The cooking is international with the grill at its centre, product and sauces alongside, sweet and acid used to sharpen. Japanese touches run through it, dashi, ikura, wasabi, yuzu and shiso, worked into market vegetables and fish by curing, grilling, fermenting and pickling. Beyond the pichón, look for cogollo a la brasa with green curry and yogurt, capelletti of chipirones in ikura and dashi broth, and sweetbreads with polenta purée and huitlacoche cream.

Chispa Bistró opened in September 2022 on Calle del Barquillo, the project of Argentine chef Juan D'Onofrio and a team of eight. The team says it was born from their travels around the world, rooted in a vocation for cooking good product and reinterpreting traditional recipes, with a cooking free of dogma. It won its Michelin star at the November 2024 gala in Murcia, for the 2025 guide, and holds one Repsol Sol. When the star came, D'Onofrio was 27. OAD placed Chispa 509th in its Europe Top Restaurants list for 2025 and 535th in 2026, and the team has taken the kitchen on the road, from a guest-chef week at Carousel in London to the Madrid Food Fest in May 2026, where it brought its desserts.

D'Onofrio was born in Buenos Aires in 1997 and left an advertising degree after a few months to study cooking at the Escuela Lycée in 2017. A year later he moved to Barcelona to train at the Bellart school, then cooked with Álvaro Garrido at Mina in Bilbao and at Santceloni in Madrid. During the pandemic he went back to Argentina to work with Dante Liporace, formerly of elBulli, at Mercado de Liniers.

The current team includes head chef Álvaro López and sommelier Ismael Álvarez, who grew up in a winegrowing family in Tarancón and was sommelier for Ramón Freixa in Madrid and at Nerua in Bilbao's Guggenheim.

The cooking is international, with the grill at its centre, product and sauces alongside, and sweetness and acidity used to sharpen flavour, through curing, fermenting, pickling, smoking and, above all, the brasa. The carta runs in no fixed order, and cheese and dessert get as much attention as the rest.

Fuego Loco, the tasting menu, is €135, with a wine pairing at €85, and the signature squab in three servings (pichón en 3 vuelcos) can be added for €23. It is served to the whole table until 14:30 at lunch and 21:45 at dinner. Fuego Sereno, the à la carte, is shared in half portions, with dishes such as quisquilla with banana and palo cortado (€30), red mullet with orange (€38), the squab (€46) and an ojo de bife for the table (€60), plus a cheese board and desserts. It is available only at lunch Wednesday to Friday and dinner Wednesday and Thursday; Friday dinner and all of Saturday are Fuego Loco only.

The list runs to more than 400 Spanish and international references, built on origin, culture and pleasure and changed with the seasons like the pantry. Sommelier Ismael Álvarez runs it.

In September 2026 D'Onofrio opened Mecha, which Chispa calls its little brother, a few streets away at Calle del Almirante 11, in Salesas. It's a hi-fi restaurant and bar under vaulted ceilings built for the sound, where music, wine and cooking over fire share the billing, and it's run day to day by Sergi Cruz. Mecha opens in the evenings from Wednesday to Sunday and takes bookings for up to eight.

Chispa is open Wednesday to Saturday, lunch from 13:30 to 14:45 and dinner from 20:30 to 22:00, and closed Sunday to Tuesday. Book through CoverManager on its own site, for up to five people. Groups of six to 12 book the private room with a set menu: Ascua at €120 with three wines, Llama at €155 with four, or Fuego Loco at €220 with 12 wines. Larger groups arrange events by email.

For Saturday and for dinner, you accept a cancellation policy: free up to 24 hours before, then €60 per person, the same charge applying to no-shows. There are no vegetarian or vegan menus, severe allergies cannot be catered for, and there are no high chairs, pushchair space or children's menu. The restaurant closes for a summer break in August.