Best Restaurants near Sol and Plaza Mayor

Botín has cooked from the same wood-fired oven on Calle de Cuchilleros, near Plaza Mayor, since 1725, and it comes from the original oven never having gone out; Guinness World Records lists it as the oldest restaurant in the world and names Ernest Hemingway among its past guests. The dish to order is cochinillo asado, roast suckling pig, with Castilian roast lamb also on the carta. The building runs to four floors that keep their eighteenth-century interiors, and it carries a Recomendado in the Guía Repsol. It's a formal, sit-down room rather than a bar stop, and reservations are worth making given how well known the address is.

“hoy es uno de los referentes indiscutibles de la cocina tradicional en Madrid”— esMadrid (Turismo Madrid)

Casa Labra has fried its soldaditos de pavia, battered strips of salt cod, since it opened in Sol in 1860, and it keeps a rare old-Madrid habit of separate counters for ordering food and drink. Spain's Socialist Party was founded inside its walls in 1879. Cod also turns up as croquetas and worked through bacalao al ajoarriero, alongside tortilla española, jamón ibérico cured for 36 months and vermouth on tap. In 2023 the Academia Madrileña de Gastronomía gave the soldaditos de pavia its Premio al Plato Castizo. It carries a Repsol Solete, and it's a stand-at-the-counter stop rather than a sit-down meal, with queues at busy times.

“Casa Labra y sus famosas croquetas de bacalao, tan deseadas que se forman largas colas para comprarlas.”— Time Out Madrid

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 just off Sol. Its house signature is cocido madrileño, the Madrid stew, served with a homemade tomato sauce on the side. The attached shop still runs sweet and savoury counters, and a street-level take-away serves its consommé to drink while walking. It carries a Recomendado in the Guía Repsol. The dining rooms are formal, and it's worth booking ahead for the cocido service in particular.

Los Galayos has operated right off Plaza Mayor since 1894, split into two parts: a formal dining room with five private salons and terrace seating onto the square, and a separate historic tavern built around a hand-carved 17th-century wooden counter. Castilian roasts anchor the formal room, cochinillo above all, while the tavern side runs classics like ensaladilla rusa and cocido. It carries a Recomendado in the Guía Repsol. The bar side works well for a quick tapas stop, while the dining room and terrace suit a sit-down meal looking onto the square.

“Pero si hay un lugar que se salva es Los Galayos”— Hule y Mantel

Las Cuevas de Luis Candelas has traded on Calle de Cuchilleros, next to Plaza Mayor, since 1860, and its staff still dress in period costume as the 19th-century bandit the restaurant is named for. The restaurant's own line is that every visitor is welcomed by Candelas himself, and that theme carries through the four dining rooms. The kitchen works from a wood-fired oven that roasts suckling pig and suckling lamb, alongside callos a la madrileña and cocido de puchero. Four dining rooms and a terrace over the Arco de Cuchilleros seat 140 in total. It's a formal, sit-down restaurant built for groups and special occasions rather than a quick stop.

Casa Alberto calls itself a taberna centenaria, on the Ayuntamiento de Madrid's Comercios Centenarios register with a 1827 founding recorded on a plaque at the entrance, on Calle de las Huertas in Barrio de las Letras. The current building went up over an earlier one where Miguel de Cervantes lived, and where the association of centenarian restaurants says he wrote part of the second Don Quixote. The kitchen keeps to callos, caracoles a la madrileña, rabo estofado, carrillada de ternera and bacalao a la madrileña, alongside newer plates like octopus with sweetbreads. Every dish can be eaten at the bar. It carries a Recomendado in the Guía Repsol.

“Con casi dos siglos a sus espaldas y situado en una casa en la que vivió Cervantes”— Hule y Mantel

MichelinRepsol

Paco Roncero has run the kitchen on the top floor of the Real Casino de Madrid, on Calle de Alcalá, since 2000, first as chef and later as gastronomic director; the restaurant took his name in 2019. It holds two Michelin stars and three Repsol Soles, and the signature dish is a truffle pizza on a dry meringue base, alongside a Parmigiano ice cream sandwich, an oxtail Wellington and red tuna belly. Three tasting menus run: Gran Madrid at 25 dishes, Madrid, Madrid, Madrid at 23 courses, and the shorter Esencia. The dining room, designed by Jaime Hayon, and the rooftop terrace look out over central Madrid. Reservations open 30 days ahead on the restaurant's own site.

MichelinRepsol

CEBO is the restaurant of Hotel Urban on Carrera de San Jerónimo, in the Cortes quarter just off Sol. Chefs Javier Sanz and Juan Sahuquillo, also behind Cañitas Maite in Albacete, took over the kitchen in October 2022 and regained its Michelin star within their first year, in the 2024 guide; it also holds two Repsol Soles. The 22-seat room serves two tasting menus, the 13-course Menú Clásicos and the 16-course Menú Temporada, built on the pair's own vegetable garden and small producers, and closing with wild strawberries and single-origin cacao. Their ham croquette, made with Joselito ham and sheep's milk butter, was named the best croquette in the world at Madrid Fusión 2021 and appears on both menus. Formal dress is expected, and shorts or open-toed shoes aren't allowed.

“un entorno cuidado y elegante, sin por ello postergar unos platos ingeniosos y exquisitos”— España Fascinante

Ticuí sits on Calle de Cedaceros in Cortes, a couple of streets from Sol, and is listed in the Michelin Guide. It opened in January 2023. It's the younger sibling of Puntarena, from the same group, pitched as a homage to everyday Mexican cooking that starts on the comal and passes between generations, reworked into a contemporary, intimate format made for sharing. Tortillas are made by hand each morning, and the kitchen works fresh fish, soft-shell crab and pulpo through a Pacific Mexican, ingredient-led menu. The kitchen is open to the room, and cocktails are a real part of the pitch. Dinner runs every night, with lunch added at weekends, and it carries a Recomendado in the Guía Repsol.

Askuabarra is an asador on Calle de Arlabán, a busier address in the middle of Sol than the quiet, modern room suggests. The Gadea brothers opened it in 2014. The cooking is built around sharing plates, works well for groups, and the room gets booked up, so it pays to reserve ahead rather than turn up on the night. It carries a Recomendado in the Guía Repsol. Lunch runs every day and dinner Monday to Saturday. It's a sit-down restaurant rather than a bar-and-go stop, tucked onto a side street that's easy to walk past despite sitting so close to Sol, and the intimate room means walk-ins aren't a safe bet.

La Cuadra de Salvador is an asador on Calle de los Madrazo in Cortes, a few streets south of Sol, listed in the Guía Repsol as Recomendado. It opened in December 2024 as the Madrid branch of a Lima steakhouse. The house builds its grill around USDA Prime beef, the top American grade for marbling and tenderness, in an elegant, intimate room with an open kitchen, a private dining option and a wine list to match. Expect over €100 per person, depending on the cut and the drinks. It's a formal, sit-down steakhouse suited to a special dinner rather than a quick stop, and it sits in the same stretch of Cortes as several of the area's other asadores.

Chuka Ramen Bar sits on Echegaray in Cortes, and carries a Solete in the Guía Repsol. It opened on 14 November 2014 as one of the first true ramen bars in Madrid. Chuka is Japan's own version of Chinese cooking, which is why the ramen shares a table with dishes a straight noodle shop wouldn't serve, among them steamed buns and sliced raw beef, Chuka-style. The kitchen works Tuesday to Saturday across two sittings, with the doors shut in between, so it's worth timing a visit around service hours rather than dropping in whenever.

“Una de las casas pioneras en servir ramen en Madrid y probablemente una de las mejores”— Hule y Mantel

El Cucurucho del Mar sits on Calle Postigo de San Martín in Barrio de los Austrias, a few streets from Plaza Mayor, and carries a Solete in the Guía Repsol. The venue describes itself as the work of two generations of vigueses, people from Vigo, cooking the family's recipes with a more contemporary touch. Produce-led Galician dishes anchor the carta: fresh zamburiñas, pulpo de Bueu with cachelos, first-rate Galician meats, pimientos de Padrón and a revuelto of Finisterre seaweed with sea urchin roe, alongside an Albariño or Ribeira Sacra to drink and filloas or tarta de Santiago to close.

La Huerta de Tudela sits on Calle del Prado in Barrio de las Letras, close to Sol, and is listed in the Guía Repsol as Recomendado. It's Ricardo Gil's Madrid restaurant, open since 2011. It takes its name from the huerta of Tudela in Navarra, a region known for its vegetables, and builds ingredient-led, traditional cooking around produce rather than meat or fish as the centrepiece. It runs à la carte alongside set menus, including a dedicated tasting menu for vegetarians, vegans and celiacs. Lunch runs daily, with dinner added later in the week, and it's one of the few genuinely vegetarian-forward kitchens in the immediate area.

Rosi la Loca, which trades as Rosi la Loca, sits on Calle de Cádiz in Sol and bills itself as the craziest and most fun taberna in Madrid, a colourful, fantastical world built around its namesake character. It's a cocktail-led taberna, with drinks as the centre of the offer and a kitchen that caters to vegetarians. It runs late into the early hours, which makes it more of a drinks-and-a-bite stop than a sit-down dinner destination, and it works well for a livelier night out than the historic tabernas nearby.

“es ideal si lo que buscamos es comer en un sitio rápido y original”— España Fascinante

La Casa de las Torrijas is a castizo taberna at Calle de la Paz 4, just off Sol, founded in 1907 by Luis Montón, the Tomelloso wine merchant who also founded El Anciano Rey de los Vinos, and it carries the Ayuntamiento's Comercio Centenario plaque. Its namesake torrijas, the fried bread pudding Spaniards eat around Easter, are soaked in milk or sweet wine, made daily and served all year here, alongside Madrid tavern cooking. It's open every day from 11:00 to midnight and comes in under €25 per person.