Last Monday, May 16, Madrid attended what has undoubtedly become the opening of the season. And that the city is experiencing a gastronomic boom in which, almost every day, new proposals are born. Why the hype and what was it that opened? Nothing less than RavioXO, the new restaurant of David Munoz. After months of announcements and tests, that Monday was chosen to add a new restaurant to the UniverXO, the third in Madrid in this case.
Let's remember, Dabiz Muñoz captains DiverXO, the only three Michelin stars in the capital. The chef, at the head of the UniverXO group with his wife Christina Pedroche, has created a series of such successful concepts as StreetXO, that plans novelties from September or the GoXO, a line of delivery Y food trucks. In the last edition of 'The Best Chef Awards', he was crowned as the best cook in the world. How could the news that he was opening a new space not cause a stir?
Dabid Muñoz, best chef in the world according to 'The Best Chef Awards'.
In the months preceding the opening, Dabiz was giving small pills of what this new concept was going to be. Within the framework of the gastronomic congress Madrid Fusion he defined it as “a transgressive concept around the world of steam” and he accompanied his presentation with a video in which eight of the dishes that were going to be part of this new restaurant were shown. RavioXO was the continuation of something that started 15 years ago in the first DiverXO, carrying the world of dumplings at the highest level.
Fried eggs with blood sausage.
We soon found out more, such as that it was going to be located in the Gourmet Experience of El Corte Inglés de Castellana. “RavioXO was going to be a dumpling bar, but we have turned it into much more, into something else”, explained the chef. “It is a restaurant on a very free creative level. is take the word pasta, to strip it of any cultural attribute or link with any country. We left her naked and from there, we feel free to create. We are not a Chinese restaurant, nor an Italian... nothing to see, ”he sentenced.
"RavioXO is the luxury of eating time."
Then the awaited moment arrived, on May 16, after more than a year and a half of testing, RavioXO was going to open its doors and only three days before, on May 13, it opened reservations. In just a few minutes, the restaurant sold out the quota for the entire month of May and June. The response from the public was overwhelming. They all wanted to know what is new about the genius of the crest.
Nerves, joy, excitement... in the whole team and in each diner that he sat, privileged at one of the tables of this novelty. “We started thinking of doing something easy and simple and in the end we got involved and we have done something unique and much more complicated than we thought…”, the cook affirmed in his social networks. The day came and he triumphed.
RavioXO, the new gastronomic sensation in Madrid.
One comes to RavioXO with high expectations and best of all, they are not only met, but exceeded. The staging It is already a statement of intent. The place could well be located in Madrid or in any European capital, because as soon as you walk through the doors – with that luminous purple that has already become famous on Instagram – time stops. You can only be in the here and now. Hard days and problems are left parked at the door. RavioXO is going to be enjoyed and done in a memorable way.
We talk about time standing still and time is precisely one of the key points of this restaurant. “RavioXO is the luxury of eating time. Each dough, each filling, each elaboration, each fold of a dumpling, is made in a individual, unique and artisan. Each piece represents hours and hours of elaboration made from start to finish. Time, creativity and product”, shares Dabiz Muñoz.
Rice silk cannelloni.
The place is built around a kitchen view, From which at times flames of fire come out of the wok working at maximum power and in other steam, an essential part for the preparation of many of its dishes. The music that sounds is like giving the Shazam to catch each great song, a list created by Carlos Jean, that you can also hear through Spotify. At the moment it is only open at night during dinner hours and when one arrives it waits for you a bare table, with only the instruments that one is going to use during the evening (tongs, chopsticks, spoon) –although on many occasions, what is used are the hands– and a napkin, which, as Paz Álvarez affirms, “when it is unfolded, the enjoyment begins.”
"RavioXO was going to be a dumpling bar, but we have turned it into much more, into something else."
Their menu makes you want to eat absolutely everything, although they recommend ordering between 5 and 7 plates. Perfect excuse to come back more times and try the rest. Later we will discover that each dish, indeed, is endless nuances and overwhelming creativity. Just 14 dishes make up the RavioXO menu. They do not need more, not one is left over. The letter is a compendium of novelties in pasta and dumplings format that have been part of DiverXO.
Perhaps the one that planted the seed was one that was served in the first restaurant, the one with which he began to stand out before his two moves. "All started here. This was the first dish in the history of DiverXO in 2007 and it has been the first dish for RavioXO in 2022. We have made a technically improved version, but we have preserved everything else”, explains Muñoz himself. It is none other than 'The rabbit and the carrot' 2007-2022, a rabbit pepitoria dumpling, yellow pepper, 5 Chinese spices and carrot textures.
RavioXO is in the Gourmet Experience of El Corte Inglés de Castellana.
From there, RavioXO is an array of surprises. The same you can go on a round trip to Southeast Asia with its dumpling 'Centollo Singapore' that unites the two best stews in Singapore, the chili crab and the backpepper crab, topped with a Roman style kokotxa and crispy lotus root, which will lift you to the top with its 'Caserío vasco', his particular tribute to Basque cuisine, with a steamed dumpling of Galician blond cow chop, accompanied by a slice of the meat itself and bathed in mole de noiva and tamarind. Together with him, a version of the mythical DiverXO dish of the salad at the bottom of the fridge, here interpreted as a liquid salad to refresh the intensity of the dumpling.
There's more in bite-sized format, like a new version of the well-known 'Cooked Hong Kong Madriz' with old clothes, fried chickpeas, bell pepper ham broth and black garlic alioli, a cold pickled ravioli stuffed with partridge and accompanied by sea urchin, a jalapeño, tomatillo and tobiko gazpacho or a hit from the opening, a reinterpretation of fried eggs with black pudding, which is prepared as a bite of black pudding, with quail egg and its fried lace on top and crispy ear with sweet and sour sauce. Not to mention a real wonder, their ode to corn, which they call steamed quesadilla and popcorn and it is a dumpling stuffed with huitlacoche, corn and mozzarella, which comes with a corn rib, -yes rib- with popcorn, to dip them in a butter masala sauce.
It's not a dumpling bar, it's not an Italian. Is much more.
Dabiz is a master of vibrant flavors, but also of the sauces and the masses. Ovation deserve too its two fluffy baths. One of them is filled with a Korean venison bolognese and its chorizo and gochujan fermented chili paste, which ends with grated Parmesan aged 24 months on top and a homemade sriracha sauce for dipping, the kind you never want to run out of. The other was also born in DiverXO, back in 2011, and is none other than a steamed muffin stuffed with trumpets in cream, finished with a skin of milk and grated fresh truffle and seasoned with a kosho mandarin sauce.
There is also in RavioXO pasta dishes, like a chinese arrabiata that is made with fettuccini al dente that passes through the wok and is accompanied by cherry tomatoes, semi-cured bonito tataki, homemade chili garlic and a citronella sauce or a wontollini soup, one of those that makes you stick your lips together made with a grouping chicken broth, which instead If you use the wonton dough, add some tortellini stuffed with mortadella and a carpaccio of shiitake and ginger.
Welcome to UniverseXO.
In RavioXO it is necessary to leave room for dessert. The sweet proposals follow the level of the salty ones. glorious is his fluid cake of white chocolate and egg yolks, an Etxebarri souffle-inspired dessert, with a filling reminiscent of Din Tai Fung's memorable Golden Lava Bun. Something lighter is his version of Japanese kakigori, a snow ice cream, filled with chocolate with a whipped cream of miso, caramel and chocolate cookies.
The food is unforgettable. What to pair it with? The liquid supply is up to the task. They propose to do it with their wines, selected by Miguel Angel Millan group sommelier or signature cocktails. RavioXO is also a cocktail bar, with drinks that come out of the bar that is located at the entrance of the restaurant, from which recipes with names as suggestive as the 'Dragon Ball Z' with mezcal, aperol, yellow chartreuse, chipotle and tangerine or its 'Without umami there is no paradise' based on tequila, pandan, turmeric, coconut and coriander. The feast is more than assured.
RavioXO: the new Dabid Muñoz.