Useful tips for restaurants and eating out

Check our pointers on dining customs and useful terms / food dictionary to make eating out in Madrid hassle-free. We have added a collection of articles about spanish food which you may find interesting, especially if you’re looking for a gift idea for the gourmand back home.

Given the love of meat, vegetarian restaurants are thin on the ground, but their numbers are increasing steadily. A healthy selection of international styles is available in the city.

Tapas, one of Spain’s great contributions to world’s gastronomy has a section of its own. For the most informal setting, tapas or snacks can be had with a drink in most bars and cafes, a good way to sample a large variety of tastes in a short time. There is also a section on Madrid’s famous dish, Cocido, which should not be missed.

It’s perhaps a little surpising that a city like Madrid, with such a large variety and depth of local and Spanish food, doesn’t have a wider choice of international restaurants. There’s certainly no shortage of American fast food chains and their Spanish imitations, or bargain chinese restaurants but finding good quality, genuine ethnic food can be something of a challenge. We compiled a list of what we think are some of the better choices in town, but if you know of somewhere we’ve left out, make sure to let us know.

If you´re looking for ingredients to cook your own ethnic (non-Spanish) food, refer the to international food in the shopping section.

Dining customs

Breakfast

This is usually eaten in a bar and most madrileños have little more than a coffee (there is a description of the various coffees in the food dictionary) and a sweet roll or croissant for breakfast. Freshly squeezed orange juice is also popular and widely available. Probably the most traditional Spanish breakfast is churros or porras with hot melted chocolate. These are best had early in the morning as they’re at their best and crunchiest just after being deep fried. If you’re looking for a more substantial breakfast you could try a pincho de tortilla, a sandwich mixto (ham and cheese grilled sandwitch) or a mixto con huevo (same but with a fried egg in it).

Lunch

Eaten between about 1:30PM and 4:00PM, it is probably more appropriate to refer to this meal as dinner as it is the principal meal of the day for many madrileños. Virtually all restaurants offer a lunch time menú which is invariably much better value than an a la carte selection and can be excellent. A menu is usually a three course meal, with a limited amount of choice for each course, and generally includes (cheap) wine. The first course can be as light as a bowl of soup of a salad, or as hearty as a bowl if lentils with chorizo. The second course will probably be selection between fish and meat or poultry. Desert will often be a choice of fruit or some sort of pudding. The wine included with the price of the meal will almost never be of the finer variety, and it is often mixed with casera or gaseosa, a sweet carbonated drink. Of course it’s possible to pay more an get a better wine. It is not uncommon to follow lunch by a siesta (a half hour nap).

Evening Meal

Madrileños eat the evening meal quite late in comparison to other countries - anywhere from 9.00PM to 11.00PM is reasonable, particularly in the summer and on weekends. While some people have a full meal at dinner many have a only light meal, which might consist of a few tapas.

Eating well, cheaply

Madrid has a lot to offer for those wishing to eat well without spending a lot of money. There are a few tips to follow. Try and eat typical food. As mentioned before, it’s best to fill up at lunch, choosing from the wealth of small restaurants offering the lunch time menu. Seafood in Madrid is much cheaper —and often fresher— than in other European countries. In fact, Spain is the second biggest per capita seafood eating country after Japan. Sit-down meals are usually more expensive at supper than at lunch. Its probably more economical to eat tapas for dinner, which are well accompanied by a glass of wine or a caña (small glass of beer). Tapas also offer the visitor a means of trying a large variety of Spanish delights without spending a fortune. Finding, ordering and choosing tapas has been covered in its own section.

A note on tipping

Tipping is not so rigid in Spain. It is not uncommon to leave no tip at all, either in bars, taxis etc. Generally, if service is good, a tip of 5-10% is more than adequate.