Best Croquetas in Madrid

Salino sits on Calle Menorca in the Barrio de Retiro, an unhurried neighbourhood spot rather than a destination room, cooking Mediterranean and seasonal food with a wine list that's one of the reasons to go. Its ham croqueta is the headline: the menu itself bills it as "Spain's best croquette at Madrid Fusión 2026," made with 100% bellota ham from Sánchez Romero Carvajal, sold by the unit or as a portion of six. El Blog de Celeste reported in January 2026 that it had just been chosen Best Jamón Croqueta at Madrid Fusión, after Revista El Duende had named it among that year's finalists.

“Su croqueta de jamón 100% bellota es muy cremosa y con ese sabor a casa”— El Blog de Celeste

Casa Labra has run in the heart of Sol since 1860, keeping a rare old-Madrid habit: separate counters for ordering food and drink. Bacalao is the constant on the menu: the house soldaditos de pavia (battered, fried cod strips), which won the Academia Madrileña de Gastronomía's 2023 Premio al Plato Castizo, sit alongside croquetas de bacalao and cod worked through dishes like bacalao al ajoarriero and a cod omelette. The cod croquetas and tajadas are the taberna's signature order. Spain's Socialist Party was founded inside these same walls in 1879, and owners Manuel and Álvaro Molina run the place today.

“las croquetas de bacalao son la seña de identidad de esta mítica taberna de Madrid”— El Blog de Celeste

Bib GourmandRepsol

Treze, on Calle General Pardiñas, is chef Saúl Sanz's bar built around cocina cinegética, game cooking, with suggestions that change almost daily. It started in 2010 as a neighbourhood bistro at number 13 of Calle San Bernardino, which gave it its name. Amid that shifting carta, a short list of fixtures never leaves: the torreznos (€7 or €14) and Ibérico ham croquettes (€9 for a half portion, €15 for a full one), ordered alongside ensaladilla rusa and stews of veal snout, sweetbreads and cheek. Alongside the restaurant, Treze Bar covers the aperitivo, a glass of wine or a caña, and drinks after work. Treze holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand and a Guía Repsol Sol. Sanz also runs the more informal TerZio nearby, on the same street.

“no faltan las croquetas caseras de jamón ibérico”— El Blog de Celeste

Repsol

La Catapa opened on Calle Menorca in Retiro after chef Miguel Ángel Jiménez stepped away from fine dining, having cooked at Madrid rooms like El Comedor, Príncipe de Viana and El Amparo since starting hospitality school in 1987. Beyond the rotating seafood selection laid out at the bar, house favourites include potato and truffle croquettes and cecina, and the kitchen won the Academia Madrileña de Gastronomía's Best Bar/Taberna award in 2025. La Catapa also runs a serious wine list, with attention to small producers, and its sherry selection runs from manzanillas and finos to amontillados, olorosos and palo cortados.

“sus soberbias y famosas croquetas de patata y trufa”— Time Out Madrid

Bib Gourmand

Las Tortillas de Gabino, on Calle de Rafael Calvo in Chamberí, belongs to Familia La Ancha, the Redruello family's restaurant group, whose history runs back to a first family taberna in 1919; it's run today by fourth-generation Nino Redruello in the kitchen and Santiago in management. Chef Nino Redruello opened it in 2005 as his first restaurant. Tortillas carry the name, but the carta also runs to Idiazábal croquettes and Ibérico ham croquettes, alongside Romy's gazpacho, marinated and fried anchovies, and a wild-mushroom risotto. Every tortilla is made to order, including the Velazqueña, the classic Gabino first made at La Ancha. The restaurant holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand.

“Con un equilibrio de sabor perfecto, destacan por su bechamel fina y su rebozado crujiente”— El Blog de Celeste

Barra Alta Madrid sits on Calle de Lagasca in Recoletos, the Madrid outpost of chef Daniel Roca's Barra Alta in Barcelona. The Mediterranean menu, with international touches and nods to his grandmother's cooking, lists a slow-roasted meat and foie croquette, made with Rougié foie gras (€3.10), and a lobster bomba, a crispy lobster croquette with brava sauce and roasted-garlic mayonnaise in the Barceloneta style (€5). A boletus-and-pancetta croqueta also rotates onto the menu. It's a modern, trendy room running two sittings a day, Monday to Saturday, in the €51 to €100 per person range.

“no faltan guiños a la cocina de su abuela, y sin duda las croquetas están entre las mejores de Madrid”— Madrid Secreto

Restaurante Cokima, on Calle de Andrés Mellado in Chamberí's Gaztambide area, is part of Grupo Tombo and swings between castizo Madrid recipes and more exotic plates, with a terrace and a cocktail-friendly room that closes on Tuesdays. Its Joselito ham croquette, finished with a veil of Ibérico pork jowl, is priced at €3 and opens a sharing-style menu that also runs to gyozas and bao. The croqueta has stayed on the menu unchanged for five years, made with fresh milk in the bechamel. Time Out separately names the same croqueta, sold by the unit, among its own Madrid picks.

“Su croqueta es el único plato que ha permanecido inalterable en la carta durante cinco años”— Revista El Duende

Zalamero is the project of two sommeliers, Ana Losada and David Moreno, on Calle de Narváez in the Ibiza neighbourhood, pairing wine by the glass with market cooking. The menu lists croquetas in four or eight pieces, roast chicken, garlic prawn or Jamón Ibérico de Bellota, at €18 for a full portion or €9 for a half, plus a mixed tapa of three, chicken, ham and garlic prawn, for €8. Madrid Secreto reports the Ibérico ham version was among seven finalists in an edition of Spain's Best Jamón Croqueta contest, run by Madrid Fusión and Sánchez Romero Carvajal. The menu also runs to caballa escabechada and roast coquelet.

“Su croqueta de jamón ibérico se encuentra entre las 7 finalistas de la novena edición del Concurso a la Mejor Croqueta de Jamón de España”— Madrid Secreto

Bib Gourmand

La Barra de la Tasquería, on Calle del Duque de Sesto, is chef Adrián Collantes's return to this room after stops at El Mesón de Doña Filo, La Tasquería and El Lince, plus a spell in Australia; his steak tartare separately won the V Campeonato de Steak Tartar in Girona. The kitchen's own text calls its Ibérico ham croquette (€3.75) a finalist for the world's best croquette at Madrid Fusión 2025, served alongside gildas, callos cooked over three days and morros confited under fabada foam. The carta runs from tapas and seasonal produce through traditional stews, and the restaurant holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand.

“Fueron finalistas a la Mejor Croqueta de España en Madrid Fusión 2025”— Time Out Madrid

Bib GourmandRepsol Recommended

Tres por Cuatro, on Calle Montesa, comes from chef Álex Marugán, who cooked in Saint Tropez and in Madrid's nikkei scene before opening in 2017 with a team, including chef Santi and André, that met at Barra M and carries a Peruvian, Latin thread through the cooking. A short list of fixtures never leaves the carta: house torreznos and the Joselito Ibérico ham croquette, both priced at €3.50 each, alongside rossejat, a taco and callos. El Blog de Celeste reports the croqueta was a finalist in the Mejores Croquetas de Jamón de Madrid Fusión 2024 competition. The restaurant holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand and a Guía Repsol Recomendado listing.

“fueron finalistas en el concurso Mejores croquetas de Jamón de Madrid Fusión 2024”— El Blog de Celeste

Repsol

El Lince is Javier Estévez's return to more traditional, accessible Spanish cooking after founding La Tasquería, which won a Michelin star in 2019. It opened in June 2022 in the premises of El Lince Casa Avelino, a 1960s bar, keeping both the name and the old neon sign. The original room on Calle del Príncipe de Vergara has since been joined by a second location on Plaza Pedro Zerolo, in Chueca. Snacks start small: cecina croquettes (€3.50), a Gilda, a beef-cheek brioche and a half ensaladilla rusa, before the menu moves into breaded lamb brains, roasted pork shank and a potato tortilla topped with tripe stew. El Lince is open Tuesday to Saturday from 13:00 to midnight without a break, and Sunday from 13:15 to 16:00, and it holds a Guía Repsol Sol.

“con un sabor que engancha”— El Blog de Celeste

Michelin SelectedRepsol

Ramón Freixa Tradición sits alongside its sister restaurant in Barrio de Salamanca, the more accessible half of a project from a chef who holds two Michelin stars next door at Ramón Freixa Atelier. The carta opens with 100% Ibérico Montaraz ham and coppa, then the ham croquette, sold by the unit, which the venue's own menu describes as very good. Cantabrian anchovies with Payoyo cheese cream and oysters served three ways follow, before the carta moves into stews, rice dishes and casseroles. The restaurant's own Tradición subtitle points to why the croqueta holds a prominent place on the menu. It holds a Guía Repsol Sol.

“super buena”— Time Out Madrid

Casa Mortero, on Calle de Zorrilla in Centro, is run by Pedro Gallego Gallego, who has spent 18 years in kitchens and asks that his cooking be described plainly: in his own words, it "is what you see." The carta runs from Gildas and creamy croquettes to semi-cured Ibérico presa, torreznos and escabeches of red tuna, on to callos a la madrileña and lentils with wild boar. It opened in September 2020 on Calle Zorrilla. The croquettes, made with Iberian ham, are priced at €15 for a full order or €12 for a media ración. Casa Mortero is listed in the Michelin Guide and holds a Guía Repsol Recomendado. Time Out includes it in its own dedicated croqueta roundup alongside the rest of this list.

Repsol

StreetXO, on Calle de Serrano, is chef Dabiz Muñoz's street-food-inflected room, part of an XO universe that holds four Michelin stars and whose chef has been named the world's best three years running, in 2021, 2022 and 2023. The kitchen reworks the croqueta as nigiri: four to a serving, topped with either akami bluefin tuna or a gochujang beef tartare, priced €19 to €20, alongside dishes like a Tokyo salmon aguachile and Peking dumplings. Pedroches croquette nigiri, using milk from La Pedroche sheep, runs €20 for four pieces. El Blog de Celeste lists StreetXO's croqueta among its Madrid picks, grouping it with the kitchen's other fusion small plates. It holds a Guía Repsol Sol.

KRUDO occupies a cobalt-tiled stall inside the Mercado de Vallehermoso, chef Rafa Bergamo's raw bar with sommelier Paula Prokopiak, built on crudo preparations and fire-based technique after his earlier projects Kuoco and Hot Now. It opened in November 2024. Among the bocaditos that open a meal is the Croqueta Enchupetada, built from a shrimp broth base and crowned with red prawn tartare, Japanese mayonnaise and huacatay. Other bocados on the same menu include a tuna tartlet, a softshell-crab taco and saam wraps, alongside oysters served natural, with ponzu, aguachile or Thai dressing. KRUDO is closed on Mondays and holds a Guía Repsol Recomendado listing.

“croqueta enchupetada (a partir de una sopa de camarones) que coronan con tartar de gamba roja, mayo japo y huacatay”— Time Out Madrid

MichelinRepsol

La Tasquería, on Calle Modesto Lafuente in Chamberí, is the restaurant where Javier Estévez, later of El Lince, first built his casquería cooking; he trained under Julio Reoyo and was named chef revelación at Madrid Fusión in 2016. Head chef Nola, his longtime right hand, trained at the same school in Galicia and now runs the kitchen day to day, with pastry from Noe and the dining room led by Ana Moya. The terrace menu lists a croquette built on ropa vieja with a panko crust (€5), served among cold dishes like an ensaladilla with tuna and egg, and pork plates that run to a beef-cheek and carabinero prawn taco. La Tasquería holds a Michelin star, awarded in 2019.