Restaurants

Madrid's gastronomic offer is so overwhelming - and changing - that it is easy to forget that there are very interesting proposals a few kilometers from the center. And you don't have to lose yourself in the mountains to enjoy a natural environment isolated from the bustle of the city. The Cabaña Marconi restaurant, inspired by mountain huts and embracing nature, offers a different place to escape for a while from urban stress.

Located in the Plaza de la Independencia, in front of the Puerta de Alcalá, Patio de Leones could be a new tourist trap. But they would like to drop all the guiris in the new restaurant of the hotel entrepreneur Jorge Llovet (also founder of Ramses, who occupies just the place next door).

Although for some they seem only a lot of ruins, the thermal baths of Caracalla - the emperor who ruled Rome between 211 and 217 AD - are one of the most important vestiges of the impressive level that reached the civil works of the Roman Empire. Its huge buildings had a capacity for 1,600 people and its tanks could contain a total of 80.

35 Euros It is what the tasting menu of Tripea costs: a trip through Peruvian-Asian cuisine, Spanish based, original, fun and well executed, which in this price range is, these days, the best that can be found in the forum. The business model that follows the restaurant, located in the effervescent market of Vallehermoso, is similar to proposals such as Tres por Cuatro or the neighboring Kitchen 154: the cost savings of not having a proper place and having a more service carefree (not bad), lets throw the rest in the kitchen.

A few weeks ago, during a trip to the Principality, I had the opportunity to visit the Real Balneario de Salinas restaurant in Asturias, and that was undoubtedly one of the best meals I have enjoyed in recent months. The quality of the kitchen and the impeccable service of the room, in addition to an unbeatable location next to the beach, make the diner enjoy from beginning to end the quality of this restaurant that has, and well deserved, a Michelin star.

The Asturian chef Manuel Berganza (Gijón, 1985) achieved something that very few can boast: get a Michelin star in a restaurant with Spanish cuisine outside Spain. It was the year 2014 and Berganza achieved the long-awaited macaron for his restaurant Andanada 141, in New York, with a letter that made a tour of all the international hits of Spanish cuisine: paella, meatballs, prawns with garlic ... A compendium of what foreigners look for when they want to taste Spanish cuisine, but respecting the product, something very complicated outside our borders.

Cuando llega el verano, Madrid se vacía. Desaparece el incesante tráfico, aparcar se convierte en un juego de niños y tienes la sensación de que la ciudad es sólo para ti . También tiene sus cosas malas, como asumir que ya has agotado tus vacaciones o que aún te quedan unos cuantos días de oficina y 'curro' por delante.

In little more than a year the Fratelli Figurato managed to gain a foothold in the Madrid pizza scene with their simple but effective bet: authentic quality Neapolitan pizzas at a good price. The good reception has led the brothers to go one step further by moving the spirit of the Italian trattorias to the center of the capital, now incorporating fresh handmade pasta dishes in a very short menu that will change month by month.

This is one of those restaurants that have a lot to tell, given its history. Today we talk about the restaurant Casa Gades, the renewed resurgence of a classic in Madrid. This mythical place was created by the dancer and choreographer Antonio Gades and the singer and actress Marisol in 1977, being a mythical place of the show of the last quarter of the last century, when all kinds of artists, intellectuals and politicians met there to eat and hold their meetings and gatherings.

The Mirazur restaurant in Menton, France, led by Argentine chef Mauro Colagreco, has been chosen this year as the best restaurant in the world, always according to the criteria of the list The World's 50 Best Restaurants, which despite being increasingly questioned Among critics and chefs, it remains one of the rankings with the most influence and power in the gastronomic landscape.

Gastronomy works like any other cultural phenomenon: by action and reaction to fashion. If a few years ago what mattered was technique and creativity, now we only talk about product, and woe to the one who uses the term "fusion". To that or water. It is not surprising, since we are at one end of the pendulum, that everything revolves around suppliers and producers, new figures of gastronomy, which we will all talk about until the ball falls back to the other side and , aim, let's reclaim the figure of the head of the room.

The Umbrella Group has become in just over a decade the prince charming of Madrid's gastronomy: restaurant that opens, restaurant that sweeps. Its formula has conquered people well in Madrid thanks to its effective interior design, its good public relations work and a combination of instagrammable food and cocktails that are served well into the early morning, while the volume of music rises.

Just three years have been enough for the CEBO restaurant to consolidate itself as an essential table in Madrid for lovers of good food. At the stove, Alcalaino Aurelio Morales, who, after serving as head chef in Miramar de Paco Pérez for eight years, seems to have found in the Urban Hotel the ideal environment to develop his avant-garde cuisine, always respectful of the product.

The announcement fell like a bomb in the world of gastronomy. Malaga chef Dani García announced the closure of his restaurant with three Michelin stars in Marbella only a few weeks after receiving them. It was very clear: I wanted to do other things. And he is doing them. Oh yes. Since announcing the closure of the three stars, which will remain open until October 22, Garcia has announced the opening of five new restaurants, only this year: a new BiBo in Qatar; another BiBo on the beach of Valdevaqueros, in Tarifa; a third party in a reduced version at Malaga airport; the expected Lobito de Mar de Madrid; and another 'brasserie' at the Four Seasons Hotel, also in the capital.

In order to innovate and at the same time maintain the most common and typical dishes of the land, the ability to invent chefs and entrepreneurs is almost infinite. That is why we really liked to discover how to renew a traditional dish, the cooked maragato paired with champagne from Casa Coscolo restaurant.

When looking for restaurant recommendations we usually look at their overall assessment, but this does not always give us what we need. In any criticism it is decisive to explain, in addition, the weak and strong points of a bar or restaurant, since a local can be mediocre preparing sandwiches, but have, for example, the best torreznos in the world.

Essentia restaurant, located in an industrial estate of Tarancón (Cuenca), has been starring in the pages of gastronomic media for months. The reason: its award-winning Finnish beef ribeye, a piece that, despite being available in a good handful of restaurants throughout Spain, charges its maximum splendor here thanks to a careful maturation process.

On April 26, the Conil trawler celebrated the first lift of the year, which marks the start of the wild bluefin tuna season, one of the most exclusive products of the year. And only a few days later, the Surtopía restaurant, located in the Madrid neighborhood of Salamanca, began offering its famous bluefin tuna dishes, a product that has become known in recent years.

The extreme popularity - not without controversy - that has reached the paella detracts from the rest of our rice gastronomic heritage. There is a lot of life beyond the Valencian paella, and the Dársena restaurant, a classic in Alicante, has been demonstrating it for many years with a cuisine that has its raison d'etre in rice.

Renato Viola fell in love with pizza with only four years. His mother got up between three and four in the morning to prepare lasagna, ravioli, tortellini ... Whatever he touched. And little Viola got up with her just to see how she kneaded and stretched the dough. Then he had a revelation. “One of these mornings he prepared pizza, and I was fascinated, so the next day I asked him to please make pizza again, without stopping to cry, and he had to do it again,” explains the pizza maker to Direct to the Palate.