Beyond the market cooking already described, expect calamares en su tinta, cocochas in green sauce, patatas a la importancia, grilled espardeñas and a classic apple tarte tatin, plus house-made potato chips. Elisa Rodríguez curates the wine list around lesser-known French and Jerez references rather than the obvious names.

La Buena Vida opened on 21 March 2001 on Calle Conde de Xiquena, a small, cosy restaurant in the Las Salesas area of Chueca. Chef Carlos Torres and Elisa Rodríguez, who runs the dining room, both left careers in finance to open it. In 2024 the Academia Madrileña de Gastronomía named it the best market-cuisine restaurant of the year, and it holds one Sol in the Guía Repsol. Torres and Rodríguez are partners in work and in life, and they came to the trade as gourmands and students of cooking rather than as career restaurateurs. The formula has barely moved since opening: something authentic and apart from fashion, tied to the seasons, cooked simply with short, clean cooking times. In 2018 the Premios Gastronómicos de Metrópoli named it the best traditional-cuisine restaurant, praising its ode to good product, traditional cooking and French wine, and on 21 March 2025 it marked 24 years with a creamy scramble of gurumelo mushrooms.

The carta changes through the year to follow the best produce on the market, with Galician inshore fish a constant. In spring that means guisantes de lágrima from Guetaria, Navarra asparagus, perretxico mushrooms from Navafría and morels; in summer, sardinas parrochas, bonito and hook-caught chipirones cooked in the pan. Autumn brings wild mushrooms and game such as grouse, hare and mallard, with dishes like hare rice with black trumpet mushrooms, and winter brings Melanosporum black truffle, seasonal vegetables and fresh sea urchin. Among the classics are calamares en su tinta, cocochas in green sauce, patatas a la importancia and grilled espardeñas.

Most of the carta turns with the market, but a handful of dishes stay all year: rock mussels with curry, skate in black butter, a tribute to the old La Gastroteca, steak tartare, beef rib-eye, a vegetable menestra, Ibérico croquettes, hake Galician-style and a veal shank served with its marrow and a potato purée in the style of Joël Robuchon. The cheesecake has a following of its own.

Seasonal dishes have included fresh Galician sea urchin, a terrine of foie and tongue, patatas a la importancia with conger eel, barely cooked guisantes de lágrima in ham broth, a rice of carabineros and skate, artichokes with salt-cod tripe and espardeñas with a fried egg. Autumn brings game such as teal and woodcock alongside the wild mushrooms. Even the potato chips served with the aperitif are made in house.

Everything is made in the kitchen at La Buena Vida, from the bread, baked with stone-ground organic flours, to the stocks, sauces and desserts, including a classic apple tarte tatin. The coffee is 100% natural Arábica.

The wine list mixes Spanish and international references, from big-name producers to small growers, across a wide range of prices so there is a bottle for every occasion. Elisa Rodríguez leans toward lesser-known French and Jerez wines rather than the obvious names.

La Buena Vida serves lunch from 13:30 to 16:00 and dinner from 20:00 to 23:00, Tuesday to Saturday, and is closed on Sunday and Monday. Book online through the restaurant's site or call +34 915 313 149. Friday evening and Saturday bookings, and groups of five or more on any day, are guaranteed with a credit card, and no-shows or cancellations made less than eight hours ahead are charged €20 per person. The entrance and seating are wheelchair accessible.