Orignal: Ten Places I Would Never Eat or Drink in Madrid

I agree with the sentiment here, but there’s no need to list all the American food and drink chains. One line to omit all of these is enough. I might make one exception: Starbucks. Yeah, its a rip-off but if you’re with kids, and looking for a (please forgive me for mentioning this in Spain) smoke-free environment with a little space for trolley etc, there aren’t a lot of choices, and the café next door almost certainly isn’t one of them.

Always worth a read: 36 Hours in Madrid

I was out in Huertas the other night, it was as busy as ever, in fact busier since PhotoEspaña had set up a huge slide show in the middle of Plaza Santa Ana. The first priority was getting some food and drink. Finding a place to eat in Huertas is easy, but finding a place you want to eat is another question altogether. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of decent places to eat here, there are just plenty more places at aren’t decent. Anyway, one place I’d recommend, if you’re looking for something reasonably basic, and pretty authentic is Prada a Tope. This is a chain of restaurants that started in the Bierzo, León in northern Spain, that serves (not surprisingly) food and wine from that region. This food very much reflects the Bierzo area and tends to be made of quality local ingredients which are hearty and strong flavored. Typical dishes include roasted red peppers, cecina (cured beef), chorizo (spicy cured sausage), good potatoes, deserts made with chestnuts and red wine made from the local, and I think pretty unique, Mencia grape.

Food at Prada a Tope is served in the tapas tradition, i.e. you share from plates at the center of the table. You should be able to fill up for about €20 per person. It gets very crowded on busy nights.

MADRID Príncipe
TIENDA CASA DE COMIDAS
Príncipe, 11
Tfno. 914 295 921
www.pradaatope.es
Location on Google Maps

Finally, a mexican restaurant in Madrid that’s a little different, and even better than that: It’s good! Tacubaya is just up calle Ferraz from the “Templo del Debod”. The street front makes it look more like a champaign bar then a creative Mexican restaurant, but once you go in and up the stairs, its clear what this place is all about: Decent corn tortillas, creative use of Mexican ingredients and flavours, very pleasant service. The food uses many quality spanish ingredients (read Iberian pork), which I think is a good thing, but everything is prepared in Mexican tradition. Our dinner which consisted of a starter (lentils with fried corn-tortillas, cilantro and bacon), main couse, tacos de carnitas and fish baked in a lightly spicy sauce (adobo costeño.) – I don’t remember the variety but it was good, accompanied by beer (Bohemia). This came to about €20 per person.

You can sit at the bar and have margaritas and snacks, or you can have a full sit-down meal, with champagne.

My biggest complaint about the place was that it was not very busy and I’m worried it won’t last long enough for me to try everything on the menu.

Tacubaya
Calle Ferraz, 9
28008, Madrid
91 559 54 82
www.tacubaya.es
Tacubaya location on Google Map