Basque-French classics with a game section that runs on availability: stuffed farmhouse pigeon roasted in coarse salt, slow-braised wild boar shank and roast roe deer with red-fruit sauce. Elsewhere the carta takes in Iberian acorn-fed ham, gratinated sea urchins with quail eggs, foie carpaccio, callos a la madrileña, grilled sea bass, oxtail braised in red wine and an apple tart the menu calls the house speciality. There's also a tasting menu taken by the whole table.

La Paloma opened on 8 April 1992, founded by Segundo Alonso and Mariano Ávila, two professionals with long careers in Madrid restaurants. The name is not a nod to old Madrid or to the game on the menu, as many assume, but an acronym of the first syllables of their daughters' names: PAtricia, LOrena and MArta. Alonso and Ávila both came from El Amparo, one of the Madrid restaurants that carried the New Basque Cuisine into the capital, and their academic, simply executed cooking won La Paloma a Michelin star the year after it opened, which it held until 2002, along with a Sol Campsa. It became a byword for business lunches on Jorge Juan, with Basque-French cooking, top produce, game, some casquería and old-school hospitality. It has held one Sol in the Guía Repsol since 2019.

The cooking is Basque-French, and most dishes come as a full or half portion. To start there is acorn-fed Iberian ham (€33.50), gratinated sea urchins with quail eggs (€13 each), foie carpaccio with Maldon salt (€31.50), tempura aubergines with cane honey (€20.50) and callos a la madrileña (€25.50), followed by starters such as gratinated onion soup with Parmesan, a light langoustine cream with Armagnac and duck and mushroom cannelloni. Fish runs from grilled sea bass with thyme tomato compote (€42) to bacalao al pil-pil with its kokotxas (€34.50) and hake kokotxas in green sauce (€45). Among the meats are grilled beef sirloin with old-style mustard sauce (€39.50), oxtail braised in red wine (€35.50), boned pig's trotters with truffle sauce (€33.50) and veal kidneys in oloroso with rice (€28.50). Service and VAT are included. The June 2026 carta also lists a cold crayfish-tail salad, ravioli filled with langoustine tails, poached eggs on puff pastry with smoked salmon, a boneless ribeye of Ayrshire or Black Angus beef, confit boned suckling pig and a boned poussin stuffed with vegetables and foie. Bread, aperitifs and petits fours are €5.50.

A game section, subject to availability, lists stuffed farmhouse pigeon roasted in coarse salt (€38.50), wild boar shank braised at low temperature (€35) and oven-roasted roe deer with red-fruit sauce (€38). The tasting menu, five dishes and a dessert chosen by La Paloma, costs €65 and must be ordered by the whole table. The house-speciality apple tart needs to be ordered in advance, or you should allow 30 minutes for it.

The room is warm and classic, with white linen, walls hung with original paintings and an interior garden of natural plants that separates the spaces. One painting, by Costa Vila, shows the dining room itself, and it's used to decorate La Paloma's plates. The terrace has its own carta of miniature tapas, an easier way into the kitchen. La Paloma also arranges custom menus for groups and celebrations, catering for companies and private events.

La Paloma serves lunch from 13:30 to 15:45 and dinner from 20:00 to 23:00, Tuesday to Saturday, and lunch only on Sunday; it is closed on Monday. Book by phone, by email at reservas@lapalomarestaurante.es or through the reservations page on its site. The entrance, seating and restroom are wheelchair accessible.