Contemporary Mediterranean, in the venue's own words: fish and seafood it says are less common in Madrid, alongside rices, stews and grill, with what it calls author technique kept close to the product.

The name is a play on corte, the cut. As Arribas tells it, everything at Qorte is meant to be sliced, from ham to fish to tomato. The two partners wanted to bring to Madrid the genuine Mediterranean line they felt the capital was missing, with Dénia red prawns, Mediterranean lobster and noble fish such as monkfish, grouper and John Dory, and the grill as the house signature.

Mil Studios designed the room with green tiles, marble, olive tones, high ceilings and white tablecloths, a New York loft with a Levante soul. There are two main dining rooms around an open kitchen, seating about 40, plus semi-private and private rooms.

About a third of the carta is rice. There's paella valenciana, arroz a banda 'senyoret', a rice with Iberian presa, fideuá de Gandía with white prawns and a creamy rice of clams and green asparagus, all for a minimum of two. The Mediterranean lobster gets its own section, grilled, in a caldereta, with pedrosillano chickpeas as a nod to El Poblet's stews, or as a rice.

To start, the 'barra fina' serves an anchovy on brioche with cured yolk, prawn and chard croquetas, sepia with mayonnaise and steak tartare on brioche, and the raw section runs from Poget oysters to red prawn carpaccio with amontillado. Dénia prawns and quisquillas are boiled in seawater and sold by weight. Whole fish such as dentón, John Dory and grouper go on the grill by the kilo, beside a house hake with beurre blanc, and meats include rosemary lamb chops and a Rubia Gallega chop. Bread comes from Valencian baker Paco Roig, and desserts include a warm chocolate cake, baked cheesecake and torrija.

The wine list runs to around 300 international references, with names such as Sassicaia, Méo-Camuzet and Perrot-Minot, and the cellar is designed as somewhere to linger over a bottle as much as a meal.