Beyond the croquetas and cecina, there's a rotating daily seafood selection laid out at the bar for diners to pick from. In the kitchen the product rules: seasonal, origin ingredients worked to speak for themselves, from guisos with history to bolder plates, and the carta changes. The wine list leans on small producers, sustainable projects and labels with a story, national and international.

'La Catapa es Taberna': Miguel Ángel Jiménez started at hospitality school in 1987 and cooked in some of the best Madrid restaurants of the time, several now gone, including El Comedor, Príncipe de Viana, El Amparo, Guisando, Juan Bravo 25 and Ramsés Life&Food, before stepping away from fine dining. In April 2010 he opened La Catapa on Calle Menorca, a step from the Retiro, as a homage to Madrid cooking, good wine and well-treated product. The first Catapa was a small, awkward taberna across the street, chosen because it needed little investment and let them be themselves. In July 2012 he moved over the road into the bigger premises that Laredo had left when it moved nearby; Jiménez went from three staff, plus one at weekends, to twelve, and he has said the switch nearly cost him the business before the kitchen and service settled. It has held one Repsol Sol since the 2021 guide and won the Academia Madrileña de Gastronomía's Best Bar/Taberna award in 2025.

The team of 14 prides itself on promotion from within: head chef Lawrence Obeng Essel has been at La Catapa since it opened, after three years with Jiménez at Ramsés.

Jiménez's route to Calle Menorca ran through some of Madrid's best-known dining rooms. Príncipe de Viana was his second job, and he credits it with teaching him organisation. He then spent five years at El Amparo, where he overlapped with consultant Jean-Marie Arrambide and a very young Martín Berasategui, who would arrive with ideas so new they left the kitchen open-mouthed. A former partner, Ramón Ramírez, brought him in to create Guisando and later the Juan Bravo 25 beer hall; he spent nine years at Norema Salinas, some months in London, and then a year and a half at Ramsés before going out on his own.

Asked what sets La Catapa apart on one of the most competitive tapas streets in the city, he points to how customers are treated: humble and close, with the guest above everything.

The product rules: seasonal ingredients of known origin, worked carefully so they speak for themselves, from stews with history to bolder plates, balancing the classic and the new. The carta changes with the market, and a daily selection of fresh seafood is laid out at the bar for diners to choose from, alongside house favourites such as potato and truffle croquettes and cecina.

The dishes regulars treat as essential are the potato tortilla (€13.75), salmorejo, the potato and truffle croquettes (€11.55 for a half, €20.35 whole), oxtail, callos, mushroom rice and the house steak tartare (€27.50). Mushrooms are Jiménez's talisman ingredient, and he aims to have a mushroom dish on at all times. Some of his dishes rework Madrid classics, like the salpiceviche, a fresher, less vinegary take on the old Madrid salpicón, now made with corvina, red-prawn tail and mussels.

Each weekday has its spoon dish: creamy mushroom rice on Tuesdays, stewed potatoes with clams on Wednesdays, callos with chickpeas on Thursdays and verdinas with carabineros on Fridays and Saturdays. The seafood comes by weight or half portion, from rock mussels in red curry and Galician razor clams to red prawns at €198 a kilo, and there's a 45-day aged beef chop at €75 a kilo. Most dishes come as half portions, and a bread basket is €2.75.

La Catapa loves wine, with national and international labels and special attention to small producers, sustainable projects and bottles with a story, plus a monthly selection chosen by the team. The sherry list is deep: manzanillas including an en rama, finos, amontillados, olorosos and palo cortados, among them old soleras and a 1998 vintage, alongside sweet wines from Sauternes and Tokaj.

La Catapa is open Tuesday to Saturday from 12:00 to midnight, with the kitchen closing at 23:00, and is closed on Sunday and Monday. Book through the reservations page on its site, call +34 91 574 26 15, or email reservaslacatapa@yahoo.com. There is a dining room and a bar area with high tables; it is popular with locals, so tables can be hard to get.