Madrid’s been on my travel list for the longest time, but it took me quite a while to visit. I first visited in Dec 2021 and I instantly fell in love with this place! I love Spain in general, but there’s just something about Madrid. The city feels so sophisticated and I love how low key stylish the Madrileños are.

But for me the best thing about Madrid is the food!  I’ve eaten at quite some places in this city, it’d be selfish not to share ;). If you’re heading to Madrid soon, check out some of my favourite places for bomb ass food.

1. Restaurante Sacha

Ahhh Sacha! This is by far one of my favourite restaurants, not only in Madrid, but of all the places I’ve visited in Europe. If you only get to have one lunch or dinner in Madrid and you want to eat really well, believe me when I say that this is the one. This place looks and feels legit the moment you walk through the door. I love the interior, it kinda feels like you’re stepping into someone’s living room. Their menu is in Spanish only, so you definitely have to work a bit to know what to order. I secretly dig it when restaurants have no English menu cuz that’s when you know they cater to the locals and you’re about to have a good ass meal.

They serve modern Spanish food, I especially enjoyed their oysters (I always go for oysters if they’re on the menu) and fish. And as a bread lover I gotta mention their foccacia, sooo good when it’s served fresh & warm.

Sacha is about a 20 minute cab ride away from the city center and is kinda tucked away in a corner, but trust me, the food is worth the travel! The restaurant isn’t very big, reservations fill up fast, so you better book early. Like I said: if you have one meal in Madrid, then this is the one you’ll want to go to. 

Address: Calle Juan Hurtado de Mendoza 11

www.restaurante-sacha.negocio.site

2. CHILA

Even though I love Spanish food, I could never eat it 3 times a day, every day. The only type of cuisine I could eat multiple times a day for weeks is Japanese, Malaysian and Chinese food. Whenever I’m on holiday, I always crave Asian food when I don’t eat it for a few days, so I always end up on the hunt for authentic Chinese food in whatever place I’m at. The thing with Chinese food is that it’s just so comforting. Luckily in Madrid, there are loads of Chinese restaurants and CHILA is one of them that totally satisfied my cravings. Their beef noodle soup is bomb.com!

Address: Calle de Silva, 4
www.chilachila.com

3. 渝州人家 (La Casa de Yuzhou)

Another super nice place for Chinese comfort food. This is one of the (if not the only?) restaurants I have saved in Madrid that doesn’t close for siesta. They’re open from lunch all the way to late evenings, making it perfect for a late lunch or early dinner. Not only is the food amazing, but it’s very budget friendly as well. Been here twice now and I’d definitely go back again. Sorry, no pictures haha.

Address: Calle de Juan Alvarez Mendizabal 6

4. Sala de Despiece

Sala de Despiece is one of those places that I was a little skeptical about when I entered because the whole clinical vibe felt a bit gimmicky. But I gotta say I really enjoyed my lunch there, especially the seafood was so good. Wish we had ordered more of that. Langoustine is my favourite, so I wanted to try it and thought we had ordered it, but  apparently when you order ‘langoustine’ in Spanish, you get shrimps hahaha. If you want to have langoustine you have to order ‘Cigala’. A few dishes I didn’t enjoy were the tomato, I expected a super sweet and juicy one, but it was just very bland. And the fried artichoke was too sweet for my liking. The honey dessert on the other hand was really splendid! 

Personally, I wouldn’t mind returning, but I wouldn’t say I’d go out of my way to eat here again. It’s good, but it’s not *wow*.

Address: Calle Virgen de los Peligros, 8 
Calle Ponzano, 11

www.saladedespiece.com

5. GOTA

Ok, If I’m honest; the food here is either hit or miss. I ate some really nice stuff, but also some things that made me go wtf? Like the pasta on pic #9 was really hard and lacked seasoning, but when we asked a service member about it, we were told that’s how the chef wants it to taste like lol. We sent the dish back to the kitchen and left pretty hungry still, so afterwards we went to a place nearby for some real pasta (last two pics are from Davanti Ristorante, the pastas were super nice). 

If you’re looking for an aesthetically pleasing bar to have natural wines and a tasty snack or two, this is definitely the place. But if you want your tummy filled without breaking the bank, I’d strongly suggest you go somewhere else for that.

Address: Calle de Prim 5
www.gotawine.es

Woah, this was my first blog entry in a loooong time! I’ve always blogged from 2006/2007 til 2015, but with instagram and everything, I kind of lost it along the way. It feels really nice to write and share travel and food experiences tho, so I’ll def be sharing and writing more from now on. 

Til the next one! :)