The best of the sea on the grill.
“Marinous grill”, that's what the chef calls Alfonso Castellano, to Mr. Martin, the restaurant and specialized in shellfish and fish, in sea products, from the Justicia neighborhood in Madrid. A project that was born from the mother fishmonger, of the same name, which has been accumulating fame in the San Miguel Market.
Trained in the kitchen of his parents' restaurant, with Berasategui, at Celler Can Roca, executive chef of Estado puro, by Paco Roncero and after heading his own restaurants (El patio de Leo, Rooster, Materia), Alfonso Castellano arrived at El Señor Martín attracted by the product of the sea. “Fish has always been a very attractive product for me, not only because of the breadth of elaborations and combinations that lend themselves to being made with it, but also because of its changing time, that forces you to treat it differently each time,” he explains.
The bar, wide and attractive.
At El Señor Martín they treat fish and shellfish in different ways, but always simple, direct, honest, the one that best fits each product to highlight its flavor, not hide it. Can be raw, cooked, stewed, although the other king of the place is the embers.
Put baby squid, octopus, razor clams, scallops and scallops on the grill, as well as fish as a main dish: the red mullet from Barbate, the San Martín de Rota, the sea bream from Ría de Arousa, the scorpion fish from Reibeira, the coruxo from Marín... Fish always with surname, with origin. And these are the fish of these days, when we write these lines, because they change, as the season changes and the sea changes with it.
Grilled does taste better.
But what El Señor Martín's letter always says is that in this seaside barbecue, this fish market with bar or tablecloth, It has a very clear objective: discover new fish to the Madrid diner or bring him here products that he only eats when he travels to the coast. Like the borriquete, the lorikeets, the drum fish... That is his hallmark.
Alfonso Castellano, soul of this restaurant-fishmonger.
“It is always a challenge to stand out in the Spanish gastronomic panorama due to the extremely high level that surrounds it, you no longer measure yourself against neighboring establishments but against everyone at a national level,” says Castellano. “We from Madrid have the double job of bringing the coast closer to the interior. For this, a lot of time is invested in travel, contacts and constant learning”.
Chickpea stew with cuttlefish. There are not only embers...
Travel and learning to continue bringing exclusive products from every corner and elaborate and present them with total respect. “Undoubtedly there is a lot of wonderful product that we don't know about. The problem with Madrid is that it is a place that demands so much volume that small suppliers, who do not reach those amounts and cannot bear all the commercial expenses, are left out”, continues the chef. “To avoid it, we 'rescue' those small catches, those small boats that fish daily, which are the ones that find those little jewels and bring them back. Borriquete, soldier bream, feather snapper, triggerfish, yellow grouper, white grouper, black grouper, dentex…”.
On the ground floor is the intimate and modern restaurant.
WHY GO
For the seasoned borriquete from Algeciras, the Bartate red mullet on the grill, the snapper with squid and tendon stew, the razor clams, the clams, the oysters… shall we continue?
ADDITIONAL FEATURES
The space is divided into Two parts: on the upper floor, street level, is the big bar from where you can see the grill and low tables without tablecloths; down, the living room quieter, tables with tablecloths, the cellar. Two spaces united by an industrial style, original materials and a light marine aroma, and that can attract at different times. More casual or more relaxed. They want to tend to differentiate them even more. “ The bar is undergoing a very qualitative change. We are bringing those luxury restaurant products closer to a more informal environment, but we are still in the process,” explains Castellano.
Raw, embers... each product gets the maximum flavor.
Address: C/ del General Castaños, 13 See map
Telephone: 91 795 71 70
Schedule: From Monday to Saturday from 12:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. and from 8:00 p.m. to 00:30 a.m. Sundays closed.
Half price: Bar: 15-25 euros. Table: 45-60 euros.