Madrid Journals

Dining in Madrid

Best of IgoUgo

A May 2010 trip to Madrid by jae_em

Quote: This journal reviews some of the known (& not so well known) restaurants that my boyfriend and I ate in Madrid.

15 Photos

Casa Rua

Restaurant | "Go for the Bocadillo de Calamares"

Quote:

We visited the Plaza Mayor, taking in the scale, the architecture and the beautifully painted facade of La Casa de Panaderia. After we walked along the perimeter and taking the obligatory tourist photos, we exited at the corner left of La Casa de Panaderia. I noticed that the exit even had a street name (Calle de Ciudad Rodrigo). It's a dark passage, and we passed a couple of eateries, one in particular had a sign of its menu on the window. It listed various bocadillos (sandwiches) for a low, low price of 2.50 euros and tapas. We took a mental note and planned to come later.

We ended up coming back to Casa Rua later in the afternoon around 3pm. The bocadillo de calamares piqued our interest (we love eating fried squid!) although there were other choices, such as tortilla (a potato omelet), morcilla (blood sausage), chorizo (pork sausage) and other pork based meat products.

You order and pay at the counter and pick up your order. There is no wait service here. You have the option of eating at the bar or at the counter along or upstairs. We opted to eat upstairs, in which the stairway is a bit narrow. While there are tables and stools, we decided to eat at one of the counters along the wall since several tables still held leftover garbage. The walls were scribbled with tons of names and dates visited. Little did we know that this small eatery is a tourist destination.

Our bocadillos made a very filling snack. The calamares (rings and some tentacles) were battered and deep-fried and tucked in between a small sized baguette. If I only have one suggestion for this bocadillo, it would be to add some type of marinara sauce (but I guess that would make it Italian) to help cut some of the grease.

We liked the bocadillos from Casa Rua so much that we decided to make them our last dinner in Madrid. Casa Rua gets crowded at night, and we were especially lucky that we got in before the hordes of people started coming. That evening we ordered the bocadillos de calamares as well as patatas bravas. The patatas bravas are fried diced potatoes covered in a pimenton sauce. The sauce is spicy and had a lot of smokiness and almost meaty taste from the pimenton. You eat the cubes of potato with the provided toothpicks. Our meal at Casa Rua was a great end to a fantastic trip in Madrid. Read Less

Member Rating 5 out of 5 on January 22, 2025

Casa Rua
Calle De Ciudad Rodrigo 3
Madrid, Spain
915 427 074

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El Brillante

Restaurant | "Awful service"

Quote:

If you've never been to Madrid, you will soon familiarize with Bocadillos de Calamares, or fried calamari sandwiches. If you happen to visit El Museo de la Reina Sofia or just happen to be outside of the Retiro metro stop, you will notice that several restaurants/bars serve these tasty sandwiches. But there's one huge restaurant with neon signs that touts on its window as being famous for its Bocadillos de Calamares: El Brillante. El Brillante has seating inside and outside of its establishment. We opted to dine outside since it was a very mild evening. The tables, however, weren't all cleared and cleaned. Only one waiter was waiting tables, and there were many other tables tha...Read More

Member Rating 1 out of 5 on January 17, 2025

El Brillante
Glorieta del Emperador Carlos V 8
Madrid, Spain
91 528 69 66

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Arroceria Gala

Restaurant | "A paella disappointment "

Quote:

Since my boyfriend and I were visiting Madrid, we naturally wanted to try Spanish paella. Given that we didn't do much research, we went with a recommended restaurant named Champagneria Gala (now known as Arroceria Gala) which specialized in paella. First of all, the restaurant was a bit difficult to find: - Calle Moratin was hard to locate when we exited the metro stop at Anton Martin. The street is short and eventually merges into another street. If you happen to exit at the triangular island and face Calle Atocha, then Calle Moratin is right behind you- The front of the restaurant was empty and the door would not open, which led us to believe there was a private party. The n...Read More

Member Rating 1 out of 5 on January 7, 2026

Arroceria Gala
Calle Moratãn, 22
Madrid, Spain
914 292 562

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La Finca de Susana

Restaurant | "Best meal of our trip"

Quote:

This was a restaurant that was recommended in our guidebook; we decided to give it a go after a week of eating out at the taverns. The restaurant is located from a short distance from the Sevilla metro stop. The restaurant has a clean and modern look. We arrived during lunch hour; it was busy and full of diners. We didn't have a reservation, but luckily we didn't have to wait long for a table. Unlike many of the taverns we had visited, the restaurant has menus in Spanish only. The names for certain seafood and cuts of meats overwhelmed us. I have only basic understanding of Spanish and we had no dictionary. However, I did notice that almost all of the wait staff were Filipinos,...Read More

Member Rating 4 out of 5 on January 8, 2026

La Finca de Susana
Calle Arlaban, 4
Madrid, Spain
91-369-35-57

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Chocolatería San Ginés

Restaurant | "popular cafe but not worth the long wait"

Quote:

The cafe was very crowded; no seats were available. You do have the option of dining outside but the weather that night was pretty cold for May.Apparently, there is no host to seat you anywhere; the waiters were of no help . We patiently waited and saw that there was a table of people who were about to leave. But a group of older people cut in front of us and basically sat at their table even though they were not 100% done. So, we learned that you must act quick and pounce once the diners lift their butts out of the seats.We lingered over a table that a couple of women were finishing up their churros. We were somewhat embarrassed having to do this, but we weren't planning to le...Read More

Member Rating 2 out of 5 on January 8, 2026

Chocolatería San Ginés
Pasadizo de San Ginés
Madrid, Spain 28013
+34 91 3656546

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Meson O'Luar

Restaurant | "Very good Spanish food"

Quote:

Our first lunch in Madrid was at Meson O'Luar, a place that we stumbled upon this restaurant after strolling around the Gran Via.The place is located a few blocks away from the boulevard and is located in a commercial district. It doesn't look very special from the outside, but there were several businesspeople that went in to dine. As you enter, you will notice the bar with a few legs of jamon. Like most restaurants in Spain, smoking is welcomed. Our waiter was extremely nice even though he didn't know much English. He handed us a menu that had pictures and was also in English, which led me to believe that the restaurant also catered to the tourist crowd. The waiter was patien...Read More

Member Rating 4 out of 5 on January 9, 2026

Meson O'Luar
San Bernardo 17
Madrid, Spain
915 474 362