Dining Information

We've reviewed Madrid's best places for eating and drinking and included bars, cafés, cervecerías (beer halls), marisquerías (seafood bars) and restaurantes. They have been divided simply between "tapas bars" and "restaurants", depending on whether they concentrate more on bar food or sit-down meals. Sometimes this division is arbitrary, as many places have a bar area, where you can get tapas, together with a more formal comedor (canteen) or restaurant out the back or upstairs. At almost any of our recommendations you could happily eat your fill - money permitting - though at bars madrileños usually eat just a tapa or share a ración of the house speciality, then move on to repeat the procedure down the road.

Restaurant prices in Madrid
As a rough guide, you'll be able to get a three-course meal with drinks in Madrid for:

Inexpensive Under €12 a head

Moderate €12-24 a head

Expensive €24 and upwards

But bear in mind that the lunchtime menú del día often allows you to eat for much less than the price category might lead you to expect; check the listings for details. Most - but by no means all - of the restaurants listed as "moderate" or "expensive" will accept credit/charge cards (tarjetas). If in doubt, phone ahead to check.

Cuisines
Madrid's restaurants and bars offer every regional style of Spanish cooking: Castilian for roasts (horno de asar is a wood-burning oven) and stews (such as the meat and chickpea cocido), gallego for seafood, andaluz for fried fish, Levantine (Valencia/Alicante) for paella and other rice (arroz)-based dishes, Asturian for winter stews like fabada and Basque for the ultimate gastronomy (and correspondingly high prices).

Over the last few years, dozens of foreign cuisines have appeared. There are some good Peruvian, Argentinian, Middle Eastern and Italian places and a scattering of enjoyable Indonesian and Japanese restaurants. With a few honourable exceptions, though, Indian and Chinese restaurants are fairly dire, as too, alas, are most of the Mexican and Brazilian ones. There has also been an unfortunate rise of franchised restaurant chains and coffee bars.

Picnicking in the Casa de Campo aside, the west doesn't hold much in the way of culinary interest. However, two excellent restaurants deserve a mention.

Casa Mingo, Paseo de la Florida 2 - next to the chapel of San Antonio de la Florida tel 915 477 918; Métro: Príncipe Pío. Famous Asturian café-restaurant where you eat roast chicken - which is basically all they serve - washed down with sidra (cider), and followed up by yemas (candied egg yolk) or aged Roquefort-like cheese (cabrales). Good value and great fun. You can also buy a take-out (chicken and cider) for a picnic in the Casa de Campo, if you prefer. Moderate.

La Vaca Argentina, Paseo del Pintor Rosales 52 tel 915 596 605; Métro: Argüelles. Good views and great grilled steaks (churrasco) at this Argentinian restaurant overlooking the Parque del Oeste. Its terrace is a very pleasant place to eat in summer. Other branches at c/Bailén 20 tel 913 656 654; Métro: La Latina, c/Caños del Peral tel 915 413 318; Métro: Ópera, and Ribera del Manzanares 123 tel 915 593 780; Métro: Princípe Pío with a fine riverside terrace. Moderate.

Madrid can be an intimidating city for veggies, given the mass of ham, fish and seafood on display in bar and restaurant windows and on counters. However, you can order vegetables separately at just about any restaurant in the city - Argentine steakhouses, perhaps, excepted - and there is good pizza and pasta to be had at a number of Italian places. You can even find the odd vegetarian paella.

More crucially, the capital now has half a dozen decent and inexpensive vegetarian restaurants, scattered about the centre. These include:

Al Natural, c/Zorilla 11 tel 913 694 709; Métro: Banco de España. Veggie and non-veggie food, including a very good mushroom and spinach pie. Excellent wines and a good-value menú del día at €7.50. Closed Sun night. Inexpensive to moderate.
Artemisa, c/Ventura de la Vega 4 tel 914 295 092; Métro: Sevilla; c/Tres Cruces 4 tel 915 218 721; Métro: Gran Vía. A popular place (you may have to wait for a table), best for its veggie pizzas and an imaginative range of salads. No smoking - even more of a novelty than veggie food in Madrid. Closed Sun night. Moderate.

Elqui, c/Buenavista 18 tel 914 680 462; Métro: Lavapíes/Antón Martín. Excellent vegetarian venue in the heart of Lavapíes. Light and very tasty main courses, imaginative soups and some great fruit-based drinks. There's a self-service lunch-time menú for €6.60. No smoking. Open Tues-Fri for lunch and Fri and Sat evenings.

El Estragón, Plaza de La Paja 10 tel 913 658 982; Métro: La Latina. Good vegetarian tapas, leek pie and chocolate cake. Economical menú del día at €7.20 (dinner menú is over double the price) and a fine setting on the edge of this ancient plaza. Inexpensive to moderate.

La Granja, c/San Andrés 11 tel 915 328 793; Métro: Bilbao/Tribunal. Good-value set menu that changes every day, offering a choice of soup, salad, a main dish of vegetables, rice and fruits topped with sauce, dessert and drinks. Open Mon-Wed 1.30-4.30pm & 9pm-midnight, Thurs-Sun 1.30-4.30pm. Inexpensive.

Vegetariano, c/Marqués de Santa Ana 34 tel 915 320 927; Métro: Tribunal. Excellent salads and Mediterranean vegetables. No smoking. Closed Sun night & Mon. Inexpensive.

Madrid has a number of cafés that are institutions. They serve food but are much more places to drink coffee, have a copa or caña, or read the papers. They're also a meeting place for the semi-formal tertulia - a kind of discussion/drinking group, popular among Madrid intellectuals of the past and revived in the 1980s. Many cafés also have summer - or all-year - terrazas (outside terraces), though be aware that sitting outside puts up the prices. Other cafés and pastelerias are simpler affairs, good places to grab a breakfast croissant or a teatime snack. Good choices include:

Café los Austrias, Plaza de Ramales Métro: Opera. Relaxing café with marble table-tops and dark-wood interior; a good stop after a visit to the Palacio Real.

Café Barbieri, c/Ave María 45 Métro: Lavapiés. Well-known café with a vaguely intellectual reputation. It's a relaxed place with unobtrusive music, lots of wooden tables, old-style decor, newspapers, and a wide selection of coffees.

Café El Botánico, c/Espalter/Plaza Murillo Métro: Atocha. A quiet place to sit with a drink, opposite the south entrance of the Prado.

Café Central, Plaza del Ángel 10 Métro: Sol. A jazz club by night but a regular café by day, again with newspapers supplied.

Café Comercial, Glorieta de Bilbao Métro: Bilbao. One of the city's most popular meeting points - a lovely traditional café, well poised for the Chueca/Santa Bárbara area.

Café del Espejo, Paseo de Recoletos 31 Métro: Colón. Opened in 1991 but you wouldn't guess it - mirrors, gilt, and a wonderful glass pavilion, plus a leafy outside terraza.

Café Gijón, Paseo de Recoletos 21 Métro: Banco de España. Famous literary café - and a centre of the intellectual/arty movida in the 1980s - decked out in Cuban mahogany and mirrors. Has a summer terraza.

Café Manuela Malasaña, c/San Vicente Ferrer 29 Métro: Tribunal. Wonderful mirrors and fittings and a very civilized atmosphere, with live piano music and tertulias , in different languages, most nights.

Café de Oriente, Plaza de Oriente 2 Métro: Ópera. Elegant, traditional-style café founded a decade or so ago by a priest, as part of a charity rehab programme for ex-convicts. Has a popular terraza.

Círculo de Bellas Artes, c/Alcalá 42 Métro: Banco de España. Day membership to the Círculo is €0.60, which gives you access to exhibitions, and to a most luxurious bar, where you can loll on sofas and have drinks at normal prices. Outside, in summer, there's a comfortable terraza.

Croissantería, c/Corredera Alta de San Pablo - just off Plaza San Ildefonso Métro: Tribunal. Some of the best stuffed croissants in the city, plus ice cream and coffee.

La Mallorquina, Puerta del Sol 2 Métro: Sol. Good for breakfast or snacks - try one of their napolitanas (cream slices) in the sunny upstairs salon.

Yenes, c/Mayor 1 Métro: Sol. Wedge yourself on to a bar stool and enjoy a fine array of cakes and croissants; less bustling than La Mallorquina opposite.