What to eat in Madrid

Madrid is five hundred kilometres from the sea and has the second largest fish market in the world — fish arrives overnight by lorry and is on the stall by morning. That explains half the menus in town, and why a bar here serves what elsewhere is coastal food.

The clock before everything

Arrive at a restaurant at seven in the evening and you will sit alone. Kitchens open around nine, fill at ten, and run to midnight. Lunch is shifted the same way: the menú del día is served from two to four and is the best value in the city — three courses, bread and a drink at a fixed price (€11–18), on weekdays.

Tapas in Madrid are not tapas in Granada

Here they are ordered from a menu and paid for. You order one at a time, standing at the bar, then move to the next place — La Latina and Cava Baja are built for it. Sitting at a table usually means a larger portion and a larger price; when it is busy, it is also the only option.

GuideTapas where they come free — Granada?Granada →

3 daysHow the meals fit into three days:Madrid in 3 days →

What to order

• Bocadillo de calamares (€4–4.50) — fried squid in a roll, around Plaza Mayor. A landlocked city, and this is its street classic.
• Cocido madrileño — a winter three-course meal from one pot. It wants the whole afternoon slot and is not eaten before going out.
• Tortilla de patatas — the only question is whether it is poco hecha, soft in the middle; in Madrid people usually ask for soft.
• Callos a la madrileña — tripe in a paprika stew with chorizo and blood sausage, simmered for hours; a classic tapa of old Madrid taverns, not tourist restaurants.
• Churros con chocolate — at five in the morning, in a place open since 1894 that runs right through the night from Thursday to Sunday. Night food, not breakfast.

Hidden gemsBars and places the guidebooks skip:Madrid off the tourist circuit: Goya's tomb, a ghost station and a weekend-only park →

Where not to

• Paella in Madrid. It is a Valencian dish; what is offered on the square is frozen and expensive.
• Sangria with a picture on the menu. That is a tourist signal, not a Madrid one: with tapas here it is wine or vermú de grifo, vermouth poured straight from the barrel.
• A restaurant on Plaza Mayor. Except for one bocadillo and one beer — everything else is better and cheaper two streets away.

FoodPaella where it was born — and why it's a lunchtime dish:What to eat in Valencia →