The menu runs to roasted chicken in a bread crust, anchovy with vinegared boquerón, and hake in a green-pea sauce, finishing on a cheese tart with raspberry ice cream. One dish carries real pedigree: the callos con mongetas won the Premio a los Mejores Callos del Mundo, best tripe stew in the world, in 2022.

Ovillo is the most personal project of Javier Muñoz-Calero Calderón, previously with Grupo Azotea, who opened it in the winter of 2019–20 as his first solo venture, in a former leather-goods factory on Calle Pantoja in Ciudad Jardín. The room is immense and luminous, with high ceilings, round tables spaced apart by large planters and natural light. It is recommended in the Michelin Guide and holds one Repsol Sol.

The building on Calle Pantoja used to be a leather-goods factory making bags for luxury brands, in an area that was once full of factories. Muñoz-Calero wanted high ceilings, found the space online and took the whole building, the workshop floor plus two storeys above, on a 30-year lease; the works took eight months, with architect Paula Rosales of More & Co. on the project and the chef acting as site foreman himself. Today it runs to about 700 square metres over two floors.

He kept the factory's spirit on purpose. The old worktables, with the drawers that held the thread for stitching bags and wallets, are still in the room, and the old sinks became washbasins in the toilets. Skylights let in the daylight, and you can hear the rain on them. Isabelline mirrors from antique dealers in the Rastro and candelabra from an antique shop in Cedeira sit against the industrial bones, the plants are by florist Jerónimo Ferrer of La Casa del Enebro, and the logo was designed by the chef's sister, photographer Marta Muñoz-Calero.

The entrance is a bar for a vermouth or a drink before lunch. Beyond it is the open dining room, about 40 covers at round tables, with the glassed-in kitchen at the back, a small counter with high tables looking into it, and a large table at the far end for private meals. A door at the back leads out to a patio. Upstairs is a multi-purpose room for private events, workshops, tastings and meetings, and the whole ground floor can be turned into an event space for 120 seated or 240 standing.

The name is a ball of yarn: Muñoz-Calero has said his career wound up an ovillo of experiences and projects, and that Ovillo is where he pulls the thread. The tasting menus follow the same image, from Madeja, a skein, to Tirar del Hilo, pulling the thread.

Muñoz-Calero calls it classic, international cooking: traditional recipes from the places that have been his culinary base camps, France and Switzerland, where he trained, Thailand, where he lived for a time, and Spain, especially Catalonia and the Basque Country, cooked without fusion and true to how they were made. He avoids extreme-aged meat in favour of milk-fed veal, makes his own escabeches and smoked fish, slow-cooks his stocks, and keeps a section of the carta called 'Mis caprichos de hoy, pero no de mañana' for the day's ephemeral ideas.

The short carta and seasonal menu have included salt-baked Águilas red prawn, gratinated scallop, anchovy paired with vinegared boquerón, a semi-set tortilla with crispy pig's ear, spiny-lobster ravioli, cod with garlic, chilli and palo cortado, Murcian caldero rice with carabinero, venison cannelloni, pheasant in black-trumpet mole, braised oxtail and a poussin baked in salt bread. The callos con mongetas won the award for the best tripe stew in the world in 2022. There are three tasting menus, Menú Ovillo, Menú Madeja and 'Tirar del Hilo'.

Through its Alma Solidaria programme, run with Fundación Raíces, Ovillo employs and trains young people aged 16 to 25, Spanish and immigrant, who face serious difficulties integrating. The programme won the Academia Madrileña de Gastronomía's Social Project Award in 2022. When Ovillo opened, more than half of its team of about 14 in the kitchen and dining room came through Fundación Raíces' Cocina Conciencia programme, and Ovillo has also received a Premio Hostelería de España in the category for companies committed to social responsibility.

Last bookings are at 15:15 for lunch (the restaurant closes at 16:15) and 22:15 for dinner (closing at 23:30), with seatings from 14:00 and 21:00; it is closed on Sunday evening. Book through the reservations page on its site or call 910 05 36 58. There are two public car parks within 80 metres, at López de Hoyos 143 and Sánchez Pacheco 82.