The bars of Madrid are not only a central axis of leisure: they are part of literature, advertising slogans and part of the political discourse. The bars of Madrid have seen the forging of great literary works and have brought together the best of Spanish culture, in them political parties have been formed, such as the PSOE in Casa Labra, and signings have been closed, such as that of Zinedine Zidane for Real Madrid.
There are times when the line between a bar and a restaurant is very thin. Here, to select the ones that make up this humble list, we have established two criteria: that they sell portions and that they can be consumed at their bar. And the result is what you read.
1. Eusebio’s corner
Eusebio’s corner is the canonical representation of the aesthetic idea of a bar. Its bar is crowded with people and tapas that can be eaten in open bar format. People who sigh for El Tigre don’t know that La esquina de Eusebio exists: with a drink you have a free pass to stock up on their canapés.
A leaf from a 2014 article presides over a wall. In it, the journalist in question says that the double beer is somewhat expensive (2.5€). Years have passed, the price has not gone up, the quality has been maintained and the journalist’s comment would now be contradictory. It is also worth sitting down and trying their tomato salad and churrasco steak. A fixed stop.
📍 Calle Caramuel, 16 (Puerta del Ángel)
2. Almeria Tavern
Classic among classics. If the question is where to eat cheap tapas in Madrid, the answer is Taberna de Almería. A bar that would be the delight of students if it were in Moncloa and that being in La Latina is a meeting point for people of very different age ranges.
Normally you will not be able to get in because it is always full, but if by chance you manage to get a spot at the bar or among the tables, you have two options: eat with the tapa that you get with each drink or try each and every one of their tostas. A basic of La Latina.
📍Callede las Aguas, 9 (La Latina)
3. La Casa de los Minutejos
Impossible to avoid the joke: if 60 minutes is equivalent to an hour, 60 minutes will undoubtedly be equivalent to an ear. Here the ear is served in sandwiches of sliced bread. The ear, when its gelatin melts, forms a Bloc with which these sandwiches are made and sold at 1,20€ per unit. They are also served with hot sauce. It is a must in Madrid if you are looking for a place for eat ear and it is a bastion that resists pokes, NY rolls and all kinds of gastronomic fashions.
📍CalleAntonio de Leyva, 17 (Marqués de Vadillo)
4. Los Chicos
Not even the rain usually prevents the terrace of Los Chicos from having more people waiting to be seated than sitting down. Whoever sits at their table knows why they do it: with every drink, they bring out a tapa. Like anywhere else? Yes, but with extra generosity.
The Boys bring out (for free) what they do best: their braves. And with each drink, bravas with a different sauce. Sauces, by the way, that they sell and you can take home.
📍 Calle de Guzmán el Bueno, 33 (Arapiles)
5. La Ardosa Winery
Located a few meters from Fuencarral Street, this winery founded in 1892 is an icon of the Malasaña neighborhood and has become a place of pilgrimage for the tortilla de patatas lovers. And no wonder, because his recipe is juicy, tasty and delicious in equal parts. The rest of the “pinchos” and “raciones” of its menu do not disappoint anyone either. Croquettes, artichokes, salmorejo… The traditional cuisine as you have never tasted it before.
📍 Calle de Colón, 13 (Malasaña).
6. Rocablanca
It is, without a doubt, one of the best bars in Madrid to eat croquettes without spending too much or sacrificing quality. With huge croquettes (much bigger than the ones you can find in most bars) and with prices that do not exceed 2 euros per unit, Rocablanca offers a wide variety of this breaded delicacy as soon as you get off the Tribunal subway stop. Although it also has hamburgers, montaditos and tortilla skewers. A traditional temple that deserves a visit.
📍Calle de Fuencarral, 71. (Metro Tribunal)
7. La Chispera
It is the perfect place to take the vermouth on a Sunday at the flea market after a stroll through the hundreds of stalls that fill the market with life the neighborhood of La Latina. You will most likely find it full of people but in La Chispera there is always room for someone else. Their specialties are vermouth on tap and gildas, of which they have different varieties, even a vegetarian version! in addition to their tostas and Mexican-inspired dishes. A classic that never fails.
📍 Calle de Santa Ana, 13 (La Latina)
8. Japy Bar
In one of the busiest streets of the flea market every Sunday, you will find Japy Bar a place that swims between the traditional and the modern and that looks for to bring closer the bar of a lifetime to a younger, more open to a younger, more open and freer public. With quite affordable prices (sandwiches at 5 € and bollitos preñaos of tortilla at 3.50 €) and with tapas ranging from broken eggs or potatoes braviolis to nachos or gyozas, in this small bar in La Latina there is room for everything and everyone.
📍CalleRibera de Curtidores, 21 (La Latina).
9. Tasca Barea
📍CalleRodas 2, corner with Embajadores, 36 (Lavapiés).
10. Benteveo
One of the most beautiful bars of all Antón Martín in Almodovarianred. This corner of Santa Isabel street with San Eugenio street is a succession of windows from which you can sense people toasting, talking, sharing. Its bar is fun, frenetic, how many thousands of cane glass asses have kissed it, spilling their foam! With the beer, a small tapa, which is usually cheese, some toast spread with various hummus.
And on the menu, Argentine dishes (such as choripán or lomito cordobés). The Benteveo has been a classic in the neighborhood for years and they (or we) point to the fact of being, also, the smallest museum in the city (for those showcases in which curiosities, pieces by local artists, books… are exhibited instead of fish, meat and viands that usually show the rest of the showcases of bars in the city).
📍Callede Santa Isabel, 15 (Antón Martín)
11. El Maño Winery
El Maño seems more chulapo than from Zaragoza: he always welcomes you with red carnations. Here you can share your omelette with tripe, bravioli potatoes, anchovies in vinegar, squid tails… Hearty dishes and a bar to put the elbow, grab the fork with one hand, the wine with the other, and snack non-stop.
📍Callede la Palma, 64 (Malasaña)
12. Tribuetxe
It will probably go unjustly unnoticed in front of the market stalls in San Fernando. But right in front of the market door on Tribulete Street, you will find this secluded bar with little space for tables, but a gleaming bar where you can enjoy dishes with top quality meats and fish. What is important here is the essence, the flavor and the Basque-Andalusian mixture that moves away from the “pincitas cuisine” returning to the basics: product, product and product. We recommend the ventresca with piparras or the tostas de chipirón (squid toasts).
📍Callede Tribulete, 23 (Lavapiés)
13. Alfaro Winery
The black and white photographs of Bodegas Alfaro speak of a Madrid that only remains in the bars, in those same bars that have survived decades, fashions, redesigns and trends. These wineries have been making the people of Madrid happy and sharing conversations and gildas since the beginning of the 20th century. With each glass of beer or vermouth, a portion of handmade potato chips (bought in the market of San Fernando).
Happiness is a vermouth in this centenary tin bar (watch out for the taps, pure history of Madrid), which also usually sounds like flamenco: don’t be surprised if on its terrace there is a good party between clapping, guitars and cante jondo.
📍Calledel Ave María, 10 (Lavapiés)
14. Bareto
Bareto is a brewery that defines itself this way on Instagram: “bar, chopsticks and napkins on the floor“. While it does embrace a classic aesthetic, it gives it a twist, updates it and makes it its own. The same as with your letter. They serve gildas, ensaladilla rusa and torreznos, but in a fine version.
This bar next to Cibeles also fulfills another basic requirement of every good bar in Madrid: here you can watch most of the soccer games of the Spanish league.
📍 Various locations.
15. Vinegar Brothers
It is difficult to renew what has been working well for decades, but Hermanos Vinagre manages to appropriate the phrase “bar of a lifetime” by being one of the youngest on the list.
What survives and distinguishes this neo-tavern from the new openings is its commitment to the bar culture, the pickles – hence the vinegar – the quality of the well-drawn beer, no longer so easy to find, and the homemade vermouth. All wrapped in an updated decor in which there is no shortage of modern versions of the tile.
📍 Calle Cardenal Cisneros, 26 (Chamberí); Calle Narváez, 58 (Ibiza) and Calle Gravina, 17 (Chueca)
16. La Dolores
La Dolores is one of those traditional Madrid bars in the neighborhood of Las Letras, which, since its founding in 1908 as a restaurant, has been a must on the beers route in the area.
In fact, it is precisely for the quality of its beer and the perfection of its beers that it is known. It is also easily recognizable by its beautiful tiled façade, a traditional decoration of the time. In its cozy interior, where wood and old posters stand out, pinchos and montaditos are served, to alternate between tapas and vermouth at aperitif time.
📍 Plaza Jesús, 4 (Las Letras).
17. Labra House
Although Casa Labra’s restaurant-style dining room is now closed, you can still enjoy its tapas of battered codfish and croquettes the rest of the premises, which has remained unchanged since 1860. But this curved façade and centenary the building at the back of the Puerta del Sol also has its place in the history of the country. Here on May 2, 1879 Pablo Iglesias founded the Spanish Socialist Workers Party.
📍 Calle Tetuán, 12 (center).
18. The little Graná
Serving the beer with a tapa is very typical of Madrid, but where has it been seen that you can choose your own? free cover of a menu with more than ten options? This is the modus operandi of La pequeña Graná, a jewel coveted day and night by those who know it inside out the district of Arganzuela.
Getting a table on the terrace or a space at the bar to accompany each drink with a mini cheeseburger, a chistorra and sweet onion sandwich or avocado hummus with tortilla chips is a dream plan that ends with a full stomach and a full wallet. The menu changes from time to time, but the classics remain.
📍CalleEmbajadores, 124 (Delicias)
19. Tortilla Fish
In war and in Pez Tortilla anything goes. The crowd of people squeezed in the place, the elbows to make their way to the bar and the waiters juggling to bring a beer (miraculously intact) to the tables is something that is only understood and accepted with the first tasting of some tortillas barely curdled with unforgettable flavors as parmesan, blood sausage or goat cheese.
It drinks just as well as it eats: the selection of craft beers is all that’s needed for a portion of omelet that is always finished too soon. Good thing there are also croquettes.
📍CallePez, 36 (Malasaña); pez Tortilla Cara B – Calle Pez, 7 (Malasaña); calle Cava Baja, 42 (La Latina); calle Espoz y Mina, 13 (Las Letras) and calle de Gaztambide, 50 (Chamberí)
20. Julio House
Casa Julio’s croquettes are famous all over Madrid (and practically all over the world). The walls of the bar are decorated with photographs of well-known people who have come to try his cuisine. From the music group U2 to Alaska and Mario are part of this wall of fame located in a small establishment in Malasaña. The business, which has been open since 1921, remains family-owned and the prices remain affordable.
The traditional red facade which enunciates the name of the tavern, acts as a certificate of chastity. Inside the establishment there is a bar and a few tables, also with some tradition. The croquettes are the specialty of the house and are served in a variety of varieties, with traditional fillings, such as ham or chicken, or more original ones, such as raisins and gorgonzola or minced meat.
📍Callede la Madera, 37 (Malasaña)
21. Rainbow Bar
The plaza de Olavide is one of the most iconic places in the Trafalgar neighborhood. Considered by the Financial Times magazine as one of the places in the world where the ‘European dream’ is most lived: a pedestrian zone, a large grove of trees, a children’s playground and, of course, bars.
The Bar Arco Iris, open since 1991, is run by Secundina Román, Nina to her most loyal clientele. A woman, who, in her 70s, comes daily to serve and help in her establishment. Since its opening, El Arco Iris has been a meeting place in the Trafalgar area, especially for its huge tree-shaded terrace. There, young and old come together to enjoy a perfectly pulled beer accompanied by a delicious tortilla skewer, a sandwich or a hearty portion.
📍Plazade Olavide, 2 (Trafalgar)
22. The Embassy of Ambassadors
La Embajada de Embajadores is one of those establishments that even being relatively new has the essence of the bars of a lifetime. From its large bar, located in the center of the bar, delicious portions are served on metal trays and, of course, refreshing beers. The prices are unbeatable and the service is always friendly and attentive.
In La Embajada de Embajadores the kitchen never closes, so you can go at any time to enjoy one of its dishes, portions or sandwiches. Its menu includes calamari, meatballs in sauce or milanesa. But, without a doubt, if you go to this bar you have to try their version of El Paquito a stewed lamb sandwich that in 2022 won the award for the best in Madrid.
📍Callede Embajadores, 66 (Lavapiés)
23. Toboggan Bar
El Toboggan, located a few meters from Matadero, is a neighborhood bar where the neighbors of Arganzuela gather to enjoy a beer in the sun. The restaurant combines the traditional with the contemporary in both its aesthetics and its menu. The authenticity of this bar can be tasted inside, but also on its large terrace on Rutilio Gaci square.
The menu is a mosaic of traditional dishes mixed with more international dishes, all at very affordable prices. From bravas and croquettes to gyozas and tequeños, from cochinita pibil tacos to calamari montadito or pepito levantino. A mix that satisfies all tastes.
📍Plazade Rutilio Gaci, 2 (Delicias)
24. Santa Canela
Richstreet food and a young and casual place in the heart of the city Chamberí. Santa Canela is everything you’d ask of your trusty bar with a modern tw ist. Although it is also possible to have dinner, here we are concerned with its facet of bar and it is the ideal place to order some raciones and have tapas with friends.
Among them we can highlight the artichokes in flower battered with truffled hummus and the patatas bravísimas with two chipotle and aji amarillo sauces and a base of sobrasada and fennel. It is not for nothing that it has won one of our stickers and the rating as one of the best bars in Madrid.
📍 Calle de Guzmán el Bueno, 20 (Chamberí)
25. Malos Bar
At Malasaña there is no shortage of places to have a drink, but that is precisely why it is sometimes difficult to choose which bars in this Zone of Madrid are really worth it. A safe bet is, without a doubt, the Malos Bar.
This brother of the legendary Melo’s in Lavapiés shares a large part of the menu and, of course, you can’t leave without trying one of the dishes and Madrid’s most iconic buildings (next to the croquettes): their huge slippers of Galician loaf bread with lacón and tetilla cheese.
📍 Calle de Velarde, 13 (Malasaña)
26. Bar La Gloria
“If the body asks for it, give it to it.” With a slogan like that greeting you at the ticket entrance of this tavern, you already know that you come to La Gloria for one thing: to enjoy yourself. And the indicator that confirms it is that you will often find a group of people waiting at the door of this place, located in that miscellany of environments and businesses that is Noviciado.
The Andalusian air with which it defines itself is present throughout its menu (especially in its molletes de Antequera, of which you should not miss the pringá), but you will also find portions such as croquettes, bravas, fried eggplants, torreznos melosos or ensaladilla.
📍 Calle de Noviciado, 2 (Downtown)
27. Viva chapata
“Cooking traditional recipes in a conscious and sustainable way”. This is the principle that governs the menu of the tavern 100% vegan Viva chapata, in Lavapiés. A menu where you can find options for snacking as their tortilla skewer, not calamari, falafel with veganesa, boletus edulis croquettes and, as its name suggests, chapatas of different flavors.
It also offers hamburgers, pizzas and arepas, among other dishes, making it ideal for lunch or dinner menu of the day which on Wednesdays consists of vegan stew.
📍 Calle del Ave María, 43 (Lavapiés)
28. Casa Brava
Casa Brava has only been in Madrid for a short time, but in Rosario (Argentina) it is a classic for those who like to extend their dinner as long as possible, and this same idea has been transferred here. The live music, velvet sofas and wooden walls of this Malasaña establishment accompany the beers, wines and cocktails they serve.
If you are hungry don’t hesitate to order the fried chicken, you will taste few as juicy. The milanesa or sweet potato with yogurt, honey and sriracha are also among our favorites.
📍 Valverde Street, 4 (Malasaña)
29. La Gildería
Even when you’re in control of trends you never know what the next foodiefad is going to be. The sudden passion for gildas already has several places that have taken ownership of it, with La Gildería leading the way. Pickles, canned goods, skewers and vermouth what they serve is not new, glamorizing it is.
📍 Calle de Calatrava, 17 (Downtown)
30. Gota
Gota was born in Acid Bakehouse, a coffee shop with a bakery that, when it closed at night, opened clandestinely to become a wine bar with DJ included. This concept gained popularity and ended up having a separate location. In their own space in Salesas they now serve mainly natural wines and small dishes, almost tapas, as peculiar as polenta fritters with spicy sauce and grated cheese.
📍 Calle de Prim, 5 (Salesas)
This article has been written by Isabel Nieto, Javi Bisbal, Miguel Sanchez, Carmen Seco, Alberto del Castillo, Lucía Mos y Elena French.