Food & Wine in Madrid Tour
Our attention for this trip is on the exciting epicurean offerings in Spain’s capital. There is no shortage of things to do and see in Madrid but eating & wine tasting will take you to the heart of this quintessential Spanish city. We’ll start you off with a private wine tasting to acclimate your palate the range of Spanish wines available or to help you learn about any wine regions you plan to visit. Then fill your days with cultural tours and great eating. What could be better?
Trip At A Glance
5 Days / 4 nights
Madrid – 5 days
Madrid
When you land in Madrid you can really feel that this is a powerful city. The Spanish capital was built exactly in the middle of the country, much to the chagrin of locals trying to get to the beach for their summer vacation. Yet when you visit, you won’t mind, because Madrid has everything you could want. Great hotels, restaurants, boutiques and especially museums are everywhere. A huge old center is great to get lost in, with neighborhoods from swanky to multicultural to alternative. People from all over Spain and all over the world have shaped the city, yet the old Madrid still asserts itself. The culture of the capital won’t be globalized away, even as Madrid proves year after year that it is one of Europe’s great cities. The city's greatness comes not in spite of but because of its deeply Spanish character, a city where the language and customs of the country are defined but also preserved. Spain is not Madrid, but Madrid is very much a microcosm of Spain.
Dining in Madrid
Madrid’s food scene once lived in the shadow of the famous tables of San Sebastián and Barcelona, but no longer. Traditionally, every indicator from press coverage to Michelin stars to chef star power tilted towards the Basque and Catalan food capitals. Madrid has asserted itself, both by developing its own cuisines and local talent to new heights and by attracting the best chefs from around Spain to the city. Today all eyes are on Madrid, firmly established as a global food city on all fronts.
The first pillar of Madrid’s food strength is the regional Spanish restaurants of the city. Madrid has long been Spain’s main internal migration destination, bringing populations to the capital from every corner of the country. This has led to the proliferation of restaurants serving the best of Spain's regional cuisines. Thus, Madrid has long been an excellent place to eat Galician, Asturian, Basque, Valencian, or Andalusian dishes. Dishes from around the country have come to form the foundation of Madrid’s cuisine.
From this traditional regional repertoire innovation has emerged. Many young chefs at the casual fine dining restaurants of Madrid’s “bistronomica” movement are working with recipes and ingredients from all over Spain. Others are blending far-flung Spanish flavors with influences from Latin America and Japan, whose cuisine has long been revered by Spanish chefs. This flood of groundbreaking new restaurants and the awards and accolades that have followed has helped draw the country’s regional stars to the capital, with top chefs like Quique Dacosta, Dani García, and Rafa Zafra choosing Madrid as the location for flagship openings.
The city’s culinary creativity has also brought about the refinement of typical Castilian dishes from the surrounding provinces. Classical Madrid cuisine pulls heavily from the carnivorous repertoire of the Spanish meseta, as seen in hearty dishes like Madrid-style tripe. But today, Madrid’s chefs are showcasing a different kind of countryside bounty. There's an exciting new native cuisine that highlights fresh local vegetables, wild products like mushrooms and pine nuts, and wild game. With a light touch and close contact with farmers, chefs in and around the capital are helping to forge a product cuisine that embraces and enhances the native. In a region where the most respected dishes once were from far away, this newfound identity has allowed locavore chefs and restaurants to define a new Madrid cuisine and reach world-class status.
On the blog: Madrid Wine Bars
Day 1 - Madrid: The City of Art & Great Food
Lunch at Poncio
Off Madrid’s beaten path, near the expanse of the Retiro park, Chef Willy Moya’s Poncio combines the fun of shared plates of tapas with the creativity and excellence of fine dining; a feat done by few. French-trained Spanish chef Willy Moya made a name for himself with technically precise dishes combining unique flavors at his restaurants in Sevilla. He was an executive chef in Turkey, giving him new inspiration and flavors to work with. He’s in the capital now, dedicating his years of experience to making Poncio shine. It’s a small restaurant, with an intimate indoor dining room, a few high tables, and a relaxing outdoor terrace. It’s the kind of place that puts you immediately at ease and in the mood to enjoy a great meal.
The menu at Poncio showcases Willy’s creativity and experience in a tapas-style format, where there are no first or second courses and the best plan of action is to order a selection of plates. Rather than miscellaneous Spanish tapas, each dish is flavorful, characterful, unique. You’ll find excellent product from Andalusia like tuna, seafood, and top-tier Iberian pork. Seasonal vegetables play a big role here as well. Fundamentally, each dish is a creation, often combining flavors that wouldn't come together in the traditional Spanish repertoire. It’s the kind of joyful, creative cuisine that makes you want to try everything on the menu. Whether you order a selection of plates or opt for the “What Willy Says” menu, you’re going on a culinary journey.
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, naturally, is well-selected and in line with Poncio’s philosophy and Willy’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. At Poncio, everything comes together to create a deeply satisfying and always interesting dining experience.
Private Wine Tasting
Step inside one of Madrid’s exclusive wine shops for shop private tasting of Spanish wines accompanied by tapas. The owner has decades of experience working with Spain’s top wineries and carries a wide range of rare bottles. The tasting will provide an introduction to Spanish wine, or it could focus on one or two Spanish regions. From iconic bottles to small-production experimental wines, you can taste them here.
Dinner at Desde 1911
Madrid is famously and counterintuitively one of the best places to eat seafood in Spain. Blindingly fast transport brings the best product from the Spanish coastal ports to the capital, where it stocks enormous fish markets and the menus of the city’s elite seafood restaurants. If there is one company associated with the success of this process, it's the legendary Pescaderías Coruñesas, a family seafood distributor of Galician origin whose specialty is providing Madrid with the absolute best seafood from across Spain. Coruñesas brings in every imaginable kind of fish, shellfish, and otherworldly sea creature daily. Of course, once you have the best product, why not open your own restaurant?
Enter Desde 1911, the self-proclaimed “best port in Madrid” whose focus of high caliber seafood and amazing service earned them a Michelin star in 2023. Desde 1911 is a restaurant whose daily changing menu mirrors the day’s bounty of fish and seafood flown in from the coasts. The Desde 1911 team has full access to the seafood brought in daily, and choose the best pieces from it. The products come first, and the menu is created from scratch daily around those products, a fact which makes the creative menus served at Desde 1911 all the more impressive.
Desde 1911 is tasting menu restaurant. You can vary the number of first courses if you like, though why you would opt for less than all of them is unclear. There are no misses here. From clams and shrimp to lobster and sea urchin, each single plate could be a star in another show. The star of this show, however, is a delicately cooked whole fish. It could be turbot, sea bream, or another of Spain’s impressive specimens. The fish is usually baked and accompanied by a sauce made at the table in a custom-built press for maximum flavor. Not only is this likely the best fish you can eat in Madrid on any given day, it surpasses what many coastal restaurants can muster!
The experience can go on and on, though. You can opt to enjoy world-class caviar, or go straight for the cheese cart with its wide-ranging selection of greats cured by Desde 1911 themselves. The desserts come on a cart as well, the final (solid) stage of a meal that feels like a perfectly calibrated machine to maximize joy on the palate.
The liquid cannot be neglected. Desde 1911’s impressive wine cellar offers plenty of wines from small producers and unknown regions that can accompany the most exciting seafood dishes, but there’s also something for the more classically minded: a collection of extensive verticals of some of Spain’s finest wines: Vega Sicila, Viña Tondonia, Marqués de Murrieta and more. You’ll find some of Spain’s greatest wines from their greatest vintages dating back, in some cases, more than a century. It’s fitting that this fundamentally hedonistic place would have such wines. It is, after all, a place to have a meal that the Spanish would dub un homenaje.
Day 2 - Madrid Walking Tour, Tapas & Flamenco
Madrid Walking Tour & Spanish Royal Palace
Explore the historic districts of Madrid with a private guide before a tour of the magnificent Spanish Royal Palace. See the the Writers Quarter, where Spain’s great authors like Cervantes and Quevedo once spent their time. Then, head into the oldest part of the city, where narrow streets lead to hidden plazas lined with architectural jewels whose history is intertwined with that of the city and of Spain as a whole. Your stroll through the city will end at the Royal Palace, built in the 18th century as the home of the Spanish kings. This 18th-century marvel is the largest royal palace in Europe, featuring over three thousand rooms in total. The rooms you’ll visit feature decoration and furnishings contributed by past kings of Spain and a priceless collection of paintings from masters like Caravaggio, Goya, and Velázquez. The collection of arms and armor belonging to Spanish kings and notable historical figures is unmissable.
Lunch at Taberna Laredo
Taberna Laredo is beloved by its loyal clientele for an unrelenting dedication to good food, good wine and a joyful atmosphere. This tapas bar and restaurant in the local dining destination neighborhood of Ibiza is a family affair, with the three Laredo brothers in charge. They’ve built a following for 25 years by serving up unpretentious seasonal Spanish cuisine. The bar area is legendary, with couples and groups devouring plates washed down with glasses of wine from the long and well-chosen glass list. In the back, a quieter restaurant area, perfect for long lunches and bottles of wine from the long wine list. The menu is the same, a mixture of seasonal dishes that showcase the best vegetables, meat and seafood available and classic dishes like the salmorejo (thick gazpacho topped with Iberian ham) and the rabbit ribs with herbs, a must-order. Laredo is a local favorite for a reason, and a great reason to go a little off the beaten track in Madrid.
Dinner: Flamenco Show & Dinner
Corral de la Morería has been hosting world-class flamenco performances for many years, and additionally houses a Michelin star restaurant. First, step inside the tiny restaurant hidden near the venue’s entrance. Inside you’ll find just four tables at which to revel in chef David García’s elegant seasonal cuisine. The tasting menu dinners served here are creative and surprising, but it’s not just the food that’s exceptional. Corral de la Morería has one of the largest selections of sherry wines in the world, including old bottlings dating back decades, and the diverse wine cellar has more than a thousand different wines available. You can opt for one of the wine pairings with dinner or order wines à la carte.
After dinner, it’s time to head into the main room for the best flamenco show in the city. For decades, Corral de la Morería has attracted the biggest stars in the flamenco world to its stage and the most discerning enthusiasts to enjoy the shows. The expert guitarists, singers, dancers, and other flamenco artists who perform make a night here an essential experience in the capital.
Day 3 - Madrid and the Art of the Long Lunch
Prado Museum & Reina Sofía Private Art Tour
Meet your art specialist guide at your hotel. Walk or take a taxi to the Prado Museum for a private guided visit. You may want to focus on Goya and Velázquez, or other artists in the vast collection. Spain’s great art museum and one of the finest in the world, the Prado Museum is a must-see for any art lover visiting Madrid. The sprawling 18th-century building holds an enormous collection of paintings, sculptures, and other works by the great masters and lesser known artists, including the largest collection of paintings by the Italian masters outside Italy. Spain’s greatest painters are well represented, including numerous works by Goya and Velázquez. Touring the Prado with a private art expert guide is the perfect way to make sure that you see the most important works housed in the museum and understand their context. Afterwards cross the Paseo del Prado to visit the Museo Reina Sofía to see Picasso’s Guernica as well as a fine collection of modern art.
Lunch at 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 to prepare a selection for them when they dine here. Sacha himself is usually to be found regaling diners and making recommendations, so you're in good hands here.
Dinner at Casa Alberto
If there is a single spot at the heart of traditional Madrid cuisine, it has to be Casa Alberto. Behind the red façade on Calle Huertas in Madrid’s Letras district lies a bar with an adjuct dining room that transports you back in time. The bar is in the same location where Miguel de Cervantes lived and wrote part of Don Quixote. The tapas bar in the front consists of a bar and a few small tables with tiny stools where you can order drinks and tapas surrounded by enthusiastic locals and adventurous travelers. If you prefer to be able to reserve, there’s a dining room in the back, but the bar is the heart of Casa Alberto. Order their house vermouth or your drink of choice and dive into a menu full of Madrid classics. For the carnivorous, you’ll find top-tier examples of dishes like Madrid-style tripe, stewed bull’s tail or veal meatballs, but Casa Alberto also serves light dishes like gazpacho, excellent salads, and daily specials of fish and seafood. It’s the perfect place to have a tapa or a whole meal, and the best single destination to taste and see Madrid as it once was.
Day 4 - Modern Madrid
Lunch at Osa
Osa, Madrid’s most exciting new restaurant opening, is just a short drive from the city center, but it feels a world away from the rush of the city. Down a residential street lined with one and two-story houses in the Colonia de Manzanares, a nondescript gate in front of what was, until recently, another house in this quiet riverfront area. Passing through the gate you’re in a lush patio with an outdoor smoker, glass doors leading into the dining room and a spiral staircase to the upstairs curing area, wine cellar, and private space for diners to open some wine and relax before or after their meal. Osa is an oasis, like a private home with understated design and an upbeat yet relaxed feel, including the dining room with views of the open kitchen.
Two world-class young talents, veterans of the Spanish food scene, are the founders of Osa: chefs Sara Peral and Jorge Muñoz. With experience at restaurants like Mugaritz and Diverxo, they spent two years planning and preparing Osa to be their personal space for culinary expression and dining excellence. Clearly their vision hit a nerve, because Osa’s opening has lit up Madrid. In a global city with its share of cookie-cutter menus and pretentious spots, a restaurant that’s as honest as Osa is radical. Serious, passionate cuisine with the skill to match, nothing more, nothing less.
What does Osa’s vision look like? There’s one tasting menu here, though one gets the impression Peral and Muñoz would do away with it if not for practicality. The menu selections vary with the seasons, but the Osa team has described their cuisine as “Spanish product, French technique and Japanese sensibility.” Each dish is a study in an ingredient; the techniques all seem to be in service of helping the product shine, whether it’s fish, a pepper or a wild game bird. Some of these techniques are beyond the usual capabilities of a restaurant, especially the curing, aging and smoking, all of which is done in house. The result is mesmerizing, allowing ingredients to become more than themselves, revealing a character hidden deep inside them. At Osa the presentations are impeccable and simple. The idea is that you focus on what you taste and feel when you eat each pared down dish. The chefs are trying to bring out the essence of each product
The other aspects of dining at Osa are focused on liberating diners rather than dictating to them. Thus Osa’s different spaces exist for guests to enjoy, not to be marched through. The kitchen is visible and easily accessible. The service is exactly what you want, fast and helpful and precise but with confident relaxation. The freedom extends to the wine list. Osa has a tasting menu but no wine pairing, or anything pairing. Once you look at the wine list you may see why: it’s a tome featuring a fascinating selection of wines from around the world. The Spanish sections are stunning, full of wines from tiny growers, classic bottlings, and special vintages of some of the country’s greatest wines. Artadi, López de Heredia, Vega Sicilia, and Álvaro Palacios share space with the artisans like Dominio del Águila, Nin-Ortiz, and Casa Castillo. If you want to stick to Spain, you’ll have plenty to work with no matter how many wines you want. Dig deeper and you’ll find world-class non-Spanish selections, with a special focus on France and the Italian Piedmont. You could enjoy rare grower and old vintage Champagnes, Grand Cru Burgundy, Bordeaux verticals, Rhone and Loire selections, cult Barolos and Barbarescos, and even iconic wines from the New World. Madrid wine broker Fernando Cuenllas, wine partner of the restaurant, helped source the cellar, including contributing many bottles from his personal collection acquired at auction. From Sherry and vintage Champagne to Sake and Cognac, the drinks list is a marvel, and the staff is ready to help you find the perfect bottle no matter your taste.
Private Cocktails With a Master
Inside one of Madrid’s most exciting cocktail bars you’ll meet with the owner and master maker to make some classic cocktails–and have the bar to yourselves to consume them. A complete lujo!
Day 5 - Departure
Food & Wine in Madrid Tour
Trip Information
Hotel
Madrid - 4 nights
Hotel Único - One of the benchmarks for luxury accommodation in Madrid, the Hotel Único is in the heart of Salamanca, the ritziest neighborhood in central Madrid. The Único offers incredible privacy and discretion, making it a popular bolthole for recognizable guests. You have everything you might want available in the hotel: a restaurant from Michelin star chef Ramon Freixa, a superb cocktail bar, a spa, even an outdoor terrace. If you want to get away from the business of Madrid, the Único is a perfect choice.
Hotel Mandarin Oriental Ritz - The renovated Mandarin Oriental Ritz, Madrid’s first and most legendary luxury hotel, has brought the city’s hotel scene up by combining the unbeatable architecture and location of the original Ritz with Mandarin Oriental’s updated luxury. The Ritz, founded with the help of the Spanish king by César Ritz, father of the modern luxury hotel, has a long association with royalty, politicians, and glamorous types from around the world. The impressive building lies in the heart of Madrid, just steps from the Prado and Reina Sofia Museums and all the attractions of the heart of the city while offering privacy and calm. Today, the hotel is returned to, or perhaps surpasses, it’s belle-epoque prime.
After years of expensive and precise renovation, the Mandarin Oriental Ritz is ready to welcome Madrid’s most discerning visitors. The public areas, from the lobby to the numerous dining and social areas, are impeccably decorated, retaining the soul of the building while bringing the standards up to modern high luxury. The rooms, numerous and varied, use natural materials and tasteful furnishings while emphasizing the classic feel of the hotel. Staff are unsurprisingly attentive, well-trained and, in accordance with the stature of the Ritz name in the city, impeccably dressed.
The Ritz has a storied history of fine dining, and the reopened property has spared no expense to reclaim this role. Quique Dacosta, famed for his eponymous three Michelin star restaurant in Alicante, is in charge of the hotel's numerous restaurants. The centerpiece is Deessa, where Dacosta’s personal involvement with a talented staff have garnered two Michelin stars in as many years. Beyond the Michelin stars, you’ll find less formal dining options in the glass-roofed Palm Court Restaurant and in the relaxing garden. The most unusual dining option must be the Champagne Bar, an 8-person space where Chef Dacosta has created a menu of luxurious small bites, available separately or in a tasting menu, to pair with Champagne. If you need a glass of Dom Perignon and a can of world-class caviar, they have it. Don’t miss the Pictura cocktail bar, where you can enjoy classic and creative cocktails or choose from an extensive spirit menu.
Trip Includes
4 nights hotel, double occupancy
breakfast daily in the hotel
expert private guides
private premium wine tasting
restaurant reservations and recommendations
full trip planning
in-country trip assistance and on-the-ground support
Epicurean Ways expertise
Not Included
flights to/from Spain and flights within Spain
tips to guides and drivers (optional but appreciated)
travel insurance (recommended)
extra charges in hotels (minibar, room service, etc)
Optional
private airport transfers
A note on restaurant selections and hotels
All tours, experiences and hotels are subject to availability and will be confirmed upon booking the trip.
We include restaurant concierge service as part of your trip. Note that our restaurant suggestions are just that–suggestions. Places we love, places to go back to time after time. We recommend these places after years of experience eating in Spain and Portugal together with frequent research and input from our local partners. We aspire to guide your choices with information on the styles of cuisine and restaurants; the choice on where to eat is yours based on your preferences and desires.
We have included hotel options ranging from 5-star luxury properties to small boutique hotels. Let us know your preferences and we will tailor the hotel choices for you.
Trip Prices
Note that we can customize this trip for you. Add days in your arrival or departure city or in other locations or make changes to the experiences, winery visits, restaurants, or hotels included in the trip. Whatever it is, we’re here to work with you. Once you’re happy with the trip plan and have some idea of your dates we will calculate and send you the price.