Doing a last minute trip to Madrid and Barcelona, leaving in a few days. Will be staying in both central/downtown parts of both cities. Appreciate any recommendations for wine/wine bars, restaurants, or day trips. Thanks y’all!
In Madrid:
Angelita Madrid
Mercado de San Miguel - the ultimate Spanish food court, and across the street…
Bar Cerveriz - tapas bar. Phenomenal tortilla, Jamon, etc.
Casa Gonzalez - excellent tapas and conserva
Corral de la Moreria - Flamenco dinner theatre. Surprised how much I enjoyed. Good food, better wine list
Finca Herrera - very good local winery. Don’t know if they are set up for tasting. You can mention my name. Manuel probably remembers me.
1 hour drive to Segovia. Great sights and Casa Duque makes great suckling pig.
Three recs all within walking distance of each other in Madrid:
C. de la Cava Baja - lively strip with plenty of tapas bars. My personal favorite is Casa Lucas
Restaurante Casa Amadeo los Caracoles - delicious snails
Madrid & Darracott - great wine shop that does tastings in English
We loved Bar Mut in Barcelona. What a great city!
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Just got back from Barcelona on Saturday. Here are some of our favorite stops (most of which are either in the Gothic Quarter or in the Born):
- Mont Bar (food & wine pairings were amazing – would have been the best meal of the trip, but for a trip to El Celler de Can Roca)
- Gresca (also very good, though I’d say Mont Bar was a touch better)
- Bodega La Tinaja (laid back dinner and excellent wine list)
- Bar del Pla (tapas & wine; was busy but a lot of fun)
- La Puntual (stopped in for an afternoon snack and a couple drinks)
- Zona d’ombra (small local wine bar; had fantastic prices on bottles and wines by the glass were excellent)
- Bilbao Berria (really tasty pintxos with a great view of the Barcelona Cathedral & square)
- Brunells (best plain croissant in Barcelona)
- Patisseria Hofmann (I said “plain” for Brunells because the mascarpone croissant (or chocolate or raspberry) from Hofmann is off the charts good)
Madrid:
Angelita - wine bar/restaurant
Taberna Laredo - restaurant upstairs, barra downstairs. might need to ask for the big list, sometimes they will only give you the Spanish wines list. they have one for Spanish, one for international reds and one for international whites.
Cuenllas salesa - wine bar
La fisna - wine bar
Berria - wine bar
Sacha - restaurant
Triciclo - restaurant
Since you are leaving in a few days not going to point places where it is hard to get a reservation, but I was there last week and had an outstanding meal at DiverXo and last year Smoked Room was incredible as well.
Will be there in June/July… Staying south in Stiges…any advice?
Other than take a train into Barcelona for a day or two, I don’t have much to add. Sorry. Except for a day trip to Girona, we spent all our time in the city.
There is this recovered grape in Sitges called malvasia de sitges, I strongly suggest you to get a bottle of Sasserra by Vega de Ribes, low intervention malvasia de sitges wine, current vintage is 2018 I believe, but you’ll probably find 2016 or 2017 for arround 11-12€ it is fantastic, also their xarel·lo pet-nat, current vintage 2009 for arround 15€, incredible. I believe you can get them at the winery, about 15km from Sitges.
As for places, I always recommend l’Ànima del Vi in the Born district in Barcelona.
Mont Bar and Tickets in Barcelona were both fabulous.
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Tickets is closed. Adria’s El Barri group filed for bankruptcy and all its restaurants closed permanently during the pandemic. Enigma was supposed to stay open, but it looks like that it is closed also.
A lot of good recommendations here for Madrid already, but one place that is absolutely not to be missed is the very old sherry bar that Hemingway and others used to frequent while plotting against the fascist government called La Venencia. You feel like you’re in another world. Special place.
Also, one of our favorite meals was at Sala de Despiece on Calle Panzano. Really inventive and memorable dishes.
Pro move when you want a great aperitif is to order a Vermut Preparado. Every bar tender makes their’s slightly different but they are all delicious
As a side note on the Mercado San Miguel you’ll want to definitely hit up La Hora del Vermut, the jamon place and the wine bar as well as the oyster guy there. If not to eat oysters, then to buy his custom designed oyster knife. He’s the oyster shucking champ of Europe and created a knife that is pretty cheap and kicks major ass. I regret only buying one!
interesting article regarding the food scene in barcelona
In Madrid I would recommend La Venencia, Calle Echegaray, 7. At first glance a humble bar serving only sherry and a few tapas. The place is virtually unchanged from the days during the Spanish Civil War when it was frequented by Republican partisans and Ernest Hemingway. You will step back in time. Highly recommended.
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Great information, thanks Michael.
Kyle,
How far did you book your hotels? Have not booked mine as of yet, travel is slated for June/July… thanks
Seeing this on many online menus in Barcelona… should be of interest to check out
Headed to Madrid and then Andalusia region in March. Really looking forward to it. The sites look amazing.
Anyone have any can’t miss restaurants in Madrid, Seville, Cordoba or Granada?
Noor in Cordoba. In the region, although in different cities - Lu Cocina y Alma (and their sister bar) and Baga in Jaen.
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