Eat & Drink

In this city the food is culture, entertainment and business. The cuisine is varied: in Madrid you can enjoy both home cooking and the most transgressive or innovative dishes.

You'll find in Madrid downtown many high cuisine fashion restaurants next door to old "tabernas" offering traditional homemade dishes and typical tapas, little appetizer that is served by the drink.

This is obviously the best choice for backpackers in Spain. You'll find these "Tabernas" at the oldest part of the capital: Cava Baja, Cava Alta and Cava de San Miguel streets, at La Latina quarter, or at the Puerta de Sol and America. They have hosted meetings of politicians, writers and musicians, maintaining its intellectual atmosphere with affordable prices.

At dinner hours, most traditional restaurants are always crowded. Among them, Casa Labra (Tetuan, 12), to take cod croquettes next to the Puerta del Sol, and Casa Paco (Plaza de Puerta Cerrada, 11), beyond the Plaza Mayor. At night, this is the best place to start a route through the district of La Latina, where you may find old tabernas as La Chata (Cava Baja, 24). The gastronomic walk through the area should continue towards the Taberna El Almendro (Almendro, 13), whose bagels stuffed with black pudding are an institution.

At Chueca and Malasaña districts, Baco y Beto (Pelayo, 24) has great homemade croquettes, La Ardosa (Colón, 13), great tapas and one of the places that best serve a Guiness!

The Thyssen Bornemisza Museum, the Royal Theatre, the Costume Museum and the Reina Sofía Art Center offer the possibility to enjoy not only their art collections, but also to discover another kind of art: gastronomy. The cheapest: Thyssen Paradis, where prices range from 13 euros the cheapest dish (smoked vichyssoise with cous-cous iodine, sea urchins and grapefruit emulsion).