It's Mediterranean-Japanese, or nikkei, fusion built for sharing, served from a carta or as a tasting menu. When you can't get a table, the kitchen also runs 'BACIRA EN CASA,' a home-delivery arm of the same cooking.

Bacira is the joint project of three chefs who run the kitchen as equal partners. Carlos Langreo came up through national tradition and fusion at the Gran Meliá Fénix, La Maruca, 99 Sushi Bar and Nikkei 225. Vicente de la Red's CV runs through Michelin-starred kitchens including El Celler de Can Roca, Aponiente and Mesón de Doña Filo. Gabriel Zapata, from Chile, discovered Japanese cooking there and worked as a sushiman in Spain at Nikkei 225 and Distrito 798. From the castizo heart of Chamberí they built a place where the Mediterranean and Asia join hands, which they frame as a celebration of friendship, effort and love of cooking. Bacira holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand and is recommended by the Guía Repsol.

Bacira isn't a word. It's built from the second and third letters of the three chefs' first names, rearranged: gABriel, vICente and cARlos. The trio met cooking at Nikkei 225, then built up experience in different kitchens, Distrito 798, Kabuki and Viridiana among them, before pooling what they'd learned in their own place.

Zapata found his calling in his native Chile, where he first met Japanese cooking, and came to Spain in 2006, working as a sushiman at Wasabi and Sushi House in Palma de Mallorca before Nikkei 225 and Distrito 798 in Madrid. De la Red's CV also takes in the Abama hotel in Tenerife and Madrid's Urkiola Mendi, Viridiana and Kabuki. Langreo worked both the dining room and the kitchen before settling at the stoves, with La Nueva Fontana and Martinete among his Madrid stops.

The cooking is Mediterranean with Japanese and nikkei technique, built for sharing. The carta runs from Daniel Sorlut oysters, Pacific scallop with jalapeño aguachile and Julián Martín Ibérico ham croquettes (€2.75) to a Russian salad with smoked eel, corvina ceviche, spicy tuna tartare, Bilbao-style sea-bass tiradito and smoked sardines with coconut ajoblanco. Then come duck gyozas and siu mai, aubergine in kabayaki sauce, hake kokotxas, noodles with chistorra cream, a steak-tartare brioche and a lamb ingot with miso, plus nigiri (Bilbao-style sea bass, Santoña anchovy, flambéed unagi with foie) and makis. Desserts include the La Peral cheesecake and a caramelised torrija. The tasting menu runs to eight courses for €56 or eleven for €72, with wine pairings at €22 and €27.

The carta is meant to be a living one, changing with the market and the seasons, but a handful of dishes have become fixtures since the early years: the spicy tuna tartare with avocado, wakame and pink grapefruit (€22, or €16 for a half), which from the start they cut only minimally, leaving diners to break it up themselves; the smoked sardines with coconut ajoblanco, grapes, almonds and a Pedro Ximénez reduction (€16); the sea-bream tiradito with scallops and huancaína sauce (€21); and the caramelised torrija, now with leche merengada ice cream and a lemongrass infusion. Most sharing dishes come in half portions, and there are weekly off-menu specials. Bread service is €2.50 a head.

Tasting menus are served to the whole table; groups of six or more need to book 24 hours ahead, and the last menus go out at 15:00 at lunch and 22:30 at dinner. The bar mixes pisco sours, a spicy yuzu and a Tiramisu cocktail at €12, plus lemonades made with green apple, lychee or chicha morada.

Bacira is open Wednesday to Saturday from 13:00 to 16:00 and 20:30 to midnight, and on Tuesday and Sunday for lunch only; it is closed on Monday. Book through the reservation page on its site, call 91 866 40 30, or email info@bacira.es. It is a hard table to get; if you can't get in, Bacira en Casa delivers the same cooking at home. The room mixes industrial and classical touches with plenty of natural light.