Madrid in May - Help please!

Regional Dining Discussions Italy, Spain, Portugal
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Hello everyone!

My sons(23 and 25) and I are first-time Spain visitors! Right now I’m working on the Madrid part of our trip. Looking for some advice on what I’ve put together. Does it make sense? TIA!

Arrive Thursday 5/15 at 1:25pm. Staying at Catalonia Las Cortes in Las Letras.

We’ll be tired but we’ll power through as much as we can! Thinking we’ll grab some lunch at Casa Gonzales/La Casa del Abuelo/Taberna el Sur or Mercado de Anton Martin. Yes?

Then we’ll explore Plaza de Santa Ana, Parque el Retiro/Palacio de Cristal, Puerto del Sol, Plaza Callao, and hopefully Pasteleria Mallorca Serrano for Fismuler cheesecake. Too much?

Rest and regroup at hotel and then 8:15 dinner at Inclan Brutal Bar. Any other suggestions? And then we’ll probably be done for the day.

Friday, May 16 we’ll grab coffee at Ambu Letras and/or Chocolateria San Gines. 10:30am Welcome to Madrid walking tour with Lexi which lasts until 1:00pm. Tour starts and ends in Plaza Mayor.

Bocadilla de calamares at Bar la Campana, Bar Postas, La Ideal or Casa Rua.

Then we’ll head to La Latina for Tapas and drinks. We’ll probably choose from these places that have been recommended to us:
Meson del Champinon
La Perejla
Taberna La Concha
Casa Gerardo
Pez Tortilla
Taberna Tempranillo
Lamiak
Taberna del Tuerto
Taberna la Cava
Casa Lucas
Erre Que Erre
La Bolita Vermoutheria

Palacio Real tour - 4:00 or 5:00? Working out the timing.

Find “Secret Nun cookies”.

Head back to regroup at hotel before dinner.

Dinner - should we go to Chamberi/Malasana? Maybe at an actual sit down restaurant? Recommendations please!

Thinking maybe a stop at Salmon Guru before or after dinner? It’s so close to our hotel and looks like a cool spot.

Saturday, May 17th we head to Barcelona in the morning.

We’ll be back for one night staying at Catalonia Puerta del Sol on Wednesday, May 21st so we’ll have one more night for a different neighborhood or back to Malasana/Chamberi for tapas on Calle Panzano.?? Is there another area we should consider?

Thursday, May 22nd we could do a guided tour of The Prado before we head to the airport for our flight home. Hope to find a good spot close by for breakfast.

I’m sorry this is so long! My head is spinning at the possibilities and we want to see as much as we can. Thank you!!

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@AnnR
You’ve chosen a very comfortable and well located hotel for first timers in the Catalonia Las Cortes.
Friends stayed there recently and really enjoyed the warm hospitality plus the very central location.

For a light lunch in the back room with marble tables, Casa González would be fine. We also have become fond of Alimentación Quiroga on León but it gets very crowded and isn´t as comfortable.

I´m not that fond of the very tourist centered Casa del Abuelo or the Taberna el Sur, since the. small restaurants in the Mercado de Antón Martín, such as my favorite, LaLópez Bar and my second favorite, Sincio, would provide you with a more satisfying gastro experience with cuisine being far more memorable.

Yes, your first day wish list is, alas, too much. You will want to split that up. Plaza de Santa Ana, Puerta Del Sol, Callao (although there’s not much to see in super busy Callao with its hordes of pedestrians), but you may enjoy exploring the vast department store, El Corte Inglés and its Gourmet Experience on the rooftop with some great views.
The Callao to Gran Via axis is considered somewhat of a Madrid Broadway. There´s nothing interesting chow wise there except for the ECI Gourmet Experience.

I´ve never been to Inclán Brutal Bar but it seems to be a favorite of visitors.

Your second day,
There are lots of cool specialty coffee spots in Letras, so go to the one that you find most interesting.
Bocadillo de calamares at La Campana or Postas, the two very classic spots around the Plaza Mayor.

About the tapas in La Latina,
Mesón del Champiñón has been around forever, since I was a student, long ago. I personally feel that you can do far better gastronomically at Casa Lucas or Taberna Tempranillo, the two that still excel on the Cava Baja. But I would also go for a drink on the Cava Alta at Barmitón, the newbie in this area with even better cuisine and some fine cocktails plus nice wine list.

The secret nun cookies, or dulces de clausura, can be found at the Monasterio de Corpus Christi , also known as the Convento de Carboneras, where José Andrés took his family.

For dinner, how far do you want to travel?
What kind of cuisine, what price range, what type of experience?
The possibilities are endless.
The dining will be far more elevated in Chamberí or better still in the Retiro (where we HO folks dine) than in rather gritty, urban hipster Malasaña (which reminds me of Seattle’s Freemont or pre-gentrified NY Williamsburg), but it depends on what you´re seeking, what kind of vibe. Malasaña does have the youngest vibe.

Yes, Salmón Gurú is very close to your hotel and is indeed a cool spot, but it doesn’t take reservations so there could be a long line. The Calle Echegaray has 3 other cocktail bars----Viva Madrid (same ownership as Salmón Gurú), Lovo and Mauz Madriz, all lined up in a row.

Saturday, May 17th
Since you´re staying at the other Catalonia, you´ll still be in the exact same neighborhood, the Barrio de las Letras, aka Huertas.
If you want to go to CALLE PONZANO, Chamberí’s bar/restaurant row, go early, as on Saturday nights it gets packed to the rafters. There you have multiple opportunities for drinks and tapas but it will be crowded. El Doble and Fide are our favorites for draft beer and shellfish.

Or instead go to the very hip TRAFALGAR neighborhood and have drinks at the very cool Bar Trafalgar, La Gildería or Hermanos Vinagre or one of the sidewalk cafés on the lovely Plaza Olavide. Great pizza at Pizza Pronto, right off this square at Santa Feliciana. I love this square and do many madrileños. You probably won´t find these in travel guides except for the Spain version of Time Out.

For breakfast after your English guided tour, there´s Plenti behind the Prado on Calle Moreto, or across the Paseo del Prado you have La Platería with indoor and outdoor seating in front of the Radisson Blu, on Plaza de Platería de Martínez.

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Info about the English speaking Museo del Prado guided tour,
https://www.museodelprado.es/en/resource/guided-tours-of-the-collection/f58a547a-d81b-774b-fa47-863052ccdbd7

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First of all, thank you so much! You’re the best!

Yes, I think I was being overly ambitious for our first jet-lagged afternoon. And I have a feeling our walking tour the next morning will take us to some of those places anyway. Love your advice for lunch. We will probaly decide to head to Retiro Park after lunch and then see how far we get.

As far as our dinner on our second night, I’m not sure about cuisine. Paella, maybe? I was trying to approach it from the standpoint of seeing part of the city we hadn’t seen or spent much time. And remember I’m traveling with a 23 and 25 year old. :slight_smile: Chamberi? Malasana? Retiro? Salamanaca? Trafalgar? Perhaps one of these would be closer to our hotel? I also thought it might be nice to have a reservation so we could sit and have dinner after being on our feet all day.

Our third night in Madrid is actually on Wednesday after we’ve visited Barcelona and Mallorca. So that is another night we can explore an area we haven’t been, or maybe we’ll have a favorite that we’ll want to revisit.

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For paella (needed to be reserved in advance) or any one of his outstanding and very authentic rice dishes I recommend BERLANGA facing Retiro Park on Avenida Menéndez y Pelayo. It’s very comfortable, in a library type setting and directly faces the park.
https://restauranteberlanga.com

That said, I need to add that paella or any rice dish is a lunch time meal, never a dinner meal for Spaniards.

You won’t be dining exclusively with tourists as you would at some of the rice places in La Latina/Huertas, but among local connoisseurs of this dish. The chef, José Luis Berlanga García, hails from Valencia and is the son of the famous Luis García de Berlanga, the film director.

From your hotel you can walk through Retiro Park to the restaurant. Advance reservations are essential, as they are in most dining spots in Madrid these days.

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