The 4 best restaurants in Madrid

Madrid In just a few years, it has risen among the great gastronomic capitals of Europe, to the point where choosing five restaurants there is a matter of arbitration. From the ember counters of Castellana to the open kitchens of Gran Vía, here are our favorites. Our number one? It doesn't have a Michelin star, and yet it's the table we'd return to tomorrow.

Brach Madrid, 5 stars and French art of living on Gran Vía

On Gran Vía, a pastry shop window stops passersby before they even spot the hotel: eclairs, Mont Blancs, Parisian flan, and Paris-Brest attract them like magnets. This is the entrance to the Brach, one of Madrid's best luxury hotels: an Evok collection address housed in a 1922 building, entirely redesigned by Philippe Starck. Inside, the designer has created a signature cafe under ceilings of braided leather, where mismatched paintings and curated objects are piled up, this «poetic memory» that he possesses the secret to. Above the sculpted counter, a fresco by Ara Starck, the designer's daughter, watches over like a sign. An open kitchen that never stops, angled mirrors for seeing and being seen.

At the heart of this restaurant in Madrid, Chef Adam Bentalha presents a cuisine from the deep south, Mediterranean with Oriental influences: smoked baba ganoush from the Josper, cecina croquettes (voted best tapa at the Madrid Hotel Tapa Tour 2025), kefta and labneh, pastilla, octopus. His signatures? Grilled cauliflower, confit lamb shoulder, whole sea bass cooked over embers with ají amarillo beurre blanc. For raw dishes: corvina ceviche with house-made dressing, amberjack tiradito with apple gel and cardamom, crispy rice with bluefin tuna tartare. At the bar, mixology revisits the essence of Madrid, with Puerta del Sol featuring Anaë gin and cassis at the forefront, while 5 Jotas pata negra is passed from hand to hand.

It's the only restaurant in our selection without a Michelin star, and yet it's the one where we'd stay from brunch to the last cocktail.

Brach Madrid, Evok Collection
Gran Vía 20, 28013 Madrid
Official website

Deessa, Quique Dacosta's haute cuisine at the Ritz

Facing the Prado on Plaza de la Lealtad, the Mandarin Oriental Ritz unfolds its Belle Époque splendor, reopened after years of restoration: this is where Quique Dacosta has set up his signature restaurant. You dine at Deessa in the Alfonso XIII lounge, with high ceilings and subdued lighting, and a terrace that opens onto the Ritz garden in good weather: one of the most beautiful places to eat in the center of the city.

Dacosta, a self-taught Valencian who rules from Dénia one of the largest fine-dining restaurants in Spain, earned his two Michelin stars here in less than two years. His offering? Two tasting menus to choose from, the ’Histórico,« which features his signature dishes, and the »Contemporáneo,« more adventurous, both built as a narrative between land and sea. The Mediterranean of his youth dialogues with grand Castilian cuisine here, at noon and in the evening. At the nearby Palm Court, afternoon tea extends the day; at Deessa, it's the main event.

This is the table for Madrid's grand nights, the one you reserve for a birthday or a celebration, and that you don't forget.

Deessa, Mandarin Oriental Ritz Madrid
Plaza de la Lealtad 5, 28014 Madrid

Smoked Room, fourteen seats for a fire theater

Fourteen covers. Not one more. Behind a hidden door at the Hyatt Regency Hesperia, Paseo de la Castellana, Dani García has carved out one of Madrid's most sought-after restaurants: six seats at a Japanese maple counter, two tables, and an open kitchen that crackles within arm's reach. The Astet studio designed the room like the interior of a crater: a matte charcoal palette, a ceiling of meteorites, and a tilted mirror above the grill so you don't miss a moment of the ballet.

The Andalusian, who was a three-star table In Marbella, smoke has become its seasoning. This menu's restaurant in Madrid A fiery omakase, about fifteen courses where aged fish, meats, and vegetables are grilled over coals: grilled caviar in seaweed broth, hamachi smoked with roasted tomato essence and yuzu, A5 wagyu kissed by the flame. Two Michelin stars earned in less than a year, unseen in Madrid for decades, and one of the sharpest wine lists in the city, curated by Luis Baselga. Just behind it, the steakhouse Leña by the same chef plays a meatier tune.

You come out with your shirt smelling of burnt wood. That's the price of the show, and it's worth it.

Smoked Room, Hyatt Regency Hesperia Madrid
Paseo de la Castellana 57, 28046 Madrid

Amos, by Jesús Sánchez at the Cantabrique in Villa Magna

The Cantabrian Sea on one side, the mountains and the farm on the other, and Jesús Sánchez in the middle. The Cantabrian chef, whose Cenador de Amós near Santander shines with three Michelin stars, has transplanted his northern terroir to Madrid, on Paseo de la Castellana, in the former Anglada palace, now the Rosewood Villa Magna. With decor by BAR Studio, 382 works hanging on the walls, and an open kitchen overlooking the dining room, the setting lives up to the name.

At the restaurant in Madrid At Amós, there's no imitation of the flagship restaurant: Sánchez reinterprets the essence of his cuisine – product, tradition, season – on a menu and an «Essential Menu» designed as a journey along the Bay of Biscay. Freshly caught fish, vegetables from the Aranjuez Huerta, Basque beef: the restaurant chooses its producers one by one. When the weather is good, the terrace reopens for the most Madrilenian ritual there is: house vermouth served as an aperitif. On the same ground floor, Las Brasas de la Castellana, with its grill, overlooks a garden terrace, offering a more relaxed setting.

The ideal address for those who want to understand northern Spain without leaving the Salamanca district: elegant, rooted, and with great restraint.

Amós by Jesús Sánchez at Rosewood Villa Magna
Paseo de la Castellana 22, 28046 Madrid