Arima keeps a Basque bar and a restaurant carta side by side. At the bar there are traditional gildas and the Gilda Joxefa, Stilton croquettes, Orly prawns, piquillo fritters filled with béchamel and minced meat, fried hake with cured yolk and Espelette, and a house pastrami brioche. The restaurant carta runs from ajo blanco with smoked sardine and tempura piparras with wagyu cecina to chipirones in their ink, tempura hake in the style of Eneko, callos with trotter and snout, braised Ibérico cheeks and a roast old-cow striploin sold by the 500 grams, finishing with pastel vasco.

Arima means soul in Euskera. The bar on Calle de Ponzano is owned by Nagore Irazuegi with Rodrigo García, known as Rodri, who later opened Bascoat with her. The menu carries family history: Nagore's great-grandmother Joxefa left the Basque Country for Uruguay as a young woman, and the Gilda Joxefa is named for her. Painted logs used as high tables are a nod to the Bosque de Oma. Arima holds one Sol in the Guía Repsol.

Arima opened on Ponzano in 2016, and nearly a decade on it has outlasted plenty of the street's openings. In 2025 the team started a new stage under the motto 'Volver a lo nuestro', back to our own: a more mature and accessible Arima, framed as a modern casa de comidas you come back to again and again without pressure. The seven-course tasting menu at €55 was the centrepiece of that relaunch, and it's meant to change with the seasons.

Irazuegi has said that with Madrid's constant openings and closures, it matters more than ever to look after the places that last and have built history and memory in the city. The bar remains the heart of the house: some of its plates are shared with the restaurant carta, others exist only there.

The bar menu is built on pintxos and small plates: a traditional gilda (€2.80) and the Gilda Joxefa (€3), Stilton croquettes (€5 for two), wagyu cecina flautas (€13), a matrimonio of cured and pickled anchovies on dried tomato (€10), Coppa Ibérica on crystal bread (€9), old-cow tartare on rye (€13), Orly prawns (€6), piquillo fritters stuffed with béchamel and mince (€6), a house pastrami brioche with tartare sauce (€12), fried baby squid with citrus alioli (€12) and a blue-corn taco of pig's ear (€10).

The sit-down carta goes further. The Gilda Joxefa comes on puffed bread filled with piparra mayonnaise, olive cream, salted anchovy and olive-oil pearls (€3.10). Then come ajo blanco with smoked sardine, grapes and almonds (€11.50), tempura piparras with wagyu cecina (€16), leeks with truffled mayonnaise and honey (€15), roast mushroom with Ibérico ham (€18.50), chipirones in their ink (€22), hake in tempura in the style of Eneko (€23.50), cockles in garlic and lemon (€24), callos with trotter and snout, homemade crisps and spicy chorizo (€18), braised Ibérico cheeks (€23) and old-cow tartare (€24). Monkfish is €65 a kilo and the roast old-cow striploin €50 per 500 grams. Pastel vasco with ice cream from Obrador Grate is €10.

The tasting menu is seven courses for €55, served to the whole table, drinks not included: a house aperitif, the Gilda Joxefa, Coppa Joselito, a Stilton croquette, confit artichokes, chipirones in their ink, callos or braised cheeks, and pastel vasco. The wine list is mostly Spanish, with Txakoli from Gorrondona and Ondarea alongside Rías Baixas, Bierzo, Rioja, Ribera and Madrid, with a few from the Mosel, Chablis, the Jura, Burgundy, Bordeaux and Piedmont, and the Basque sparkling Izar Leku.

Arima is open Tuesday to Saturday for lunch from 13:30 to 17:00 and from 20:00 in the evening, until 01:00 Tuesday to Thursday and 01:30 on Friday and Saturday, and is closed on Sunday and Monday. Book online through its site or call +34 911 091 599. Gift vouchers are sold on the site.