Long trip report: Leon, Galicia, Asturias, Madrid

Regional Dining Discussions Italy, Spain, Portugal
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ninkat,
Another new place to put on your Madrid dining list is the catalán chef, Ramón Freixa’s new Tradición/Atelier on Calle Velázquez in the Salamanca district.
His Tradición is the upstairs, more traditional dining venue, while his downstairs Atelier serves a tasting menu to only 10 diners seated at a U-shaped table.

With our HO dining partners, on a Sunday in early December, the 4 of us sampled his Tradición, a sophisticated dining room with nicely draped and well spaced tables.

Several of the dishes come from the classic recipes of his parents´ now closed Michelin starred Barcelona restaurant, Freixa Tradició, such as the “Canelones de asado de tres carnes con foie, boletus y trufa”, a wonderful and rich dish. We chose to all share his “Wellington de lubina con salsa de champagne (2pax)” that was quite memorable.
For desert our dining partners opted for his classic “Babá al ron añejo con chantilly” that we envied, while we enjoyed his instagrammable chocolate caviar.
We found the prices quite reasonable for the setting, service and quality.

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You are right and I need to start planning!

63

@ninkat
Yes, indeed, start packing! :grinning_face:

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For @dostrovs, @ninkat and others
Just one more to add to your Madrid dining list, where my “dining club” friends (12 chefs and gourmet lovers) and I had a wonderful lunch last Saturday—

Hermanos García de la Navarra on Calle Montalbán, just steps from Retiro Park.
The owners are brothers, Pedro and Luis de la Navarra, the chef and the sommelier, who take great pride in their seasonal offerings, especially their treatment of Navarran vegetables, plus their fabulous wine cellar, one of the city’s best, with 2,000 different labels. And for game lovers, this, along with Santerra and Treze, is your place.

We pre-ordered a set menu which began with hand cut jamón de bellota, followed by tirabeques (snow peas) lightly sauteed, pisto (ratatouille) topped with a poached egg, a classic house dish, then merluza (hake with saffron sauce), rabo (extremely tender oxtail stew), the menu finished off with their famous cheese cart (15-20 cheeses selected daily) and a molten chocolate cake.

We opted for Luis’s wine pairings plus an extra Conde de Haro Brut rosé from Bodegas Muga to toast to the New Year.

Hermanos García de la Navarra, a classic but sophisticated casa de comidas and vinoteca isn’t usually on the radar of those visiting Madrid, but should be for out-of-town food lovers.
Plus, for vegetarians, here one can create a seasonal all vegetable menu–Navarran borage, artichokes, cardoons, tomatoes, wild mushrooms, red peppers, snow or tear peas, ratatouille, Swiss chard, chickpea stew, a vegetable medley (menestra), etc.. And it’s handily located just around the corner from the Palacio de Cibeles.

One Repsol sun, well deserved.

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