The carta runs to small bites and plates, several of them available as half portions: razor clams with parsley rice, grilled turbot with garlic, chili and parsley, a Gilda 2.0 built on Beasain pudding and hake pastry, sole with roasted chicken-skin jus and fish collagen. García carves meat and fish tableside with specialised knives from Les Couteliers Basques, folding curry, licorice and horseradish into otherwise traditional Basque plates.

Chef Rodrigo García and co-founder Nagore Irazuegi spent seven years developing their ideas at Arima, their Basque tavern on Calle Ponzano, before opening Bascoat on Paseo de la Habana, near the Santiago Bernabéu. García runs the kitchen and carves fish and meat at the table; Irazuegi runs the dining room. Bascoat is recommended in the Michelin Guide, holds two Repsol Soles, won best opening at the TheFork Awards 2023, and received an honourable mention for Restaurante del Año at the 2025 Premios Metrópoli. The two restaurants now work as sisters: Arima is the unpretentious tavern to come back to, and Bascoat the more ambitious, experimental room. OAD ranked Bascoat 318th in its Europe Top Restaurants list for 2025 and 267th in 2026.

The carta nods to its roots: the Gilda 2.0 (€4.80), with piparra mayonnaise, anchovy and olive cream, is dedicated to Arima, and a liquid chorizo omelette bite to Diego Guerrero. Agur hand-salted anchovies are served six to a plate with black pepper and txakoli vinegar (€39), alongside a raw kiskilla prawn tartlet, a corn talo with aged-beef tartare and a leek with Huelva white prawn on puff pastry.

Fish runs from txangurro ravioli and hake in green sauce to four-year-aged carnaroli rice with clams, grilled squid in its ink, and whole turbot and sole from the grill, priced by weight; the sole comes with a pil-pil of roast chicken, lemon and its own collagen. From the land there is lamb neck with roasted-garlic praline and feta, pigeon, and a dry-aged Simmental txuleta at €125 per kilo. Several dishes can be split into two plated half portions; whole fish, the txuleta, the anchovies and the sides are served to the centre to share. Bread service is €4, or €5 gluten-free.

For something set, there is a 13-course tasting menu at €170, served to the whole table.

The wine list, headed with the old line about old wood to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust and old authors to read, runs to more than 300 bottles and opens with Champagne, almost all of it from grower houses and set out by sub-region: Côte des Blancs names such as JL Vergnon, André Robert and Agnès Corbon, Montagne de Reims producers such as Fabien Bergeronneau, Guillaume Sergent and Herbert & Co, and Vallée de la Marne houses such as Tarlant, up to a 2002 L'Étincelante. After Spanish sparkling wines, the whites follow the map of Spain, from Getaria and Bizkaia txakoli to Ribeira Sacra, Bierzo, Rioja, Rías Baixas, Madrid, Cádiz and the Canary Islands, before an international section that reaches Germany, Portugal, Greece, Italy, Hungary, Austria, Chile, the US and South Africa, then rosés, Spanish and international reds, and sweet wines.

The bar has its own list of 2025 signature cocktails at €16, each tagged by the family of classic it riffs on: a Royal Bramble with rum, Chambord and blackberry; an Espresso Pucón with pisco, coffee, banana and cinnamon; a Sherry Mary built on Jerez, tomato, rhubarb and Espelette pepper; and a Juli-Mule with shiso-infused mezcal and clove.

Natural wood, animal hides and iron detailing run through two dining rooms designed to feel like a contemporary Basque farmhouse, behind a façade that nods to the sculptor Chillida. García's carving knives come from Les Couteliers Basques. There is a terrace.

Bascoat serves lunch and dinner Monday to Friday, 13:30 to 15:30 and 20:30 to 22:30, and lunch only on Saturday; it is closed on Sunday. Book online through the restaurant's website, by email at reservas@bascoatmadrid.com, or by phone on 680 404 257. Keep the number of diners the same as the booking, or call ahead if it changes. The room is small, so there is no space for pushchairs, no high chairs and no children's menu.