Bistronomía: Casual Fine Dining in Madrid

Some of Madrid’s best restaurants are what is known in Spain as bistronomía. This concept, originating with the French bistronomie, can best be summarized as casual fine dining. These restaurants are typically led by talented chefs and serve elegant, sometimes modern dishes without feeling the need for the full fine dining package. Some serve dishes in a tapas format, others offer the chance to eat at the bar, and few focus on tasting menus. In Madrid’s democratic dining scene, bistronomía-style restaurants provide diners with the chance to enjoy world-class product and impeccable recipes without the commitment that might come with star-laden tables. Here are some of our picks to try.

Poncio

On a quiet plaza near Madrid’s expansive Retiro Park, Poncio leaves aside trendy locations and copycat creative menus for refreshingly personal and comfortable yet creative cuisine. It’s a small restaurant, a cozy dining room, a few high tables and a relaxing outdoor terrace. Behind Poncio is Willy Moya, a Madrid native trained at Le Cordon Bleu who made his name in the Andalusian capital Sevilla and held an executive chef position in Istanbul. At Poncio, Moya’s ability and personal touch is evident in every dish. Andalusian influences, classic Spanish flavors and techniques and a scent of the Middle East, together create a personal and comfortable fine dining experience.

Rather than appetizers and entrées, Poncio offers a menu of tapas-style plates, many designed to be shared. This brings a fun, relaxed atmosphere to dining here, a nod to the customs of southern Spain. The dishes, however, are distinctive, creative, unique. Spanish products and dishes take new forms, whether it’s Moya’s take on the classic salty gilda or Spanish tuna with a coconut ajoblanco. As you try dish after dish, each filled with deep and complex flavors, the idea of Poncio becomes clear: excellent food relaxed and without pretension.

A restaurant’s service and cellar can be the difference between palatable and great, and Poncio shines on both fronts. The service here is in the hands of Enrique, a singular talent with years of experience at Spain’s best fine-dining restaurants. At Poncio, this means highly personal and helpful attention, from wine recommendations to menu questions to whatever you might need. The wine list is well-selected and in line with Poncio’s philosophy and Moya’s experience. You’ll find over one hundred sherries available by the glass. These highly gastronomic Andalusian wines are beloved by Spanish sommeliers for their versatility, and they combine wonderfully with Poncio’s food. For other glass and bottle options, you’ll find a curated list of small producers from Spain’s most exciting regions, along with selections from outside Spain. Let the Poncio team guide you, or follow your palate to wherever it might lead you. The menu, drinks and service all come together at Poncio to let you relax and enjoy a great meal in good hands.

Sacha

Madrid is home to many of Spain’s best restaurants, from gleaming modern psychedelia to classical elegance, but Sacha, despite being neither, might be the most respected restaurant in the capital. The eponymous Sacha Hormaechea took over this Madrileño bistro from his parents, and in the intervening decades has become the chef’s chef, a man whose dishes are known and appreciated by the food intelligentsia in Spain and beyond. The secret is in a consistent combination of excellent ingredients, precise technique, and just the right amount of creativity. Sacha is not a modern or fancy restaurant, but each dish is carefully thought out.

Sacha is away from the bustle and glitz of central Madrid, occupying a cozy dining room and a seasonal patio in the northern neighborhood of Chamartín. Past the unassuming entrance, tables line a dining room whose walls are decorated with the sort of comforting memorabilia you might expect in someone's living room. Sit down and you're ready to enjoy the food that brings diners here from across the city, country and globe. The menu changes with the market and the season, but you can expect dishes that highlight Spanish recipes and Spanish ingredients with a special focus on fish and seafood. There are staples, however, including Sacha’s “lazy tortilla,” a Spanish tortilla cooked just on one side that has inspired homages for many years. There is a menu, but those in the know tend to ask Sacha himself to prepare a selection for them when they dine here. Sacha himself is often to be found regaling diners and making recommendations, so you're in good hands here.

Lakasa

North of Madrid’s city center, where the noise and crowds dissipate, replaced by spacious parks and gleaming apartment buildings, you can find some of Madrid’s best market cuisine at Lakasa. Chef Cesar Martín had ample experience when he opened the restaurant, but it’s here that his reputation has been cemented as the chef’s chef. The airy, comfortable dining room and bar with its open kitchen welcome lovers of unpretentious good eating day and night. Once you make your way here, it’s a rewarding pilgrimage.

What does Lakasa serve? That’s a question for their network of suppliers around Spain, who provide the material for the menu. Far beyond the fashionable respect many now show for local products, Lakasa profiles producers with in-depth interviews and transparency. There’s no secret sauce in the kitchen: you can read some of the restaurant’s classic recipes directly on their website. What makes the difference in Lakasa’s cooking are the fresh, carefully selected products prepared with the utmost reverence and expert technique. Each dish, many available in half portions, screams purity of flavor. The finest fish and meat from Spain’s agricultural regions are sure to be present, alongside produce that merits star treatment in its own right. Chef Martín has a particular proclivity for stunning wild game dishes.

The cooking draws people in, but it’s the atmosphere and service that keeps them coming back. The warm and helpful team is here to make sure you have a great experience. Even if it's your first time, you’ll feel right at home. There’s a deep wine cellar, including surprising wines from every corner of the wine world. You’ll always find a good selection by the glass. The important thing about Lakasa is the relaxation and freedom patrons feel. This is fine dining, but with the handcuffs removed. From a half portion or two at the bar with a glass of wine to a never-ending stream of plates and bottles, Lakasa delivers.

Casa Mortero

Casa Mortero brings the best of traditional Spanish cuisine to the table with a light touch and impeccable technique. Chef Pedro Gallego worked in top kitchens with the likes of Chef Sergi Arola before starting Casa Mortero in the heart of Madrid's old town. Subdued colors and natural materials brighten the open dining area. The vibe is casual and comfortable. Conversations bubble up while friendly staff explain and serve. The focus here is on the food and ensuring that diners enjoy themselves. Chef Gallego leans into the concept of guisos y brasas, “stews and grills,”; these are the dishes of old-school Spanish cooking, the kind that inspired Gallego and many other Spanish chefs to take up their profession. The critical acclaim the restaurant has received shows just how much value there is in heritage recipes when they’re made with love and talent.

Start your meal with classic Spanish tapas. From ham croquetas to ensaladilla and the luscious torreznos (thick fried bacon typical of Castilla), you can taste the core dishes of the Spanish tapas repertoire here. Then it’s on to the guisos, where a steady hand and low heat create depth and complexity of flavor, from hearty meatballs or duck rice to ethereal clams with a sauce you’ll want to drink. Then it’s on to the grill, where meat, fish, and seafood shine, accompanied by elegant sauces. The menu is short, but once you taste the food here you’ll want to try everything on it.

The care taken in the kitchen is matched by the short and excellent wine list. There's a special focus on small producers from around Spain here. The complex flavors of the dishes call for talented pairing. From Sherry and sparkling wine to wines that highlight the indigenous grapes of Galicia, central Spain, or the Canary Islands, you're sure to find something new and exciting to drink here. Of course, there are fine arch-traditional wines too, classics from Rioja, Ribera del Duero and Rías Baixas.

La Tasquita de Enfrente

Tucked away on a humble street off Madrid’s central artery, the Gran Vía, lies one of Spain’s great temples to good eating: La Tasquita de Enfrente. This restaurant was founded by the parents of current proprietor Juanjo López as a casa de comidas serving traditional Spanish dishes. After a career in the corporate world, Juanjo returned to the family restaurant with the most important asset a for a restaurateur: a well-developed palate. Under his leadership, the once-humble eatery has developed into one of the city’s most respected restaurants.

The restaurant itself is very simple: a bar and a small dining area with neither ornate decoration nor distractions. It’s the food that people come here for. There’s an a la carte menu and a tasting menu. The cuisine here is defined in relation to the pinnacle of seasonal products available from the best producers in the country, with whom Juanjo maintains long-term relationships. Each dish usually contains no more than a handful of ingredients, just the right balance to bring out the essence of the star product. There are classics like the ensaladilla with caviar or the fried eggs with potato and lobster, but everything here varies with what is in season, so the way to decide your order is to listen to Juanjo’s explanations when you are seated. The best peas, asparagus, artichokes, prawns, clams, wild game, and more make their way into La Tasquita’s kitchen and onto plates for the most discerning diners in the city. There’s no fusion here, just a nearly minimalist and opinionated take on the best of Spain.

You can put yourself in the sommelier’s hands here, for the cellar is deep, with strong representation of France and the best wines of Spain. Champagne, Sherry, Rioja, Galicia, or whatever strikes your fancy. At a restaurant dedicated to the best of the best, the wine has to be up to the task.

Overall, La Tasquita de Enfrente is a restaurant for the true food lover. There’s nothing remotely flashy about the place, but you can spend as much as you like here if you go for it. It plugs into that Spanish gastronomic tradition that defines the best restaurants of many regions, where you pay for product and worship it as it arrives. Homenajes, as they say.

La Bien Aparecida

Over the last few years, La Bien Aparecida has quietly become one of Madrid’s elite restaurants. Young chef José de Dios worked with the world’s best chefs, including the legendary Michel Bras, before taking the reins of this restaurant. His talent is immense, but the experience here is direct and focused on quality over pretension. The comfortable space in the manicured Salamanca district offers a grounded menu based on fresh products with special proclivities for vegetables and seafood from Spain’s northern coast.

At La Bien Aparecida you can enjoy world-class versions of Spanish classics from croquetas and Cantabrian anchovies to Spanish rices. Perfect technique and fresh product help simple recipes sing. But there’s more here than meets the eye. The menu also gives room to de Dios’s creativity and technical proficiency in dishes that are absolute originals. He uses traditional ingredients such as cod or eggplant or mushrooms in creative ways to develop dishes that are unforgettable. Any single one of these dishes could put the restaurant on the map, but delivering this selection so consistently is what makes this a restaurant that even the city’s other chefs respect and enjoy. Whether you order for yourself or opt for the tasting menu, this is a place where eating well is no joke.

The wine cellar is extensive and well-curated. France is well represented, unsurprisingly given the chef’s experience there, but the Spanish wine selection is impressive even in Madrid. Famous names and expensive vintages mingle with carefully chosen bottlings from small and creative winemakers in regions big and small. There is the option to include a wine pairing with the tasting menu, a good way to explore, but if you’re choosing your own glasses or bottles you will have plenty to work with here.

Ático

Leña

Dani García’s grilling restaurant Leña has become one of uptown Madrid’s beloved dining spots. In the spirit of García’s move away from molecular cuisine, Leña focuses on grilled meat, from Iberian pork and Spanish lamb to a selection of excellent chuletón steaks, but you’ll also find other grilled classics from García’s creative mind, from chicken to leeks and peppers. The cozy dining room and wine list full of unicorn wines make Leña a complete package.