The subtle art of having a few beers and leaving with a meal has its temple of the improbable in Paseo de Santa María de la Cabeza, at number 53. There, in the heart of Arganzuela, survives a bar run by Chinese people where the ham croquette can be cold but creamy, and where you can have dinner for almost what a pint of artisanal IPA costs in Conde Duque.
The place is called Bar La Amistad, and it meets all the conditions that today seem like a memory of Madrid in 2012 or that you only see in places where they stuff you with bread to be able to say that what is really happening is that they invite you to a tapa.
What tapas do you have at La Amistad?
At La Amistad you have tapas that you choose from behind the glass case that sits above the bar. They have a series of options ranging from Asian to traditional (gulas, meatballs, omelette, knife-cut ham, noodles with vegetables, three delights rice, bravas, wings), giant terrace, and beer at 3,80€ which is still cheap if you compare it with those bars downtown where the drink costs a little more and does not even include an appetizer.
Then it is also worth talking about that juicy omelette that you can also see in its showcase and which was described by Sergio C. Fanjul -a city chronicler whom we interviewed some time ago- as “one of the best potato omelettes I have tasted in Madrid”. He said so in a column published in El País newspaper entitled China saves the Spanish bar.
This neighborhood bar also fulfills an increasingly scarce fantasy: that of going without a reservation, ordering without scanning a QR and dining for just 7 euros without batting an eyelid -two people, four beers, four tapas and a dinner that is already taken care of.