Beyond the merluza de pincho, the kitchen turns out huevos fritos especiales con carabinero. On the wine side, staff skip the usual pairing language altogether and talk about 'armonías,' harmonies, instead. The cellar holds more than 1,000 references, with roughly 600 of those actually on the printed list.

Alabaster is the Madrid restaurant of Grupo Amicalia, the group behind Alborada in A Coruña, which also runs A Mundiña, Omakase and Camarote. It sits at Calle de Montalbán 9, in Jerónimos by the Prado and the Retiro, and brings Galician cooking to the city. It is recommended in the Michelin Guide and holds one Repsol Sol. Antonio Hernando leads the kitchen and Óscar Marcos the dining room; Marcos trained at the Hotel Escuela de Colmenar and then spent years at Zalacaín under Custodio López Zamarra, Benjamín Urdiain and José Jiménez Blas.

Alabaster opened in February 2014 as the Madrid debut of the A Coruña group, whose Alborada then held a Michelin star, and that October it won the Millésime Madrid award for opening of the year. The Guía Repsol gave it its Sol in 2015. From the start, the pitch was fish and shellfish sent directly from the A Coruña markets, cooked by a team drawn from some of Spain's best restaurants.

The carta is Galician at heart. Starters run from Galician empanada (€20) and crayfish croquettes to smoked sardine with Arzúa cheese on brioche, ravioli filled with Galician stew, grilled octopus, clams stewed in green seaweed sauce, a seafood salad with crab and crayfish, and jumbo red prawns with potatoes and fried egg (€37). Mains include hake with lime pil-pil, steamed ray in black butter, John Dory, monkfish, Rubia Gallega steak tartare, roast pigeon with foie royale and a Galician beef sirloin, mostly between €26 and €36.

The Alabaster tasting menu costs €85, or with the sommelier's pairing for €44 more.

Alabaster avoids the word 'pairing' and talks about harmonies instead: choosing the right wine, it says, makes both the dish and the pleasure exponential. The cellar holds more than 1,000 references, around 600 of them on the list, with singular and special bottles.

The restaurant has two large dining rooms, private rooms and a bar area, all designed with close attention to detail. For groups there are set menus with wine included: Menú Alabaster at €70, with snacks, three half-portion mains and dessert, and a Menú Especial at €90; both can be adapted for allergies and intolerances. Children are welcome, with high chairs, there's a terrace in summer, and the kitchen can cater for coeliac and vegan diners.

Alabaster is open Monday to Saturday, 13:30 to 15:30 and 20:30 to 22:30, and is closed on Sunday. Book through the reservation link on its page, call 915 12 11 31, or email info@restaurantealabaster.com.