What to Eat in Madrid
Madrid, the capital of Spain, is a city where the honest cooking of old taverns meets Michelin stars. The most famous Madrid dish is "cocido madrileño", a chickpea stew with several kinds of meat that the city's taverns have been cooking for centuries. Right behind it comes tripe, "callos a la madrileña", stewed with chorizo, ham and paprika - Madrid has never been ashamed of offal, and I love it for that.
Markets and Tapas Bars
Markets and tapas bars are as much a part of eating in Madrid as restaurants are. The most famous market in Madrid is Mercado de San Miguel near Plaza Mayor, but for me, sadly, it's far too touristy. You can shop for jamón ibérico, seafood, cheeses and wine in a beautiful Art Nouveau hall - you just have to squeeze past a crowd that's mostly there to take photos. I've had better luck at the markets where Madrileños do their own shopping - you'll find two of them below in the Where to Eat section.
The tapas bar is the basic unit of eating in Madrid: noise, elbows on the counter and one small plate after another. You order plate after plate, with a glass of wine, beer or vermouth, until the table fills up.
Michelin-Starred Restaurants in Madrid
Madrid has no shortage of Michelin stars. Only one restaurant holds three of them, though: chef Dabiz Muñoz's avant-garde DiverXO (as of September 2026).
I picked my Michelin stop elsewhere: La Tasquería Restaurant, holder of one Michelin star, where the entire menu is built around offal. Beef tongue, rabbit hearts and pork crackling turned up as early as the compliments of the chef - and we all left thrilled, my parents included.
What to Eat in Madrid
- Cocido madrileño. Chickpeas, vegetables and several kinds of meat in a single pot named after the city itself. It's traditionally eaten in three courses ("tres vuelcos"): first the soup, then the chickpeas and vegetables, and finally the meat.
- Callos a la madrileña. Tripe stewed with chorizo, ham and paprika - a Madrid recipe documented as far back as 1599. I tried it at the Casa Dani market bar and at the Michelin-starred La Tasquería.
- Bocadillo de calamares. A baguette stuffed with fried calamari rings. For a city with no sea, it sounds absurd, but the bars in the side streets around Plaza Mayor have made it a Madrid classic.
- Tortilla de patatas. The potato omelet is loved all over Spain, but Madrid has made it its own as the "pincho de tortilla" - a wedge served with a beer or a vermouth. The pincho from the Casa Dani bar has even won recognition from Madrid's gastronomy academy.
- Churros con chocolate. Strips of fried choux dough dipped in thick hot chocolate. Madrid's chocolaterías have turned them into a ritual - and at the most famous of them, San Ginés, open since 1894, I had the best churros of all my travels around Spain.
- Huevos rotos. Fried potatoes with a fried egg and ham or chorizo. This simple Madrid bar dish was made famous by the Casa Lucio tavern on Cava Baja.
- Patatas bravas. Fried potatoes with a spicy sauce - and bravas sauce itself was born in Madrid. Places like Las Bravas and Docamar still guard their recipes closely. One of my all-time favorite tapas.
- Oreja a la plancha. Grilled pig's ear, the second most typical offal tapa in Madrid's bars after tripe.
- Vermut de grifo. Vermouth on tap before Sunday lunch - "la hora del vermut" - is taken more seriously in Madrid than anywhere else in Spain. Century-old taverns in neighborhoods like La Latina and Malasaña pour it.
- Caracoles a la madrileña. Snails stewed with chorizo and ham in a spicy sauce. Once a cheap meal gathered in Madrid's vineyards, today they're a springtime classic in the city's taverns.
- Soldaditos de Pavía. Strips of cod fried in batter, named, legend has it, after General Pavía's hussars. You can try them in the taverns near Puerta del Sol, where this tapa was born in the 19th century.
- Rosquillas tontas y listas. Traditional ring-shaped Madrid pastries: the "silly" ones come plain, the "clever" ones with a sugar glaze. They're sold mainly during the May festival of Saint Isidore, Madrid's patron saint.
- Gallinejas y entresijos. Fried lamb offal, an old Madrid street-food classic from the San Isidro and La Paloma festivals. These days only a handful of specialist places still serve them.
- … and dozens more Spanish dishes on the list: What to Eat in Spain.
Where to Eat in Madrid
- Casa Dani. A bar in the Mercado de la Paz market whose pincho de tortilla ranks among the most famous in all of Madrid. For me, one of the best places for tapas in Madrid.
- El Minibar. Another great spot for tapas. The place is tiny, and you won't get in without a reservation. Be sure to try their tinto de verano too.
- Juana La Loca. My third favorite place for tapas in Madrid.
- Ojalá. A restaurant known above all for its authentic sangria - mine was perfect. Highly recommended.
- La Tasquería. A tasting-menu restaurant with one Michelin star, built around offal. The menu is reasonably priced by Michelin standards. The one catch: getting by in English is tricky here, which is a letdown at a starred restaurant.
- Chocolatería San Ginés. The most famous place in Madrid for churros. Don't let the line put you off - the place is big and it moves quickly.
- La Mallorquina. A pastry shop that has been open since 1894 right on Puerta del Sol. I could never resist their "creamy ice cream slush", which I always grabbed in a to-go cup.
- Panishop. A bakery with an interesting range of baked goods and, above all, cakes and pastries. Worth a stop if you're passing by.
- Mercado de San Ildefonso. A smaller market with three floors of food stalls, tapas included. It's nowhere near as geared toward tourists as Mercado de San Miguel.
Few cities stand up for their offal as proudly as Madrid - here you'll find tripe at a market bar and under a Michelin star alike.
Enjoy eating your way around Madrid!
La Hora del Vermut: The Spanish Vermouth Hour
The name is German, the drink Italian and the custom Spanish: between noon and lunch you stand at the bar with ice, an olive and a splash of soda in your glass, and they call it la hora del vermut. What's inside the glass, why it's served straight from the tap, how a drink from Turin ended up in Reus, and how the house rojo tasted in two vermuterías in Alicante.
Churros: Spanish Fried Dough Dipped in Hot Chocolate
Churros are long ridged sticks of choux-style dough made of flour, water and salt, piped straight into hot oil and dipped in thick hot chocolate. In Spain they belong to breakfast and to the morning after a long night, not to the dessert menu. The article explains where the name comes from, regional variants like porras and tejeringos, the relatives in Portugal and Latin America, and the documented history that starts with the churrerías of 19th-century Madrid.
La Pecera: Japanese Taiyaki with Ice Cream in Madrid
La Pecera, an ice cream shop in Madrid's Malasaña, pipes soft serve into freshly baked taiyaki cones - a fish-shaped Japanese pastry. It has nothing to do with Spanish cuisine; it swam into Madrid the long way round, via Instagram in New York. Where the fish-shaped sweet came from, why its name is tied to good luck, and what a warm cone with ice-cold soft serve tastes like.
La Tasquería: A Michelin Star for Offal in Madrid
La Tasquería is a Madrid restaurant that built its entire tasting menu on offal - and holds a Michelin star for it. Chef Javi Estévez has taken tripe, tongues and hearts from street tradition to fine dining. You choose from three tasting menus of different lengths. Since spring 2024 the restaurant has been at a new address in Chamberí.