Traditional Spanish, with Navarra influences, balanced and authentic, with house-made desserts. There's a full carta on Alcotán's own site, and the wine list stands out.

Alcotán opened in July 2021 in the space that for decades held the Ponteareas marisquería, and takes its name from a small migratory falcon. It sets out to recover a kind of Madrid restaurant that has mostly disappeared: the classic bourgeois dining room, with well-spaced tables, private rooms for discreet lunches, traditional cooking and old-school service. Aldaba closed in 2014, and Príncipe de Viana, run by the Oyarbide family who founded Zalacaín, has also gone, so dishes from both houses live on here.

The layout suits the model. There's a bar and a sitting area with sofas at the entrance, a small, discreet salita, a main dining room with big windows onto an interior garden, and two private rooms.

The carta is classic in both recipes and structure, and nearly everything comes as a half or full portion. Cold starters run from Iberian ham with torta de aceite, Cantabrian anchovies and smoked sardines to ensaladilla with bonito, a lobster salad, foie gras terrine and a salad of Landes quail en escabeche. Hot starters include a seasonal menestra that recalls Príncipe de Viana's, poached eggs with potato cream, truffle and celery, green beans with foie, lamb sweetbreads, a shellfish bisque and croquetas that change daily.

Fish is where the kitchen shines: fried hake with roasted peppers, bacalao al ajoarriero in homage to Príncipe de Viana, hake cocochas al pil-pil and wild sea bass. Meat brings solomillo a la bordelesa with bone marrow, a knife-cut steak tartare with soufflé potatoes, which you can also order by the platter, roast kid, oven-roasted pigeon and big meatballs with sauce española, foie and truffle. Desserts are house-made, tarte tatin, cheesecake, tocino de cielo and canutillos, the last learned from the Navarrese cook who created them.