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The legion of national Swifties will experience a kind of mystical experience during the concerts of their muse Taylor Swift in the capital. In shows that will be based on the reinvention of the ‘The Eras Tour’ that the artist has carried out for her European tour, in which she reviews her entire musical career, going through all her eras up to her latest album ‘The Tortured Poets Department’.
Between soundchecks, concerts and interviews, we at TAPAS recommend Taylor a series of haute cuisine restaurants where she can have lunch and dinner during her stay in Madrid. This way, the star will have the option of going on a culinary tour and/or discovering some of the capital’s top restaurants.
Ugo Chan
Hugo Muñoz is one of those perennial smiles on the Madrid scene.With his sights always set on Japan, after captaining the proposals of strong gastronomic groups, he has established himself in his new ‘home’ shining with his own light, and what a joy. Her omakase – born from her passion for stews and recipes based on popular wisdom – has already become a benchmark: her fish of the day kizukuri with Getaria-style bilbaína, mussel sunomono, tripe gyoza Madrid-style and a wine cellar that Leticia takes as good care of as she does of the dining room, are just some of the reasons for this.
Pabú
Coco Montes‘ career has taken him to some of the best restaurants in Spain and abroad, such as Azurmendi, Zalacaín or the French L’Arpege. His first restaurant, called Pabú, has positioned itself in a very short time as one of the best novelties of recent times.And it is not surprising, because his cuisine is micro-seasonal and ephemeral, something that takes him out of the comfort zone of other types of restaurants.
Montes is always on the move, thinking, devising his next creation, because he changes his dishes practically every day, to surprise diners and challenge himself. He gives special prominence to vegetables and French techniques. But he also uses nuts, fresh herbs, fruit and even the odd product from the sea and the land. These are embodied in two menus, Paté and Bubú, as a tribute to the way his nephews and nieces call their parents. And the family has a lot to do here, from their unconditional support to the very name of the restaurant. Supported by Pablo Peinado in the dining room and at the head of the wine cellar, he has consolidated this project with the brightest future on the national scene.
Ikigai Velázquez
Ikigai is a gastronomic space of national reference, run by chef Yong Wu Nagahira in a kind of designer igloo that takes us back to a New York flat in the 1980s. Nagahira unfolds there his hedonistic Japanese proposal at the service of technique through dishes such as his vegetable tempura, his famous haachi nigiris or scallop nigiris with foie; to be paired with his wine list with more than 175 references and 25 different sake proposals.
Bascoat
After establishing Arima Taberna as one of the most enjoyable places in Madrid, Nagore Irazuegi and Rodrigo García were clear that they wanted to go “one step further”, to grow in space, but also in proposal and sophistication. To do so, they have opened their own temple, one that speaks of Basque farmhouses, but also of the cuisine of the French Basque Country. The menu ranges from appetizers from San Sebastian to the most elaborate dishes, including large pieces of fish and grilled meats. The best thing to do is to put yourself in their hands when ordering. Álex Fernández has made a great signing as head waiter and sommelier, who manages 450 references and a menu that is hard to find.
Can Can Chán
Mestizaje, properly understood, can take a restaurant to the top. Just tell that to Roberto Ruiz and María Fernández, who run Punto MX, the first Mexican restaurant to have a star in Europe. Those times are long gone and now they make those who sit at their table enjoy themselves, with many other projects and their latest novelty, located at the top of El Corte Inglés de Serrano. They do it with a proposal that mixes Mexican recipes with Spanish ones and their pantry, to come up with a delicious craving cuisine, in which dishes such as guacamole with shrimp omelette, are a pilgrimage.
Dani Brasserie
La Brasserie de Dani García presents itself as an idyllic place where gastronomy and design merge at the top of the Four Seasons Hotel. It is an elegant, informal and dynamic brasserie that combines the best Michelin-starred dishes of the chef from Marbella with Mediterranean specialities, which have positioned it as one of the authentic restaurants of reference in the capital, where stars of the calibre of Bizarrap, Palomo Spain and Penélope Cruz have passed through.
Its menu features outstanding dishes such as its nitro tomato and green gazpacho, ham croquettes, smoked salmon and langoustine tartare, seasonal mushroom risotto, handmade tortellini, steak tartari, glazed free-range chicken or its beef sirloin. To round off the experience, Dani offers succulent options such as the Dani Tipsy Cake or the tout chocolat.
La Estrella
The devotion felt by the capital’s creative community for the liquid proposal and aesthetics of La Estrella could also be experienced by Taylor Swift in this trendy cocktail bar where she can shine among the blue velvet and eclectic works of art.
In the midst of this nocturnal atmosphere, its solid menu designed by Giacomo Moroni is presented with starters, pizzas and gildas to pair with its signature cocktails that dilute an infinite number of mixtures and flavours.
El Club Allard
It only took eight months for the red guide to recognise the restaurant with its first star. The ‘fault’ lay with the new duo behind the restaurant -once the icon of Casa Gallardo- the prolific Martín Berasategui and the young José María Goñi, who had previously worked in the former’s restaurants and in other great restaurants such as Amelia. Together they managed to put this restaurant back on the map and recover the lustre it once enjoyed. They did it with emblematic dishes by the chef with the most stars and with Goñi’s creations, such as the Donostian crab dim sum.
El Huerto de Floren Domezain
Second halves were good. If not, just ask the charismatic Floren Domezain, known as the ‘king of vegetables’ who, after closing his restaurant during the pandemic, returned to Madrid with a new restaurant, this time linked to the La Fábrica Group. The Navarrese chef masterfully masters everything that is born and grown in his own vegetable garden, which is located in the chef’s native Tudela. The space is a true ode to vegetables, to Floren’s old tomato, known as the sirloin of the garden, to borage, to the fresh lettuce that goes from the garden to the plate. But there are also nods to seafood and meats.
Haramboure
In recent years, the trajectory of chef Patxi Zumárraga and Patricia Haramboure has been linked to that of Fismuler. But the time has come to fly solo and in this new adventure together -which has been filling up daily-, they have given Madrid one of their great restaurants, a bistro-style restaurant, in which Basque-French cuisine is the protagonist. He in the kitchen and she in the dining room make diners feel at home. And they do it with their proposal, in which everything has a name and a surname, as they use exceptional raw materials that come from small producers, vegetable gardens and coastal ports.
Playing Solo
After a decade of training in some of the best restaurants in Spain, the United States and Denmark, as well as a productive stay in Japan, just over a year ago Luis Caballero decided to launch this highly personal project, which includes a menu with dishes inspired mainly by French and Japanese cuisine. If he draws from the former, especially in terms of the choice of ingredients and the approach to the preparations, it is the aesthetics and cooking techniques that have a clear Asian stamp. In short, an exciting project that gathers and projects the accumulated experience.
Rural Madrid
Chef Rafa Zafra has always been the king of the sea, a sort of modern Neptune who perfectly dominates everything that comes out of its waters. But with his latest restaurant, together with Ricardo Acquista and Anna Gotanegra, he has taken a radical turn, dropping anchor and getting off the boat to convert it into another temple, this time for meat lovers. Sausages, cured meats and pâtés of his own creation, fried meats, the irresistible bikini in a carnivorous version and great dishes such as txuleta, suckling lamb or a suckling pig from Segovia, form part of the menu of this delicious adventure that goes from the land to the table.
Tragabuches
It was the summer of 1998 when Dani García opened Tragabuches in Ronda. Soon after, he was awarded his first Michelin star. The first of many to follow, of course. Back to the past? With the Malaga-born chef it is possible, because there have been not one, but two restaurants that have brought this concept back. One in Marbella and the other in Madrid. In both, García returns to cooking his homeland, to showcasing Andalusian culture and its products and to elevating them on the table, with a commitment to zero-kilometre raw materials. And of course, with him, the legendary foie gras and goat’s cheese millefeuille from Ronda with caramelised apple is back.
Tramo
The creators of Mo de Movimiento, the Conscious Projects Group led by Felipe Turell and Javier Antequera, understood that it is possible to create a beautiful restaurant that also combines honest gastronomy with a sense of social work under the same roof. This is what they have replicated in Tramo, a former industrial warehouse in Madrid’s Prosperidad neighbourhood. For the premises themselves, which are also sustainable, they have opted for bio-construction and artisans, as well as for choosing the ingredients for their menu, in which everything comes from small producers, organic farmers and livestock farmers.
Trèsde
Three friends. Three plates. Three sections. Trèsde is all about triads. From the triad formed by the three friends Lucas Fernández, Miguel Vallés and Aitor Sua, to the one that makes up their gastronomic proposal, which is a formula of just three dishes – starter, main course and dessert – that varies very often. Their cuisine is based on produce and seasonal produce, which they enhance with French techniques, to which Aitor and Miguel put the finishing touches behind the cooker, while Lucas is the one who fills the diners’ glasses, with a wine list where the wines that stand out are those of little intervention and the sakes.
Varra
A formal restaurant or a casual one? Varra is both, a relaxed bar on the ground floor and a canonical dining room, like that of a restaurant, on the upper floor.
The project that has brought together Jorge Velasco, Joaquín Serrano and Gonzálo Menéndez has opted for this duality, which satisfies a much broader spectrum of public. It does so with recipes that are an ode to produce, seasonal vegetables, stews with a lot of chup chup and classic recipes. The incorporation of sommelier Juanma Galán has closed the circle, with a wine cellar with more than 400 references.
VelascoAbell`à
The career of Óscar Velasco and Montse Abellà was marked by their time as head chef and pastry chef respectively at the now defunct Santceloni. The closure of that restaurant is now a bad dream, because a few months ago they fulfilled another one, that of having their own restaurant. A place that makes diners feel at home, with Abellà as head waitress and dessert chef and Velasco in charge of the kitchen. Theirs is a house where excellence sits at the table, with the elegant and subtle flavours created by the chef and the gracefulness with which his partner runs one of Madrid’s great dining rooms.
RavioXO
RavioXO is Dabiz Muñoz‘s culinary space dedicated to dichotomising Spain, Italy, China and Argentina. A ‘cycled dumpling bar’, in the chef’s own words, which revolves around three fused concepts: time, creativity and product. Based on this mantra, Muñoz develops dishes that are far removed from traditional recipes such as Basque caserío with mole de novia, Spanish tortilla, steamed cannelloni with cochinita pibil, wok-fried asta arrabiata, fried eggs with puntilla, black pudding and crispy ear or Galician octopus with fala thai.
Eneko Baske Madrid
Following the essence of the chef’s other gastronomic concepts, Eneko Atxa‘s passion and sensitivity, as well as his cultural roots, the link with the environment and its products, and the traditional Basque culinary recipe book, are a fundamental part of each of his creations. As a result, this new adventure in the capital is pure flavour, an intense and identity-based cuisine.
Its gastronomic proposal is informal and modern, but at the same time it is based on traditional Basque recipes. Here the grill is a key element, with meats, fish and vegetables cooked on it. But as a surprise, even one of the desserts is finished on the embers: the torrija, versioned by Atxa, is finished on the embers. Other outstanding dishes are the Talo de tomate -crispy traditional corn thale, seasoned tomatoes and tomato and basil emulsion-; the curd of foie and citronella; marinated scallop and sea granita; homemade egg yolk on wheat stew or hake in tempura and grilled pepper juice.
