Ramen tori paitan from Chuka Ramen Bar
"The Condé Nast Traveler newsroom spends their lives eating out." Yes. It is true, undeniable: this belly is for and by you, to always select the best and opt for those restaurants that, in an unstoppable maelstrom of openings, of throwaway restaurants, make a difference and are committed to excellence. ** Don't miss the first installment (and the ** ****** third, fourth and fifth).******
BAIT (Carrera de San Jerónimo, 34 tel. 917 87 77 80) €€€€€
Paco Patón and chef Aurelio Morales , hand in hand in the great bet of the Urban. From his arrival it was clear that Aurelio was going for everything. That he wanted to win in Madrid. and for it he devised a gastronomic trip from the capital to Barcelona, or vice versa, that both on the menu and in the tasting menu format offers a handful of very good hits.
This is demonstrated by the autumn calçot, a donut filled with calçot cream with sausage purée, the liquid tripe croquette and chickpea under tile, the wild turbot with shrimp and chanterelles and the cocochas al pil pil with grilled marrow and caviar Iranian (two “sea and mountain” championship) . The Urban needed a restaurant like this. He already has it.
** CHUKA RAMEN BAR ** (Echegaray, 9 tel. 640 65 13 46) €€
This Japanese tavern promised to become the best exponent of ramen and baos... and it did. Though the ramen bar etiquette has already fallen short.
With John Husby and Rodrigo García Fonseca in the kitchen and Lorena Mauri in the dining room, here the hane are embroidered gyoza –grilled steamed dumplings– with fillings such as matured beef, chicken, pork or edamame and miso; as well as the incomparable baos of cochinita pibil, fried chicken, soft shell crab, pastrami or ear.
They play with the seasons to come up with dishes like roasted cauliflower or a spectacular fake cow niguiri. If you're lucky, ask about the off-menu dishes like their impressive black butter stripe. For dessert, a fresh and fluffy Japanese rice cake with ice cream from the Grate workshop.
Go half an hour before your reservation and have a La Venencia sherry, the most traditional bar in Madrid.
Sino-Japanese Fusion
COKE (Marqués del Riscal, 11 tel. 916 04 02 02) €€€€€
The most brilliant opening of the season. The Sandovals have landed in Madrid in style. And at full speed.
If someone thought that Mario Sandoval was going to change the spoon for abandoning his beloved Humanes in pursuit of the sophisticated neighborhood of Chamberí... they are wrong. After all this, the army of waiters and cooks who, led by Juan Diego (dining room) and Rafael (cellar), turn the visit into a party.
Mario remains faithful to his: look out without losing sight of Madrid. His suckling pig is still there, the king, but also his passion for vegetables from Madrid's orchards, his powerful broths, his stews, a marinade of ten... King crab with tripe sauce, crab, sea urchin roe and cod skin is one of the dishes of the year.
WHITE CROSS VALLECAS (Carlos Martín Álvarez, 58 tel. 914 77 34 38) €€
One of the best stews in Spain and, without a doubt, the one with the longest waiting list.
It would be unfair to Antonio Cosmen , from Leitariegos but with many years in Madrid above him, he was remembered only for his famous stew, the one for which, we attest, Clients arrive in Vallecas from Australia, Japan or Brazil. Its National Hospitality Award for the defense of traditional cuisine recognizes what the diner finds here: some tripe always from the movies, some granny croquettes that taste like home, some squid rings as they should be, a Galician cow with potatoes or a garlic rabbit that invite you to share... And all in a bustling and cozy lounge or on its huge covered terrace.
The new wine list gives more packaging to what comes out of the kitchen. The ideal? Some tripe with a bottle of champagne.
OF THE RIVA (Cochabamba, 13 tel. 914 58 89 54) €€€
Since 1932 giving food in this place in Chamartín. Pepe Morán knows that what he likes for his clientele is that they sing to him. That's why he “sings” what he has every day, always coming from his beloved Chamartín and Maravillas markets, and always cooked with tradition and love.
House classics are the conger eel in green sauce, the cow criadillas, the squid in its ink, the stewed potatoes with ribs or the sumptuous lentils with chorizo and ear.
They only open at night "in cases of force majeure", such as company dinners or private celebrations.
DISENGAGE (Paseo de la Habana, 84 tel. 914 57 56 68) €€
Iván Sáez has fulfilled his dream: convert the inspired cuisine of game and its products into a small temple.
The better Iván gets to know you... the more he dares to try you and show his creativity. Formed and forged in posh kitchens, it is with hunting and forcefulness that he moves best. Only for the brave: deer heart with amanita ponderosa and truffle; Changurro ravioli with pig's ear and cocochas, marrow and pea cream, trotters with espardeñas and black pudding.
Rich wines at contained prices. And what croquettes.
FUN (Father Damián, 23 tel. 915 70 07 66) €€€€€
Dabiz Muñoz's genius is indisputable. Either you love him... or you love him. Spicy fin and crab soup with black vinegar and white pepper. Spicy shrimp bolognese with red prawn carpaccio, black truffle, submissive karachi and grilled head; Roast kid belly with miso-yuzu-ají-panca accompanied by Andalusian liquid salad.
What does it matter what we say about this festival in which the five senses fall short. The important thing is to live it... but be patient because getting a table is quite an odyssey.
Room service like a perfect circus. And the beast tamer always in the kitchen, infallible.
DSTAgE (Regueros, 8 tel. 917 02 15 86) €€€€€
Diego Guerrero and his clever vision of the restaurant of the future. Better yet, of the present.
Diego is a traveler, restless, surfer... and a very, very perfectionist. He shows in his kitchen, always with that air of trompe l'oeil well brought and with a thousand winks to his coming and going. The razor clams with celery dashi and almond milk, the shrimp in rock salt (that stone that always surprises him), the garlic stuffed with black garlic cream or the pigeon pepper are there to prove it.
His nearby workshop and creative studio, DSpot, are great for events and private dinners.
ENKLIMA (Ferraz, 36 tel. 911 16 69 91) €€
Small and minimalist restaurant with signature cuisine , a few steps from the Temple of Debod.
The youth of its owners, Agustin Gonzalez and Maria Martinez , does not serve as a constraint when it comes to offering two international, Nordic and Japanese tasting menus, in which a constant use of sprouts and herbs predominates unusual in other kitchens.
They stand out in already emblematic dishes of the house such as the mushroom, the powerful castanet with cauliflower, the carabinero, the blond and the blue duck with carrot and fennel.
The origin of Enklima, opened just over a year ago, is fruit of a clandestine pop up that María and Agustín set up in their own home.
ESBARDS (Maldonado, 4 tel. 914 35 08 68) €€
This house was born as a "little" sister of El Oso... but it has already grown.
When you have a craving for fabada, but for real fabada (with homemade compango) , ask an expert: it is very likely that you will be told about this unknown restaurant by those who only talk about trendy places. There is no need to.
Beware also of their verdinas with monkfish, fish such as the black-bellied pixín, stuffed onions (queens of the house), sea urchins au gratin or superb anchovies cleaned and filleted on the spot. Meats are not bad either and during the hunting season they embroider the pickled partridge.
Classic wine cellar and matching room. Perfect for parents to take. Or the in-laws.
FILANDON (Road from El Pardo to Fuencarral, km 1.9 tel. 917 34 38 26) €€€
The closest thing to eating in the countryside that can be in Madrid. Of course, no picnic: plate and tablecloth with first class raw material.
Product, grill and nature... in the capital. It exists, yes, and its name is Filandón; of the family that owns Pescaderías Coruñesas, which supplies it with its fish and shellfish (that turbot, those oysters!) . In addition to them, stews such as Carril clam rice or tripe, tartare (tuna or steak tartare) or old cow chop.
All in a space with various environments (fireplace for the winter, terraces for the summer included).
Don't forgive the desserts: rice pudding, pancakes or hot wafer with apple.
Another great asset is its hours: from 1:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. And the ease of parking (something to keep in mind).
FISMULER (Sagasta, 29 tel. 918 27 75 81) €€€
From the creators of Las tortillas de Gabino, La Gabinoteca and Tatel, Nino Redruello and Patxi Zumárraga, comes this Mediterranean-based restaurant in which Nordic influences, organic and Km 0 coexist.
Its kitchen, where its popular chickpeas with beef and crayfish come from, can be glimpsed from the tables. Desserts –such as its spectacular warm cheesecake– are prepared in the dining room itself (which is usually always bursting at the seams).
Hidden in a basement, it goes unnoticed and without giving many clues to its sober and charming interior, suitable for a romantic dinner.
GOFIO (Lope de Vega, 9 tel. 915 99 44 04) €€€
Never before had such a solid proposal for Canarian cuisine been seen in the capital. They do not have a menu, but work with three tasting menus –Express, Gofio and Canarian Máxima–, and a list of wines dedicated entirely to references from the islands.
Good memory always leave its rabbit dumplings, injected with its own juice and the grilled txuleta roast beef with El Hierro peach, Gomeran cheese and Palmero mojo, flavored with tea pine. To finish, Canarian artisan cheeses combined with a glass of Platé, an alcoholic fermentation drink made from Canarian bananas.
It is in a cozy place in the Barrio de Las Letras. Look at the illustrations that decorate it, inspired by those islands.
All the Canarian flavor in the neighborhood of Las Letras
puff pastry (Virgin of Dangers, 8 tel. 910 59 91 53) €€
What's new from Javier Bonet. The vol-au-vent returns, you have been warned.
Bonet had us worried with his silence after hits like Sala de Despiece and Muta, in Madrid, or Patrón Lunares (Palma de Mallorca). And it turns out that he was walking among puff pastries, ** those of this place that looks like an old confectionery (because it was) ** and that now, together with his partners, the photographer Javier Salas and Estela Gutiérrez, from a pastry family, has turned in exaltation of butter, water and flour.
In its version of the Wellington with addictive puff pastry fries, in a powerful morsel of chicken with chocolate, mixing sweet with salty, letting us dip the churro in roasted endives and with the final firework of some sweets that even walk towards bitterness. Like a new umami of those who smack their mustaches well. Creativity was this.
HORCHER (Alfonso XII, 6, tel. 915 22 07 31) €€€€
More than a restaurant part of the history of the 20th century. And not only Madrid.
Elizabeth Horcher runs this wonderful family heritage that is today the last redoubt of what were the great restaurants of yesteryear. That does not mean that there is no modernity here, because there is: the illusion of convince new audiences of what it means to eat in this house.
Classic dinners.
Partridge to the press, a mythical and unbeatable hamburger; venison carpaccio; smoked eel with horseradish sauce, Don Víctor consommé... The classic European cuisine sublimated. A must visit and the more times, the better. Their crêpes and their Baumkuchen are the delight of a sweet tooth.
HORTENSIO (Marqués del Riscal, 5 tel. 910 02 35 54) €€€€
Elegance from start to finish, a modern that aspires to classic.
Chef Mario Vallés needs to let himself be seen more and tell whoever wants to listen about his cooking; the one that explains when we go and what reflects an impeccable eye for classicism properly understood. We see it in the egg with candied artichoke and cow lardon, in the snails with beans from Barco and watercress mayonnaise, in the sole with Dauphine potatoes or in the suckling pig with green lentils from Puy. It is worth following the market proposals.
If you are left wanting more, enjoy the first installment.
€ Less than €10
€€ Up to €20
€€€ Up to €50
€€€€ More than 50 €
*You can find the 2018 Gastronomic and Wine Guide in a digital version for your devices, at Manzana , Zinium Y google play .