The kitchen offers two tasting menus: Vegetalia, built on seasonal vegetables and mushrooms with animal protein used only as seasoning, and Gastrobotánica, an omnivore menu that adds organic meats, fish and seafood. Beyond the beet tartar, look for marine rice built on a vegetable demiglace, roasted red cabbage finished over pine-cone embers, and Tudela artichokes with a black-garlic demiglace, one of more than ten vegetable demiglaces the kitchen has developed. Instead of wine there are vegetable wines, kombuchas and other fermented drinks.

Rodrigo de la Calle began at the Aranjuez hotel school in 1994. In 2000, after working at the Hotel Huerto del Cura in Elche, he coined the term gastrobotánica with the botanist Santiago Orts, and the two have researched plant species for his kitchen ever since. In 2007 he opened his own restaurant in Aranjuez, which won a Michelin star in November 2011, and in 2012 he set out what he called the Revolución Verde, the green revolution, a manifesto for vegetable-led haute cuisine.

In 2015 he opened El Invernadero, his personal retreat in the sierra at Collado Mediano, and it won a Michelin star the following year. In 2018 he moved it into Madrid, to Calle de Ponzano in Ríos Rosas, where it holds one Michelin star and two Repsol Soles, the Soles since 2016. Michelin added a Green Star for sustainability in 2020, and since 2024 the We're Smart Green Guide has ranked it the best vegetable restaurant in the world, a title it held again in 2026.

There is no formal service in the usual sense: the cooks work behind a vegetable-lined counter and explain every dish themselves. Diners choose how close they want to be. The chef's table, next to the shared kitchen, is an omakase-style showcooking, with every dish cooked and plated live in front of the guest; a private table in the dining room keeps the same chef's menu with a more conventional, exclusive room service.

There are two lines, each in two sizes. Vegetalia is built on seasonal vegetables and mushrooms, more than fifteen courses that shift with nature and the weather, and can be served fully vegetarian or vegan; it costs €158 per person. Gastrobotánica is the omnivore menu, a classic structure with organic and farm-raised meats, fish and shellfish alongside the vegetable dishes, at €168, and it cannot be adapted to vegetarian or vegan versions.

Each has an Experience version that includes everything, drinks pairing, water, bread, cheeses and infusions: Vegetalia Experience at €218 and Gastrobotánica Experience at €228. The whole table must take the same menu.

El Invernadero does not pair its menus with a conventional wine list. Instead it serves vegetable wines, kombuchas and other fermented drinks, built alongside more than ten house vegetable demiglaces, and diners can ask for a cocktail pairing with either menu.

El Invernadero serves dinner from Tuesday to Saturday, 19:00 to 23:30, and lunch on Saturday, 14:00 to 16:00; it is closed on Sunday and Monday. Tables are booked online through CoverManager, which takes a card as a guarantee: nothing is charged unless the booking is cancelled less than 24 hours ahead, in which case the fee is €90 per person.

Allergies, restrictions and anything you would rather not eat must be flagged when booking; otherwise the kitchen cannot guarantee changes. Babies and children are welcome, with a children's menu adapted to their tastes if you let the restaurant know. The nearest metro station is Ríos Rosas, on Line 1.

The name is shared by several unrelated places in and around Madrid, from neighbourhood restaurants to cafés. The Michelin-starred El Invernadero is Rodrigo de la Calle's, at Calle de Ponzano 85 in Chamberí; its original home in Collado Mediano, where it won its first star, was the starting point for the restaurant that moved into the city in 2018.