Everyone talks about Casa Isabella, everyone has been or has a reservation at Casa Isabella, everyone asks me how was Casa Isabella... And his explanation is so much commotion: Grupo Isabella's has just opened its first store in Madrid and it is, plain and simple, the italian house where we want to stay to live.
They say out there that "There is no place like home" And how right they are. So when we host, we always try that our guests “feel at home”. It is even more difficult to achieve this in a hotel or restaurant. Well, as they also say out there, Casa Isabella has beaten the game.
Located in the Puigcerda street, in the heart of the Salamanca district, Isabella House It has five cozy spaces in which to try its Italian market cuisine with Mediterranean touches, lengthen after meals while the heat subsides and enjoy the Madrid summer nights in one of the most charming corners of the capital.
Homemade food and top quality product.
WHO IS ISABELLA?
If we are going to eat at your house, what less than introduce ourselves properly: who is Isabella? Isabella's Group is a business adventure based on love and deep respect for the Traditional Italian food and the Mediterranean product that started in Barcelona with the help of isabella hesseltine and currently led by his son Marco Gari.
Of English father, French mother and born in Rome, Isabella has lived in Barcelona for more than 30 years: “Everything I know, I learned from my mother and the mothers of my friends in Italy. Thus, I learned to love cooking, I understood that preparing a dish does not only consist of combining ingredients in a precise way, it consists of fall in love through the mouth, by smell, by sight” she says.
The first restaurant opened in 2010 on Carrer de Ganduxer and was called Isabella's. "With him, I finally saw my dream come true." But our protagonist kept dreaming, and making her dreams come true. After Isabella's, they arrived Bella's, Harry's, Juliet's, Gala, Carmine and the hotel Isabella's House in Barcelona and, in Porto, the restaurant Valentine's.
Her last daydream took her to Madrid, where she has managed turn a place into a cozy home to which we want to return again and again.
The roof terrace, where you can see without being seen.
AND WHEN I ARRIVE HOME...
“Here, dishes are shared, friendships are celebrated and after-meal conversations never end” , they say at Casa Isabella, whose concept dates back to the beginnings of Heseltine, that she enjoyed inviting her friends to endless dinners at home.
This hospitality, innate and impeccable, together with the love that the family has always had for Madrid, is the origin of the restaurant, distributed over three floors and Decorated like an Italian house from the 80's.
The interior design, eclectic as well as welcoming, has been commissioned Dalla Polvere, the studio founded by Monica Colominas and Patrizia Casarini in Barcelona and that also signs the rest of the premises of the Isabella's Group.
How could it be otherwise, space is made up of the rooms of a house, beginning with the terrace at street level, which gives way to ground floor lounge, in which we find a large reclaimed marble fireplace, a bar, comfortable sofas on a warm maroon rug, all surrounded by a romantic atmosphere dominated by candles, vases, William Morris wallpapers and one-of-a-kind pieces of furniture.
The Dalla Polvere studio has been in charge of the interior design.
On the first floor we find the heart of Casa Isabellla: the kitchen-dining room, with a red and white tiled floor, Italian mother-of-pearl lamps, floral carpet, armchairs and of course, a kitchen with its countertop, its cupboard, its cutlery and all the appliances that you can imagine. don't lose sight the bookstore, nestled behind the dining table and filled with small relics in the form of books, picture frames, encyclopedias, and decorative objects.
On the upper floor, no detail has been left to chance. Here they wait for us the bedroom and the bathroom, with canopy beds included –as a mattress–, elegant cushions, a bedside table with its corresponding lamp, chandeliers and... yes, that thing you see hanging on the wall, next to the picture of the bathtub, is a towel.
The upper floor also has a hydraulic floor terrace from which to enjoy the views of Puigcerdá street and the sky of Madrid.
Oh right! We had come to eat! Do not talk more: choose stay and good appetite!
Casa Isabella's kitchen.
ITALIAN HEART, MEDITERRANEAN ESSENCE
Isabella's family recipes, applauded ad nauseam at the original Isabella's in Barcelona, are the stars of the menu, where The product quality.
A product that is often brought directly from the italian producers that once a year they receive the family in their homes for lunch or dinner and choose the raw material that will later end up in the Casa Isabella kitchen.
Thus, emblematic dishes of the group could not be missing, such as the truffled fettuccini or the sirloin tagliata with rosemary and parmesan.
But let's go by parts and start with the starters, or c as they call it in Italy, the antipasti. At Casa Isabella, the concept of to share it floods everything and its section of dishes to snack on and start whetting your mouth confirms this.
Burrata Isabella's.
In it we find a Mediterranean cast made up of national classics –such as acorn-fed Iberian ham, coca with tomato (D.O. Extremadura) and anchovies from Santoña– and italians –such as the Isabella's burrata with arugula and tomato, the eggplant parmigiana and the Sicilian caponata– whose mixture will delight all diners.
Essential –and irresistible– are the gorgonzola croquettes with a jam base and those with oxtail and truffled pecorino.
Just as good options for sharing are the tomato from L'Empordà with straciatella, oil and salt, the courgette carpaccio with tomato jam and pine nuts and the truffled carbonara omelette.
Spaghetti alla carbonara.
ISABELLA'S PASTA
The only drawback we see pasta section Isabella is that it is impossible to choose just one dish. Faced with this dilemma, two solutions: order several and share or come back again and again to try them all!
Special mention deserve the pesto tagliatelle with crispy parmesan, rigatoni alla nona and the spaghetti with crab.
Spaghetti with spider crab.
There's also ravioli –burrata with cherry tomatoes or tartufo–, penny –all'arrabiata or alla vodka–, pachery –with pomodoro, basilico and mozzarella–... and many more options.
And it doesn't end here, the meat section is another obligatory stop, because, along with the famous tagliata, they offer succulent dishes such as wagyu burger with fries, the Harry's Bar capaccio, the chicken pallarda or the elephant ear
Do you prefer fish? The bluefin tuna tartare with avocado, the round and round salmon with Cipriani-style vegetables and the beach sole with snow peas will not disappoint you.
Tuna tartare with avocado.
THERE SALUTE!
We have said that at Casa Isabella the after-meals are lengthened ignoring the hands of the clock, and the desserts –accompanied by a good espresso and a glass– They are a good way to accompany the conversation.
Those with a sweet tooth will have their mouths watering with Nutella crepes with dulce de leche ice cream, Neapolitan baba with rum and cream syrup and the Choco Jungle cake!
Infinite desktops at Casa Isabella.
If you prefer something “lighter”, there are also ice cream, sorbets, fine apple pie or the infallible tiramisu.
To toast, the wine list includes a wide selection of Italian, Spanish and French wines, from the most classic to the occasional young promise. Hello there!
The terrace at street level of Casa Isabella.
PRACTICAL DATA
Address: Calle de Puigcerda, 4, 28001 Madrid
Schedule: open every day of the week from 1pm.
Telephone: 919 54 69 54
We have a new neighbor on Puigcerdá street.