Goya and Mayor describe their own approach as mixing styles, gastronomic trips to other latitudes and other eras, on top of a seasonal, locally sourced base, best local suppliers and a slow-food spirit. Beyond what's on the printed menu, there's a run of off-menu dishes; the kitchen also runs as a casa de cocineros, a house of cooks, where chefs from Spain and beyond pass through the tables and sometimes the stoves.

Javier Goya, Javier Mayor and David Alfonso had been friends in and out of kitchens for years when they set out to build the restaurant they would most want to eat at, three cooks for a tricycle. They chose the Barrio de las Letras, and El Triciclo opened on Calle Santa María in 2013, a bistro that brought haute-cuisine technique within reach at an average spend of around €40 at the time, and it quickly became a success. It has since become the big brother of Grupo Triciclo, a team of more than 50 people, which won the Academia Madrileña de Gastronomía's business project award in 2025. It holds one Sol in the Guía Repsol and is listed in the Michelin Guide.

The kitchen works from the best local suppliers and seasonal produce, with a slow-food spirit and the aim of cooking that is pure and unpretentious. The carta changes with the seasons and is split between traditional flavours that honour the founders' roots and dishes picked up on their travels, with new techniques applied to the classics. Almost everything can be ordered as a full ración, a half or a third, so a table can try more.

Triciclo became the seed of a group that opened more places around the barrio and as far as the Casa de Campo. By 2023, its tenth year, David Alfonso had left the project, and in 2025 Javier Mayor followed, leaving Goya in sole charge. As he put it, of the three who started it, none of the original partnership remains. Around the corner Goya also runs the Taberna La Elisa, holds half of Villa Verbena in the Casa de Campo and shares the grill house SUA with a partner, and in 2025 he opened two restaurants in Zahara de los Atunes with chef José Fuentes.

The carta itself still runs on three ideas: pure product, such as carabinero roasted over vine shoots or a gleaming besugo cooked barely at all; more worked dishes with familiar flavours, like the oxtail and the confit suckling pig; and the dishes from their travels, such as the Nikkei ceviche. Desserts are the work of Japanese pastry chef Naoko.

The house classics include oysters served natural, dressed or grilled (€5 each), a toast of red tuna, avocado and corn (€11), besugo a la madrileña served barely cooked (€34, or €23 and €13 for a half and third), a Nikkei ceviche of wild corvina with rocoto (€29), carabinero grilled over vine shoots (€30), a free-range chicken taco stewed with red prawn (€11), the house steak tartare with egg and roe (€29), an oxtail cannelloni with mushroom sauce and pecorino (€24), grilled old-cow loin with peppers (€54 for 500 grams) and confit suckling pig cooked as Manolo de la Osa taught them (€36). The Menú Festival de Clásicos brings nine dishes and two desserts together for €92, with a vegetarian option, drinks not included, and wine pairings are available.

The shabby-chic space splits into a bar for drinks and snacks, a private room for groups and the main dining room in white and wood. From the start Triciclo was meant as a place of learning as well as eating, a casa de cocineros where top chefs from Spain and abroad pass through the tables and sometimes cook at the stoves. The wine cellar is billed as the jewel of the house.

El Triciclo is open Monday to Saturday for lunch from 13:00 to 16:00 and dinner from 20:00 to 23:00, and is closed on Sunday. Book through its site, by phone on +34 910 244 798 or by email at info@eltriciclo.es.