Best Tabernas in Madrid

Casa Alberto calls itself a taberna centenaria, its 1827 founding marked by a plaque the Ayuntamiento de Madrid set into the entrance floor. The building stands over an earlier one from the mid-sixteenth century where Miguel de Cervantes lived, and where the association of centenarian restaurants says he wrote part of the second Don Quixote. It started as a plain taberna pouring wine with hard-boiled eggs and dried cod, and those roots still show: callos, caracoles a la madrileña, manitas de cordero, rabo estofado, carrillada de ternera and bacalao a la madrileña anchor the carta, alongside newer plates like pulpo with sweetbreads and a vegetable menestra with egg yolk. Every dish can be eaten at the bar as well as at a table. It holds a Repsol Recomendado listing and sits on the Ayuntamiento's Comercios Centenarios register, and it's closed Mondays.

“Abierto desde 1827”— Time Out 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. More than a century on it's still a bar de toda la vida, the kind of narrow, tiled Universidad-neighbourhood taberna where nothing on the counter has changed much and nobody wants it to. It pours its own recipe vermut from a dedicated tap, and 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, both running late, with cards and contactless accepted and the full carta on the group's website.

“Solo traspasar las puertas de La Ardosa, te trasladará a esos bares de antaño”— Time Out Madrid

Casa Labra is a historic Madrid taberna that's kept the same Sol address since 1860, and it still runs the way old Madrid bars once did: separate counters, one for ordering food and one for drink, standing-room only at the busiest hours. Spain's Socialist Party was founded within its walls in 1879, and the taberna has poured vermouth on tap and fried its soldaditos de pavía ever since. It holds a Repsol Solete, and in 2023 the soldaditos took the Premio al Plato Castizo at the Madrid Gastronomy Awards. Not much has changed in the 160-plus years since it opened; traditional wooden frontals give it a classic tapas-bar look. It's quick and walk-in friendly despite the crowds, open daily year-round except January 1st.

“Famoso por ser el lugar de nacimiento del Partido Socialista Español en 1879”— Time Out Madrid

Bib Gourmand

La Barra de la Tasquería occupies Calle del Duque de Sesto 48, the room where Javi Estévez first opened La Tasquería before it moved on. Chef Adrián Collantes, Estévez's right hand for years across El Mesón de Doña Filo, La Tasquería and El Lince, came back as partner and head chef, keeping the original's soul with a more open, approachable style; the venue calls itself a taberna at heart with the soul of a restaurant. Casquería leads the carta: callos cooked over three days, pork snout confited then fried under fabada foam, veal and lamb sweetbreads, and brains, alongside a jamón croquette that was a Madrid Fusión finalist. It holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand, and Joaquín García runs an 80-strong wine list, about 70 percent available by the glass.

Taberna Laredo sits on Calle Doctor Castelo, between the Ibiza and Niño Jesús neighbourhoods, north-east of the Retiro, run together by brothers David, Javier and Miguel Laredo. The family opened its first taberna in 1993 and moved to this address in 2012. Tapas and raciones get served informally off a big bar counter, alongside a livelier, more modern room behind it, and the venue has become a meeting point for fine-dining regulars and wine professionals in its own right. The producto-driven, traditional Spanish cooking runs from jamón ibérico and croquetas to salmorejo, served in half or full portions. Miguel has overseen the wine program for more than 30 years, and the cellar runs to roughly 250 references with particular depth in champagne and Burgundy. It holds a Repsol Recomendado listing.

Michelin SelectedRepsol

La Llorería was born from friendship: chefs Carmen Alti and José Certucha met working together in a Madrid restaurant and opened their own place to keep cooking side by side. It opened in spring 2022. The room holds just four tables and eight bar stools in a narrow space styled like a traditional Spanish taberna but modernised, the kitchen working in the open behind the bar. It holds a Michelin Selected listing and one Repsol Sol. The chalkboard menu runs to small and half-portion plates named for their key ingredients: cauliflower with bacon and baby squid, corvina with yellow chili and pak choi, beef tendon with leek and mint, and duck cannelloni with chamomile. It's open weekdays only, and with so few seats, a reservation is essential.

Repsol

Viavélez runs two spaces under one roof on Avenida General Perón in Cuatro Caminos, a busy northern junction with a genuinely local eating scene. To reach the restaurant, you cross the taberna and go down a flight of stairs into a small room seating 25 to 30. Both sides now share a single carta, Spanish and traditional in register, with tasting menus available in the restaurant alongside a daily menu and wine list. Asturian-cuisine pioneer Paco Ron opened it in 2008 with his sister Sara, and since 2023 it has been run by Enrique Limón, who led the dining room from the start. It holds one Sol in the Guía Repsol. The room reads quiet, modern and intimate, with warm, polished service, and there's a terrace. It's closed Mondays, Sunday is lunch only, and Tuesday to Saturday it runs continuously from 11:00 to midnight.

'El Viva es el Viva,' the Viva is the Viva, is how regulars and staff sum up the personality of this taberna and cocktail bar in Barrio de las Letras, trading as Viva Madrid 1856. Bartender Diego Cabrera led a 2018 reopening that revived aperitivo traditions the venue had let lapse, working from the same building and its original glazed ceramic tiles, magnificent bars and counters, and a coffered ceiling. Beyond traditional tapas, the drinks list runs to signature pours like La Gilda del Viva, an Espresso Martini, a Bloody Mary and La Pareja Perfecta. It's a classic, lively room where tourists and locals mix at the bar, plus a terrace, open daily with no reservations required.

Taberna Marcano is chef David Marcano's contemporary Spanish restaurant in the Ibiza/Niño Jesús area, built on product quality with Basque roots and Asian and American influences; Marcano trained under Arzak. Chef David Marcano has run it since 2012. It splits into a dining room and a bar area with high seating overlooking the open kitchen, so you can watch the chefs work. The carta opens with the house gildas and a croqueta of the week, and runs to red tuna tartare with fried egg, squid in its ink and hake with squid in ink following Juan Mari Arzak's recipes, and veal cheeks. It's held a place in the Michelin Guide since 2015, per its own site, and holds a Repsol Recomendado listing.

Triana opened in 2006 as an Andalusian taberna near the Parque del Retiro, and sums itself up in three words: taberna, tapeo y tradición. The kitchen serves Andalusian recipes kept close to tradition with a few renewed touches, built from fresh market produce and served in half or full portions to share. It's listed in the Guía Repsol, and chef Rubén Amro has adapted almost the entire menu, 99 percent by the venue's own count, to a gluten-free certification, remaking breads and fried dishes so the recipes hold up. The room reads cheerful and welcoming, set up for groups with a separate events area, and a year-round terrace runs with heaters through winter. It's open daily from 12:30 to 1:00am.

Salvador Blázquez opened Casa Salvador in 1941, in the hard years after the Civil War, as a taberna taurina on Calle de Barbieri, between Chueca and Justicia. It drew a high-flying crowd that has never quite left, by the venue's own account: bankers like Alfonso Escámez and Pablo Garnica, bullfighters like Luis Miguel Dominguín, Victoriano Valencia and Paco Camino, actors like Charlton Heston, Alain Delon and Ava Gardner, the producer Samuel Bronston and the writer Ernest Hemingway. In 1976 his nephew Pepe Blázquez turned the taberna into a reference for cocina tradicional madrileña, known for callos a la madrileña, estofado de rabo de toro and Lenten potajes. It's listed in the Guía Repsol, closes for the whole of August, and the room still reads classic and rustic, doubling as a museum of the city's social and taurine history.

Casa Amadeo – Los Caracoles has worked Plaza de Cascorro, at the top of the Rastro in La Latina, since 1942. By the founder's own telling, Amadeo arrived in Madrid as a boy in 1940 and started as a taberna apprentice on the square; what began as a pure taberna of wine, aguardiente and a few olives grew into a kitchen once his mother and sister added raciones, and the caracoles, snails simmered simply with garlic, parsley and onion, became the draw. His children and grandchildren still run it today. The wider cocina de cuchara carries the rest of the carta: callos, oreja, judías viudas, rabo de toro and mejillones a la marinera, with raciones like bacalao, homemade croquetas and calamares a la romana, and a homemade arroz con leche for dessert. It's family-run, vintage in feel, and open daily, roughly 10am to midnight.

Casa Dani, also trading as Vinos 11, has poured wine on Calle Calatrava since 1861, one of old Madrid's marble-topped tabernas; its own site still trades on the date, calling itself the place 'donde se esconde el viejo Madrid desde 1861.' The room reads classic, cosy and rustic, built around marble-topped tables and a marble bar for leaning on, with regulars coming for jamón ibérico de bellota, cheese, lomo, chicharrones, cecina, bonito and mussels over a glass of wine rather than a long menu. It runs under €25 per person, there's standing bar service, and the menu is published on the venue's own site.

Zalamero started as a wine bar, the idea of two sommeliers, Ana and David, who wanted to share the people behind the wines they respect. The kitchen and dining room share the spotlight, wine running as the thread through both, with cooking that's traditional and Madrid to its core, updated for the present and built on seasonal produce. There are three spaces to sit: a lively bar for a quick glass and some tapas, a cosy dining room for a longer meal, and a terrace. It runs roughly €26 to €50 per person, has a wheelchair-accessible entrance and seating, and is closed Monday and Tuesday; it's dinner only Wednesday to Friday, with lunch added at the weekend.

By its own account, El Cisne Azul has spent forty years feeding wild-mushroom obsessives out of a small taberna on Gravina 19, before outgrowing the room; a second, larger restaurant later opened a few doors up at number 27. Wild mushrooms come first: setas silvestres, meats and cheeses take up most of the carta, ingredient-led rather than clever. It holds a Repsol Solete. Only the newer restaurant takes reservations; the original taberna at number 19 is first-come, first-served. It's closed Mondays, Sunday is lunch only, and a meal runs roughly €26 to €50 per person.

Taberna del Chato calls itself a personal project that began in 2012 in a small tavern in the Barrio de las Letras, and now pours on Calle de Andrés Mellado in Argüelles. Its take on tapas, served in small glasses called chatos, is where the name comes from: the idea, in its own words, is simple, honest, affordable food where people feel at home. The menu is built to share, a wide range of tapas served in chatos alongside Basque pinchos, montados and plates, with traditional standards like huevos con jamón, croquetas and calamari sitting next to more gourmet turns such as the house steak tartar. It stays budget-friendly, with group menus including drinks from €26, and it's an easy, informal, dog-friendly spot good for groups.