Traditional Spanish cooking, seasonal and ingredient-led, cooked, in the restaurant's words, with love and heart from quality, seasonal, market produce, plus daily suggestions from the market.

La MaMá opened in 2015 in Chamberí as a little corner of Salamanca in Madrid, and in 2022 moved to Avenida de Brasil 6, close to the Santiago Bernabéu stadium. The name is a homage to mothers: the idea is to be looked after the way your mother looks after you when you come home, and the kitchen takes their traditional recipes and gives them a lighter, modern turn, a mantra it calls tradición renovada. It has held a Michelin Bib Gourmand every year from 2019 to 2026.

Chef Marcos Toranzo trained at the Luis Irizar school in San Sebastián and worked in that city before cooking at Ermitaño in Benavente, which holds a Michelin star, and at Goizeko Wellington and Pimiento Verde in Madrid. María Brufau runs the dining room and the wine as head of floor and sommelier, after working at Puerta de Madrid and at César Martín's Lakasa.

The walls are the story. Portraits of Toranzo's and Brufau's mothers and other relatives hang in the dining room, alongside a collection of old china plates, some of them given by grateful regulars, and a book of recipes and food cuttings more than a hundred years old, handwritten by Toranzo's grandmother. The idea is that you're looked after here the way your mother looks after you when you come home.

La MaMá spent its first years in Chamberí and in 2022 moved to Avenida de Brasil, into a cosier space with a private room and a porch and terrace that brought capacity up to about 60. The owners have said the welcome at the new address was even better than they'd expected. Dishes that have stayed on through the move include the red-tuna and cod Russian salads with their wheat palomas, the Txipis de la MaMá, griddled baby squid in a white wine, garlic and parsley sauce, crispy wonton prawns with a Japanese-style brava sauce, and the pork cheek with truffled parmentier; in late 2025 that cheek came crowned with Teruel truffle from a truffle-hunting friend.

Most dishes come in full or half portions. Openers include hand-cut acorn-fed Ibérico ham (€24), Santoña anchovies with roasted pepper (€3.50 each) and two Russian salads, one with cod and trout roe and one with red tuna and pea cream (€17, or €11 for a half), served with palomas, the wheat crusts that nod to Salamanca's Plaza Mayor. Then come poached free-range eggs with truffled parmentier (€19), octopus with patatas meneás (€22), charro-style tripe with trotter and snout (€18), Ibérico ham croquettes, the house baby squid (€21) and a cider-house cod omelette (€16). Mains include creamy rice with carabinero prawns (€24), red tuna with roasted pepper (€23), turbot (€23), presa ibérica (€22), Ibérico pork cheek with truffled parmentier (€22) and a carved old-cow loin (€56, or €29 for a half). Grandma Dioni's cheesecake with turrón ice cream closes the meal at €10. Service, bread and aperitif are €2.50.

Los Clásicos, at €58, is five dishes and a dessert built on the house standards: the baby squid, the cod omelette, the Ibérico ham croquette, the old-cow loin and the banana cremoso with violet ice cream. The seasonal tasting menu, at €70, runs to seven dishes and a dessert, including a fish and a meat. Both are served to the whole table, for up to eight guests, subject to availability, and a wine pairing is available.

The restaurant is open Monday from 13:00 to 17:00, Tuesday and Wednesday from 13:00 to midnight and Thursday to Saturday from 13:00 to 01:00, and closed on Sunday. The kitchen serves 13:30 to 16:30 on Monday and runs non-stop from 13:30 to 22:30 Tuesday to Saturday. Book online for up to eight people; groups of 9 to 16 should use the contact form or email, and set group menus apply from 11 guests. Bookings of seven or more are guaranteed with a card, with a €10 per person charge for no-shows. Phone lines are open Monday to Friday, 11:00 to 22:00, on +34 910 619 764.