Spain: Salamanca, Madrid, Toledo - what to eat?

I'll be there for a month, will most likely go to the above places but probably others as well, and I need suggestions!

Hi Suzy,

I visited Madrid a few months ago, and listed the places we ate in this thread (Madrid starts in the second post):

http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=23851

The beginning of the first (Sevilla) post contains links to a bunch of older LTH threads that guided us so well.

I'm so jealous, by the way...I loved Spain and thought our trip was way too brief. I hope you have an amazing month!

We were just in Madrid for a couple of days. One night we went to a paella place that was fairly disappointing, but the second night we did tapas at a few places on Cava Baja that were very good. Specifically we went to:

la Camarilla (Cava Baja 21) - this was more of a proper restaurant that happened to have a bar serving tapas.
Casa Lucas (Cava Baja 30)
Taberna Tempranillo (Cava Baja 38)

You'll find my recs for Casa Mingo (roasted chicken and cider, Asturian-style) and Casa Botin (suckling pig, evocative and ancient but touristy) in other Madrid posts.

If you can get elsewhere and don't want to do the more common Andalucia / Costa del Sol sweep (high speed AVE to Seville, TALGO or local trains around to Malaga and Granada, one-way flight back to Madrid, which is cheap and stunning over the Sierra Nevada), do consider Bilbao, Santander, and Oviedo. You know which one has my heart. All are accessible for weekend trips from Madrid, and the northern train routes can be jaw-droppingly beautiful. Going through the heart of Basque country next week (San Fermin) would not make accommodation easy, but once you're up in Cantabria and Asturias, things should really open up, and the temperatures will also be pleasantly cooler. Preferring Atlantic seafood to Mediterranean makes the north even more compelling for me. Squid (rabas, in this area) is particularly succulent. La Rioja wines abound (and there are many excellent Asturo-Cantabrian vintages as well).

These are modest regions and the cities (even Bilbao) are markedly more working-class than Madrid or Barcelona. They dissolve quickly into hilly, pleasantly wild terrain (cut through occasionally by the autopista), and the "suburban" grill-bars are a pleasure of the area - every city-dweller has a favorite bodega or meson in the hills under the trees in addition to their favorite city tavern. For those, you're best served asking around (probe for the Bar Corban or El Llar in Santander). For more polish:

http://www.elraitanroxu.com/ El Raitan, Oviedo
http://www.restaurantezacarias.com/ Zacarias, Santander
http://www.etxanobe.com Etxanobe, Bilbao

Please also check out tatterdemalion's wonderful Basqueland report from last Spring:

viewtopic.php?p=195088#p195088

Provecho!

Ah, how I would love to be in Spain for a month. I can tell you one of the better times I had in Spain was tapas hopping on Calle Van Dyck in Salamanca. It is a stretch of tapas bars off the beaten path about a 15-20 minute walk north of Plaza Mayor. I am pretty sure that we were the only tourists around, but then again we were there off season. Enjoy.

I'm heading to Valencia for a few days in the middle of August and I'm looking for any restaurant recommendations that LTH might have. I will be there during the Valencia Grand Prix so the city will be extraordinarily busy, but I'm hoping someone on here has been before and can begin to the point the way. I'd be most interested in suggestions for new or traditional spanish cuisine, but I'm open to all suggestions since I really know nothing about the city. I'll unfortunately only be there for 3 days so I'll be unable to make it to Madrid or Barcelona or any of the other Spanish cities with more cultural and culinary renown.

Reviving this thread in hopes of finding some suggestions for Valencia. I'm joining a couple of friends on a spur of the moment trip to Valencia and Madrid next month. There's lots on the site for Madrid, but I haven't seen anything on Valencia. My friends completely expect me to come with print-outs of possible suggestions. I hate to disappoint them.

Maribel's Guides!
http://www.maribelsguides.com

leek wrote:Maribel's Guides!
http://www.maribelsguides.com

Thanks, leek. I've already made heavy use of Maribel's Guides. I'm looking for the invaluable LTH response as well.

I wasn't quite sure where to post this as there are a number of posts that address Madrid in some respect, but since this is the most recent, I figured I'd give this one a whirl. Earlier this month, I spent a long weekend in Madrid -- had hoped to get to Toledo too, but not enough time.

I'd say most of my time was spent eating tapas, much of it on Cava Baja, where it is one tapas bar after the next. Except that on Sunday and Monday when the tapas bars on Cava Baja are closed, I found that Mercado de San Miguel attracts quite the crowd and makes for an eating extravaganza.

Having visited a few of the markets in Madrid, it's obvious that Mercado de San Miguel is more tourist focused - far more prepared foods and tapas and fewer produce/meat/seafood stands, whereas other markets are exactly the opposite. I don't intend to create a negative impression of Mercado de San Miguel at all; rather, you should just know that if you visit other markets, you will find they offer far fewer options for dining.

But back to Mercado de San Miguel, along with some fresh produce, meat and seafood options for the home cook, there are rows of counters for tapas and wine. Here's an example of the well populated market on a Sunday or Monday night, where it can be difficult to find a seat:


Mercado de San Miguel


So what to eat at Mercado de San Miguel - well, pretty much everything. You'll find homemade potato chips everywhere (and damn good too). I had no idea how much they loved their potato chips in Madrid. Other finds:


olives


sea urchin

The sea urchin was one of those regret moments - I had difficulty comprehending the menu and by the time I saw it served I was full. It looked beautiful . . . but it wasn't mine. Instead, I had a merely decent order of pimientos de padron, quickly pan fried and served with sea salt (not as flavorful as others I've had, and few spicy ones):


pimientos de padron


Of course, plenty of ham, chorizo and meats, croquetas, tortilla espanola, etc. And don't forget dessert. I'm a sucker for the Portuguese egg custard tarts, pastel de nata (this one was quite good):


pastel de nata

And as I noted above, there are plenty of choices for the home cook at Mercado de San Miguel, including the largest f'in red peppers I have ever seen. For reference purposes, the green pepper in the photo was normal sized:


big ass red pepper

Moving on to the principal (and not to be missed) tapas row in Madrid, Cava Baja. I had a list of places I wanted to hit, but I'm not sure you even need such a list. You can see in each bar, they're all right next to one another, you can judge if there are crowds or not (and they're largely filled with locals) and if you have any doubts remember that you only need to have a bite and maybe a drink in any one place.

So, some of what I ate. First, Taberna Txakolina offers largely pinxto, Basque-style tapas. Most of what is available is in viewing range, and depending upon what you order, they may heat it up.


tapas at Taberna Txakolina



more tapas at Taberna Txakolina



beef and potato filled croquetas at Tabern Txakolina

Not pictured is the Tortilla Espanola I had here which was as good a version as you can find, runny egg making it the creamiest and most delicious interior I've ever found in one of these.


Moving on, next up was Casa Lucas. I can't recall what I ate here (although I remember liking what I had quite a bit) and no pictures to remind me, but here are some recommended items listed on the menu:


Menu at Casa Lucas


If you're looking for top notch jamón ibérico de bellota, look no further than the wonderful Taberna de Goyo:




I was told the guy slicing the jamón is a master slicer. What I observed was pure intensity:


slicing jamón ibérico de bellota at Taberna de Goyo



jamón plated (oops, so good I dug in before remembering to take the picture)


If you go to Taberna de Goyo with your non-jamon-eating friends, don't worry . . . there's food for them too:


menu at Taberna de Goyo


Haven't had enough jamon? Jamones Julian Becerro is to jamon what Willy Wonka's factory is to chocolate.




Cue the Willy Wonka music:


Inside of Jamones Julian Becerro


I can just hear the LTHers now inside this place: "the wallpaper even tastes like jamon."

One last tapas bar of note on Cava Baja, Posada del Dragón:



Much of the menu here was posted above your head:


menu at Posada del Dragón, although you can see some of the items right on the counter


At Posada del Dragón, they start you off with a complimentary bowl of some great olives. I then had a pretty tasty miniature hamburger, but the star of the show was this foie gras with arugula and apricot marmalade (and maybe nuts too?) on bread . . . outstanding:


foie gras, arugula and apricot marmalade on bread


Straying away from Cava Baja, I stopped at the restaurant La Maralla for a bite. They had outdoor seating and it was a beautiful day.





Food didn't quite match the atmosphere. Patatas bravas were decent, but the sauce was just a little bit timid:


patatas bravas


The albondigas fared worse - they looked beautiful, but were awfully bland, including the sauce which deceived me into thinking there would be saffron. I went to Madrid expecting saffron in dishes where there should be saffron and didn't find it. Well, at least I brought some home. Anyway, the pretty yet bland albondigas:


albondigas


While touring Madrid, if you get hungry, don't feel bad about dining at the smallish chain Museo de Jamon:




interior of Museo de Jamon


Museo de Jamon is good for a quick bite and a beer or glass of wine. In particular, I really enjoyed this sandwich of a perfectly fried egg, tomato, cheese, ham and bacon on toast:


sandwich at Museo de Jamon


I had heard that Madrid was not really the place to seek out paella, but I decided to find out the hard way. La Barraca was often recommended as the best Madrid had to offer. However, the paella was just decent. Nice soccarat, the lack of which was my biggest problem with the paella at Tapas Gitana in Chicago. And it was all beautifully cooked. But it lacked flavor, and in particular, despite the yellow tint, there was no saffron flavor, inexcusable in my book. Once again, I had been deceived in Madrid by the color yellow - where saffron should have been used, instead food coloring or powdered turmeric was used.


paella at La Barraca


I tried paella one more time at lunch. I was very hungry after a visit to the Prado, and against my better judgment, ate at a cafeteria across the street. The seafood smelled fishy, and it didn't get much better after that.


In between touring, tapas, dinners and drinking, there was time for snacks. I learned that the Spaniards make the very best French toast in the world, torrijas, and this version from La Mallorquina was about as good as it gets:


torrijas from La Mallorquina


There was also plenty of time for chocolate and churros, a famous Madrid treat. Valor was pretty darn good, but it was blown away by Chocolateria San Gines. The churros fresh from the fryer, the chocolate so thick a spoon could lie atop, so rich and nicely spiced:




chocolate and churros from Chocolateria San Gines


And for gelato, don't miss the terrific gelato from Giangrossi, an Argentinian gelato store. I had the sabayon and turron and both were great, with the sabayon reminding me of that great stuff from the sadly departed Penguin on Lawrence.


list of gelatos from Giangrossi


Finally, in addition to exploring Mercado de San Miguel, I found some time to visit a couple of markets that were more for locals. One was Mercado de la Paz:




Another was Mercado Maravillas:




Visits to both of these markets will take you a good distance away from most tourists. At Mercado de la Paz, I picked up some olive oil, saffron and sweet paprika. And both markets offered a ton of produce, fish, meats, offal, you name it:




Does Spain have the happiest pigs or what! I swear this guy smiled at me:




This guy . . . not sure, but didn't appear to be as happy:




I should note that I had lunch at a small sit-down place inside Mercado Maravillas and it was quite good. If you go to this market, you won't have trouble finding it. I believe this was the only sit-down spit within the market. They first delivered a complimentary platter of delicious and beautifully fried fish (anchovies and squid I believe):




I then had some excellent croquettas de jamon:




Finally, a delicious sandwich of chorizo and bacon on some delicious bread with a great crust:




When you're finished, the trash goes in its proper place . . . on the floor. I noticed this at pretty much every tapas bar in Madrid . . . when in Rome . . .:




All said, a great (but short) trip, my very first to Spain and Madrid. I'm already looking forward to a return trip and exploring much more of Spain.

Gorgeous pics, BR! Ham museum? That's gotta go on my bucket list.

thaiobsessed wrote:Gorgeous pics, BR! Ham museum? That's gotta go on my bucket list.

Thanks thaiobsessed - and I wonder just how welcome vegetarians are in a city where it seems like even the the sidewalks are jamon-lined.

BR wrote:

thaiobsessed wrote:Gorgeous pics, BR! Ham museum? That's gotta go on my bucket list.

Thanks thaiobsessed - and I wonder just how welcome vegetarians are in a city where it seems like even the the sidewalks are jamon-lined.

They're welcome, but not very catered to. My wife hasn't been vegetarian for the past 5-6 years, but was for the 20+ years before that, and veg food still makes up a big chunk of her diet...by the end of our Madrid/Sevilla trip, she was dying for some veg cuisine (pimientos, champiñones, and olives weren't cutting it for her).

thaiobsessed wrote:Gorgeous pics, BR! Ham museum? That's gotta go on my bucket list.

When we got to Madrid and I saw a sign for Museo del Jamon in Plaza Mayor and I thought it was the greatest thing ever. I promptly had my wife take my picture in front of it. I thought that we had actually stumbled on THE Museum of Ham. Little did I know that the place is basically the Corner Bakery of Madrid (not in terms of quality, just in terms of how many there seemed to be).

The place is really good, and further testimony to just how much of a ham-centric (and damn good ham at that) society Spain is.

On the way to Madrid we stopped in Segovia, which is stunning. This perfectly preserved walled city(yes just another medieval walled city) is an easy day trip from Madrid but has the added attraction of a huge Roman aqueduct, rivaling the one outside Arles. Lunch was another bunch of tapas. I can’t say enough how I love their style of eating, being able to just graze everywhere you go.

Our 1st dinner was at Café Botin which is famous for suckling pig. It’s supposedly the oldest restaurant in the world, although I believe La Tour D’Argent in Paris also makes that claim. I was expecting a touristy experience but that was not at all the case and the food was superb. We ordered a pig and a roasted lamb, both cooked in their wood burning oven. The skin was crispy and crackling. All through Spain the pork tasted much porkier than what is mostly available in the US, which is bred to be the other white meat. Kurobuta is the closest equivalent we have. We started with delicious white asparagus, which was in season and available everywhere and tastes 10 times better than any I’ve had here at home. Tasty roast potatoes were served with the lamb and pig.

There's a great viewing area when you walk in. Here's the little darlings lined up and ready to hit the oven.



The maestro at work



Mercado de San Miguel was our dining extravaganza the 2nd night. I was blown away. While the Boqueria in Barcelona is special, I thinks it more geared for shoppers picking up to cook at home, although there's some great stations to sit down and dine. San Miguel is the opposite, with more eating stations and less take home. There's an incredible array of seafood, tapas, meats, olives, desserts. wines, etc. to sample and they were all good. There's a limited seating area and scoring a table is the best way to begin the experience. Our final meal was one last tapas crawl along Cava Baja and Cava Alta, which is Madrid's famous tapas neighborhood.

The people were great all through Spain. There wasn't as much English spoken as I would've thought. Lana's Mexican Spanish was very helpful. I could hop on a plane and head back tomorrow.

I've been to Botin six times over the last twenty years and have never been disappointed. A truly marvelous experience and that pig! I took a small group of students who were willing to shell out the extra euros several years ago and they made those who chose not to go so jealous with their stories and pictures that the next two years I simply added it to our itinerary.
“We lunched upstairs at Botin’s. It is one of the best restaurants in the world. We had roast young suckling pig and drank rioja alta. Brett did not eat much. She never ate much. I ate a very big meal and drank three bottles of rioja alta.”
-Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises

We spent a few nights in Madrid bookending our trip to the Basque Country. Since food was the core of our itinerary up north, our main focus in the big city was touring their legendary art museums– and I will say this, if you have any inkling of interest in art and find yourself in Madrid, you owe yourself a trip to the Prado to see the masterpieces of Velazquez and Goya (and others).

That said, we ate two very good meals that I will detail here:

Tipped by the ever erudite PIGMON, we checked out Santa Barbara for afternoon tapas and beer. A classy joint with a couple of outposts, it seemed like everybody was in this place at 1 pm. The waitstaff was very old school in their uniforms and we were served by a couple of gregarious old timers.



This place is a beer hall, but really only serves a couple of varieties of ho-hum lager by Mahou. No matter, the stuff was easy enough to drink and washed down well the very high quality food. As per Mr. PIG's recommendation we ordered a round of chips and camarones:



Madrid takes its potato chips seriously and they were great all over town, fried golden fresh. As an aside, though we did not sample this at Santa Barbara, I got hipped onto an unexpected, but totally addictive combo elsewhere in Madrid: chips adorned with boquerones. Check it out sometime, a quick but decadent and impressive snack for your next party. So yes, Santa Barbara's chips were great. Those little bright pink shrimp were pristine, proof that size doesn't matter, some of the best I've ever had. Steamed and lightly sprinkled with very coarse salt, I could not stop snacking on these little sweet morsels. I gotta warn ya though, they cost like 14€.

Requisite pimientos padron also went well with the beers:



To get excited about Basque Country, I ordered gildas, they were good, but I'd have better up north:



The lady's a steak lover so we got a plate of solomillo (sirloin):



Good stuff, but we would have better in San Sebastián.



This dish Salpicón was a bright salad of shrimp and octopus with a dice of onion and pepper in nice olive oil, lovely stuff.

Santa Barbara is a great place to drink, snack, and people watch in a highly convivial atmosphere. Get those shrimp!

I liked the looks of the recommendations in this NYTimes piece. We tried to hit up Asturiano's, but found them closed on a Saturday night!

Laredo was a short walk from the hotel, so it was a good second choice. We got there at 7 and the kitchen would not open until 8. This space has a sleek design, with two floors, which filled up as we enjoyed our meal. I let the lady do the ordering, since this was on our return trip from the Basque Country where I'd subjected her to daily rounds of anchovies and unspeakable-to-her things like morcilla. I teased her that her palate was stuck in the 90's as you'll see in her picks below:



Curried mussels were really very good. Little juicy suckers, they were impeccably sweet. The jus made for good requisite mopping
with bread.



We ate very little in terms of roughage during our stay in Spain, so I conceded to this plate of off-season asparagus and tomatoes. It hit the spot actually with a lemony vinaigrette and shavings of a nice sharp, hard cheese.



Tuna carpaccio was bright and fresh with an acidic dressing, little pops of fish roe, and more decent off-season tomatoes.



I got hooked on chipirones on the trip and these were as good as any we'd had.



Calamare was cut, I believe, to mimic fries and were served with an aioli. This was the only miss of the meal, the cut was a little too thick and the very light breading did little enhance their texture.

A nice place to have a relaxed, romantic dinner, I'd recommend Laredo, even if your partner has slightly outdated tastes.

Santa Barbara
Calle de Goya, 70

Taberna Laredo
Calle Doctor Castelo, 30

Wonderful information here, thanks all....please, more!! Traveling early May with husband and 22-y.o. daughter. They'll go where I direct us but aren't exactly foodies, this is a + as well as a - sometimes.

First main observation:nobody discusses breakfast in Spain! I realize it's their least important meal due to siesta and late lunch/dinner times, but we arrive in Madrid early on Saturday morning. Will definitely want to try getting in some sites on Saturday and staying awake most of the day (though I doubt we last till 10 pm starting time for dinner). And we will want food. Would this be a good day to hit the market, with the all day food stops do you think?

Second question, what about Segovia? I hadn't initially thought of going there but an unusual Sunday closing of the Prado has me changing around our plans a bit. Any LTH-worthy food (probably lunch, for a half day visit) there?

Final question, is it possible to avoid shrimp in Spain? I seem to have developed an allergy, going to a doctor to confirm, but don't want to take a chance if I can help it. Other seafood and shellfish seems to be fine, I'm miserable about giving up shrimp. Thanks!

Check national holidays - if something that is normally open is closed (you mentioned unusual closing at the Prado on a Sunday) it's possible that's a national or religious holiday and nothing else will be open either.

leek wrote:Check national holidays - if something that is normally open is closed (you mentioned unusual closing at the Prado on a Sunday) it's possible that's a national or religious holiday and nothing else will be open either.

Great call, thank you! May 1 is Labor Day and May 2 is Madrid Day. Going to check dates of everything, though I'm guessing may 2 might be another day trip lol. Really, thanks again!

I highly recommend both Segovia and Toledo for daytrips. Both are a 30 min train from Atocha in Madrid. Both are spectacular.

Toledo is a great day trip. Neat city, lots to see and do. The best view of the gorgeous town is from across the river at the Parador de Toledo, which has a very nice regional restaurant. http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g187489-d3819727-Reviews-Restaurante_del_Parador_de_Toledo-Toledo_Province_of_Toledo_Castile_La_Mancha.htmlWe stayed there and loved it. It's the favorite site in Toledo for wedding pictures because of the splendour of the view!

Geo

Hope I am not too late to the game.

When my wife and I were in Spain I think I had Tomate con aciete de oliva with some cafe con leche for breakfest, everyday. Basically, toast with a tomato/olive oil puree on it.



It was so good!

I dug up some old Madrid LTH posts as well as consulted Anthony Bourdain's travel shows for some places. We had great tapas at Casa Lucas on Calle Cava Baja. I think any place on that street would be great for tapas.

We also enjoyed Bodega de la Ardosa which we saw on one of Bourdain's shows and then I had oxtail at Casa Salvador which was amazing. Very "Midnight in Paris" feel, like you are stepping back in time. I think moreso because we were in Madrid before Pride Week and the restaurant is located in Madrid's gay friendly neighborhood, so the streets were jammed, it was a blast. Quite the contrast when we walked into the restaurant. We also both were laughing at the old Spanish Grandmothers on the balconies giving judging looks to the people partying on the street. Also, Hemingway used to go there and it is not as swamped as Botin!

Casa Lucas
Cava Baja, 30, 28005 Madrid, Spain

Bodega de la Ardosa (or just La Ardosa)
Calle de Colón, 13, 28004 Madrid, Spain

Casa Salvador
Calle de Barbieri, 12, 28004 Madrid, Spain