Best Historic Restaurants in Madrid

Guinness World Records lists Botín, on Calle de Cuchilleros near Plaza Mayor, as the oldest restaurant in the world, open since 1725. The building runs to four floors that keep their eighteenth-century interiors, and the cochinillo asado, roast suckling pig, still comes out of the original firewood oven at the building's heart. Guinness names Ernest Hemingway among its past visitors, alongside royalty, politicians and other public figures over three centuries. It's listed as Recomendado in the Guía Repsol, and the cochinillo runs €32.50 on the current carta. It's open every day from 13:00 to 23:30, and while the crowd is heavier with visitors than at some of the tabernas on this list, the oven and the roast are the real draw, not the reputation alone.

“El restaurante más antiguo del mundo, rey del Madrid de los Austrias”— Madrid Secreto

Lhardy opened in 1839, when the Frenchman Emilio Huguenin Lhardy founded it as a pastry shop before expanding into full meals on Carrera de San Jerónimo. It claims a few Madrid firsts, separate individual tables, silver cutlery and white tablecloths, none of them standard when it opened, plus the fixed-price menú del día concept Spanish restaurants still use. Cocido madrileño, served with a homemade tomato sauce on the side, is the house signature, priced at €68 as its own carta section, El Mítico Cocido de Lhardy. The mahogany facade dates from 1880, and Lhardy is a member of Madrid's Asociación de Restaurantes y Tabernas Centenarios, carrying a Recomendado listing in the Guía Repsol.

“No se puede concebir Madrid sin Lhardy”— Madrid Secreto, quoting the writer Azorín

Repsol

Casa Lucio has run on Cava Baja in La Latina since Lucio Blázquez opened it in November 1974, in a building that's held a tavern since 1720, when it was the Posada de San Pedro. The huevos rotos, fried eggs broken over potatoes, are the house signature, priced at €16.50, alongside the Revuelto Lucio, eggs scrambled with wild mushrooms and shrimp, at the same price. Lucio still prefers to be called a tabernero, and his children María del Carmen, Fernando and Javier now run the kitchen alongside him. It holds a Repsol Sol. Booking is recommended and the room fills fast, tiled walls and wooden tables across two floors and a ground-level bar, closed Mondays, Sunday evenings and all of August.

Michelin SelectedRepsol

Zalacaín opened in El Viso in 1973, and with Benjamín Urdiaín in the kitchen it became the first restaurant in Spain to earn three Michelin stars. Founder Jesús Oyarbide named it after Pío Baroja's novel Zalacaín el aventurero. It's now owned by Grupo Urrechu, with chef Íñigo Urrechu on gastronomic direction and Jorge Losa in the kitchen, while the dining room has stayed with Roberto Jiménez for more than 35 years. Two historic dishes remain on the carta: the Búcaro 'Don Pío,' a consommé gelée with smoked salmon, quail egg and caviar (€49), and bacalao Tellagorri, salt cod in the restaurant's own style (€39). It's recommended in the Michelin Guide, holds one Repsol Sol, and closes on Sundays and throughout August.

Casa Labra has run in Sol since 1860, built on bacalao, above all the soldaditos de pavia, battered and fried cod strips, it has served from the start. Spain's Socialist Party (PSOE) was founded within its walls in 1879, less than twenty years after it opened. It keeps a rare old-Madrid habit: separate counters for ordering food and drink. In 2023, the soldaditos de pavia won the Premio al Plato Castizo at the Madrid Gastronomy Awards, accepted by current owners Manuel and Álvaro Molina. It holds a Repsol Solete and runs around €25 or under per person. It's open daily, 11:30 to 15:30 and 18:30 to 23:30, walk-in only.

“Aquí el 2 de mayo de 1879 Pablo Iglesias fundó el Partido Socialista Obrero Español”— Madrid Secreto

Casa Pedro traces back to 1702, when the family opened a pilgrims' inn in what was then the village of Fuencarral, taking in travellers on the road north out of Madrid, trading first as Casa de la Pascuala. Three centuries on it's still a family kitchen in Valverde, run by Pedro Guiñales with his daughter Irene alongside him, and it's a member of Madrid's Asociación de Restaurantes y Tabernas Centenarios. The cooking is unhurried Castilian: slow-cooked guisos, classic escabeches, and roast lamb and suckling pig from the oven. In 2025, the Academia Madrileña de Gastronomía gave Pedro Guiñales its Reconocimiento a Toda una Vida, calling him part of the living memory of Madrid's cooking. It holds a Recomendado in the Guía Repsol.

“Fundada en 1702 en el antiguo pueblo de Fuencarral, hoy parte del municipio de Madrid, Casa Pedro fue fonda y casa de comidas que atendía a los viajeros procedentes del camino de Francia”— Mirador Madrid

Bodega La Ardosa opened in 1892, founded by Rafael Fernández Bagena, a Toledo vineyard owner, as one of a chain of Ardosa bodegas selling his own wine and vermut. Its own-recipe vermut still pours from a dedicated tap, alongside classics like tortilla de patatas, salmorejo with jamón and egg, and a croqueta lineup in cabrales, shrimp, cecina and bacalao versions. El Español credits it as one of the first bars in Madrid to bring in imported beer. It's open daily, Monday to Friday from 08:30 and weekends from 11:45, running late. Prices stay low: the pincho de tortilla runs €3.60 and croquetas de cabrales or jamón €12.

“las croquetas y tortillas llevan haciendo la boca agua a su clientela desde 1892”— Madrid Secreto

Café Comercial opened in 1887 on Glorieta de Bilbao and became a fixture for Madrid's writers, poet Antonio Machado among them. It stayed open 128 years straight before a bureaucratic closure forced it shut; it reopened in March 2017, renovated but keeping the same period character, described at the time as preserving its "glamour castizo." Today, gastronomy director Pepe Roch oversees a Thursday cocido, a twelve-hour broth with Fuentesaúco chickpeas. The rest of the week leans into weekend brunch, eggs Benedict, burrata with Iberian tomato and pancakes, served Saturdays and Sundays from 10am for €28, including a coffee, tea, hot chocolate or fresh orange juice. It holds a Repsol Solete.

“Estuvo abierto ininterrumpidamente la friolera de 128 años”— Madrid Secreto

Casa Alberto calls itself a taberna centenaria, its 1827 founding recorded on a plaque the Ayuntamiento de Madrid set into the floor at the entrance, on Calle de las Huertas in Barrio de las Letras. The current building went up over an earlier mid-sixteenth-century one where Miguel de Cervantes lived; the Restaurantes Centenarios association says he wrote part of the second Don Quixote there. Casa Alberto is on the Ayuntamiento's Comercios Centenarios register. The classics are callos, caracoles a la madrileña, rabo estofado, carrillada de ternera and bacalao a la madrileña, and every dish can be eaten at the bar. It's Recomendado in the Guía Repsol and is closed Mondays.

“Casa Alberto se ubica en el mismo edificio donde se dice que vivió Miguel de Cervantes, en la calle Huertas”— Mirador Madrid

Los Galayos has operated right off Plaza Mayor since 1894, per the venue's own site, splitting into a formal restaurant, with five private salons and terrace seating onto the square, and a separate historic tavern with a hand-carved wooden counter. Castilian roasts anchor the dining room, cochinillo above all, while the tavern side runs classics like ensaladilla rusa and cocido. Time Out Madrid rated it 4 out of 5 stars, noting that despite sitting on the edge of the square, it isn't a tourist-hunting spot. It's Recomendado in the Guía Repsol, open seven days a week, closed only on the night of December 24, with a kitchen running continuously from 11:30am to 11:30pm.

“Los Galayos es una de esas tabernas y restaurantes centenarios que nunca han dejado de ser frecuentadas por los vecinos, ni siquiera en estos tiempos de auge turístico”— Mirador Madrid

Las Cuevas de Luis Candelas has run on Calle de Cuchilleros, next to Plaza Mayor, since 1860, named for the nineteenth-century bandit who, per local lore, met his crew under the Arco de Cuchilleros nearby. Staff still dress in period costume, and the restaurant's own line is that every visitor is welcomed by Candelas himself. The kitchen roasts suckling pig and suckling lamb in a wood-fired oven, alongside callos a la madrileña and cocido de puchero. Four dining rooms and a terrace over the arch seat 140. It runs €51 to €100 per person and is open daily, 12:45 to 15:45 and 19:45 to 23:30.

“también en 1860 se inaugura Las Cuevas de Luis Candelas, llamado así en honor al bandolero que, tras sus fechorías, se reunía bajo el Arco de Cichilleros con su cuadrilla”— Mirador Madrid

Viva Madrid has poured drinks from the same Barrio de las Letras address since 1856, per its own branding, Viva Madrid 1856, inside a building known for its glazed ceramic tiles, magnificent bars and counters, and a coffered ceiling original to the space. Bartender Diego Cabrera led a 2018 reopening that revived its aperitivo traditions, and the drinks list now runs to signature pours like La Gilda del Viva and an Espresso Martini alongside traditional tapas. Regulars and staff describe the place with a kind of affectionate shorthand rather than a formal pitch. It's open daily, no reservations required, noon to 2am on weekdays and later on weekends, and most cocktails run €13 to €14.

“El Viva es el Viva”— Time Out Madrid

Casa Dani, also known as Vinos 11, has poured wine on Calle Calatrava in Madrid's Palacio quarter since 1861, one of old Madrid's marble-topped tabernas; its own site still trades on that date, describing itself as the place where old Madrid hides, since 1861. The format is classic taberna eating: jamón ibérico de bellota, cheese, lomo, chicharrones, cecina, bonito and conservas, with wine from the bar as the point rather than a kitchen production. There's a bar for standing service, the room reads classic, cosy and rustic, and it carries no Michelin or Guía Repsol distinction, listed here purely as a historic neighbourhood address. It runs under €25 per person and is closed Sundays.

El Anciano Rey de los Vinos has run on Calle Bailén in Palacio, facing the Royal Palace area, since 1909, and is on the Ayuntamiento de Madrid's Comercios Centenarios register, holding the Comunidad de Madrid's Establecimiento Centenario designation. Traditional Madrid tavern cooking is served as tapas and sharing plates: patatas bravas at €8.50, callos a la madrileña at €17.50, jamón ibérico at €23.50. There's a bar inside and a terrace outside with a view, and the wine list runs to Rioja, Ribera del Duero and Rueda by the glass or bottle. It's closed Tuesdays, otherwise open roughly 9:30am to 11:30pm.

“Es ya clásico servir aquí su tradicional vino con una galletita y oblea dulce”— Mirador Madrid

La Tasca Suprema has traded on Calle Argensola in Justicia since 1890, and it still runs on the tasca pattern: a bar, a classic room, two long services a day and plenty of noise between them. According to a local guide, its own name nods to the nearby Tribunal Supremo. The kitchen keeps to cocina tradicional madrileña, callos, cocido and pisto, what the venue itself calls cooking the way it's always been done. A meal runs €26 to €50 per person, with croquetas de jamón ibérico at €9 and callos a la madrileña at €11. It's open Monday to Saturday, 13:00 to 17:00 and 20:00 to midnight.

“Su nombre está influenciado por la proximidad del Tribunal Supremo”— Mirador Madrid