a tapas which always means several bars. There are now several beer bars specialising in craft beers some Spanish some not but this seems to be increasingly popular in the city.

You will most likely have arrived in Madrid with a list of the main attractions that you want to see and high up on most lists are the most famous galleries, The Prado, Reina Sofia (Modern) & The Thyssen Collection (Superb Works & Building) one ticket does all three.

If you can’t face a huge gallery try Museo Sorolla, C/General Martinez Campos 37, this is a collection of the Valencian painter’s works showing in what was his house and studio and has a wonderful Anadalucian Garden

Other sights include the Plaza Mayor, Palacio Real, Plaza de la Villa and Retiro Park. The Rastro market on Sunday should not be missed. The oldest part of the city around the Plaza de Paja off C/Segovia is a lovely area to wander around.
.
Places worth visiting outside Madrid but in easy reach include Segovia, Toledo and Aranquez.

In Chueca there is one street with fabulous shoe shops, there are dozens on both sides C/de Augusto Figuera.

The area round metro Tirso de Molina is full of wholesale shops but some are open to the public, worth keeping an eye out if it says “venta al por mayor” then it means wholesale only.