December brings roasted goose with roasted apple, red cabbage and chestnut purée. Elsewhere on the menu: ragoût de lenguado, pressed partridge, cream herring with potato pancakes, and a gazpacho finished with lobster and salmon roe. Preparations are still performed tableside, the same way they were decades ago.

Gustav Horcher opened the first Horcher in Berlin in 1904, on Martin-Luther-Straße. Over the following century Horcher restaurants came and went in Vienna, London, Oslo, Riga, Tallinn, Lisbon and Madrid. In 1943, fleeing the war, his son Otto moved the family and the restaurant to Madrid, reopening on Calle Alfonso XII, facing the Retiro, in a city of rationing cards and wartime spies. It has stayed there ever since, and guests have included Sophia Loren, John Wayne and Salvador Dalí. Gustav Otto Richard Horcher, the third generation, and his daughter Elisabeth told the family story in the novel Los Horcher, published for the Madrid restaurant's 75th anniversary.

Today Elisabeth Horcher leads the fourth generation. The restaurant holds two Repsol Soles, and its dining-room heads, Blas Benito and Raúl Rodríguez, won the 2025 Premio Nacional de Gastronomía for best front-of-house.

Horcher's cooking is Central European and German-influenced, and much of it is still finished at the table, the same way it was decades ago. Game is the heart of the autumn carta: partridge à la presse, roast partridge with grapes, roast venison loin, deer ragout, roe-deer stroganoff, hare à la royale and wild duck. Classics include herrings in cream with Kartoffelpuffer, Russian-style marinated salmon, smoked eel with spicy radish sauce, sole ragout with red prawns, Hungarian goulash, oxtail and veal kidneys in sherry, with pommes soufflées on the side. In December, roast goose arrives with baked apple, red cabbage and chestnut purée.

On the autumn 2025 carta, starters ran from €28 to €58 and mains from €42 to €62, with caviar at €150 or €250. Desserts, at €18, include Viennese strudel, Polish plinces, crêpes Suzette and bananas flambéed at the table.

The spring 2026 carta shows how wide the repertoire runs outside game season: goose foie gras terrine, venison carpaccio with mustard seeds and spiced figs, a foie and truffle empanadilla, a cheese soufflé, Jerez consommé hot or as a gelée, the 'Don Víctor' consommé, lobster bisque, lentil cream with Frankfurter, and the Horcher lobster and partridge salads. Among the mains are turbot meatballs, lobster ragout, Bresse pigeon with truffle jus, chicken 'bonne femme', a Horcher burger, beef Stroganoff with Pommery mustard, truffled escalopes in port and fillet with bone marrow, with most mains between €43 and €62. Imperial Beluga caviar comes by the tin (€150 for 30 g, €250 for 50 g) or on dishes such as the Kartoffelpuffer with poached egg. The desserts include four crêpe classics, Sir Holden, Reus, Suchard and Suzette, alongside the Horcher chocolate cake and cheesecake, all at €18.

The house signature is the Baumkuchen, the German tree cake, made in the restaurant and finished at the table. You can also order one to take home by emailing horcher@restaurantehorcher.com or calling 91 522 07 31.

The wine list is a classic grand-restaurant cellar. The Champagne pages run house by house, from Barons de Rothschild and Taittinger to Bollinger PN, Billecart-Salmon, Krug Grande Cuvée, Dom Pérignon 2015, La Grande Dame 2015 and Louis Roederer's Cristal 2015. Germany, fittingly, gets proper attention, with Mosel Rieslings such as Dr. Loosen's Ürziger Würzgarten, and at the top end the list reaches Vega Sicilia Único Reserva Especial, Flor de Pingus, a 2015 Romanée-Saint-Vivant Grand Cru, Château Mouton Rothschild 2018, Château Latour and La Fleur-Pétrus 2014, with Château d'Yquem 2020 among the sweet wines.

Horcher serves lunch and dinner Monday to Friday, 13:30 to 15:30 and 20:30 to 23:00, and dinner only on Saturday, 20:30 to 23:30. It is closed on Sunday and throughout August. It closed temporarily from 8 June 2026 for structural work on the building, unrelated to the restaurant, so check that it has reopened before booking. Reservations are taken through the booking page on the website or by phone on 91 522 07 31 or 91 532 35 96. For private events there are rooms for up to 20 (El Salón), 10 (La Recepción) and 25 (Horcher Downstairs).