The validity of the menu of the day in Madrid today is firm. First course, second course, bread, drink and dessert or coffee. Few restaurants give more for less, and there is certainly none outside this list that fits that maxim better.
On the outside, a blackboard and on it a manual typography that indicates that there is menu of the day. Inside the restaurant: a legacy from the middle of the last century, created first for foreigners to get to know the goodness of Spanish gastronomy and then to make eating out more accessible. This was regulated -restaurants were obliged to offer it- and ended up becoming a tradition.
Decadent
Never has the name of a bar reflected the mood with which the diner does not leave. Frugal and satisfying in quantity, Decadente is evidence that if you eat out you don’t have to have an Almax after your meal. You can find a pink tomato salad with tuna belly and a tuna tataki, for example, between first and second courses: the menu varies every day by design of the chef with market products. It includes a starter, a main course, dessert or coffee and a drink.
Price: Monday to Friday for 14,90 €.
📍Location:Calle de Manuel Fernández y González, 10 (Cortes)
Casa Suecia
The executive menu of Casa Suecia is perfect for a break that allows you to eat well at noon. For starters you can choose between a salmorejo cordobés, a seasonal salad with tender sprouts and chef’s dressing, a pucherín (traditional stew), a Mia Mamma risotto with Grana Padano, an egg picadillo with macerated piquillo peppers or a grilled grilled vegetables.
For the main course, the menu offers several options: “de Utrero” cheeks glazed with potato cream, pasta prepared “in house” to the Chef’s taste, charcoal-grilled pork secret, baked fish and seafood casserole, spicy chicken with parmentier…. Finally, for dessert there are four options: Casa Suecia artisan dessert, freshly cut seasonal fruit, glass of cava rosé or half gin and tonic with Bombay Sapphire.
💶 Price: Monday to Friday for 21,95€.
📍Location:Calle del Marqués de Casa Riera, 4 (Centro)
Stuffed
If Italian restaurants are your thing but you don’t want to leave a pasta to eat it, in Relleno you can enjoy its menu of the day with fresh artisan pasta, sauce and drink from Monday to Thursday from 12h to 16h. Among the options, ravioli stuffed with ricotta and spinach with tomato sauce, tortellinis with gorgozola fonduta and walnuts or mezze maniche with amatricina sauce.
Price: from Monday to Thursday for 10,50€.
📍Location: Calle de General Oráa, 34 and San Bernardino, 20 (take away only)
Míguez Brothers
Few locutions say more about a place than “lo de toda la vida”. What does that mean in reference to Hermanos Míguez? Basically that it lives from what it offers: not from its decoration, not from being in a central neighborhood and yes from its cocido, its torrijas, its judiones, its oxtail and whatever dishes make up a complete, traditional and, of course, lifelong menu of the day.
Price: €13 on weekdays and €18 on weekends.
📍Location:Calle de Herminio Puertas, 10 (Alto de Extremadura)
CIRKuK
CIRKuK’s daily menu was recognized as the best in Madrid in 2023 by Mahou 0,0 Tostada. The dishes change daily, depending on what the market offers that day and are usually quite elaborate. It is served from Monday to Thursday working days between 13h and 16h and consists of three small plates, drink and dessert or coffee. If you opt for the dessert, by the way, adding coffee (black, cut, American or with milk) will only cost you 1€ more.
Price: 15,50€.
📍Location: Avenida de Bruselas, 44 (Guindalera)
Petit Comité Azca
Petit Comité’s daily menu is an honest and healthy amalgam of fresh product of avant-garde bill, where you can choose a first and a second, between three options respectively. A bit Parisian style, but with more affordable prices. If you are lucky, the carnivorous proposals (steak, chicken or beef) are sublime, as well as the gazpacho that marries fantastically with cheeses, foie gras and desserts from France.
Price:from Monday to Friday for 13,50€ (half menu with dish, dessert and drink: 9,90€).
📍Location: avenidadel presidente Carmona, 1 (Cuatro Caminos)
El 5 de Tirso
Tirso de Molina square has a surprising diversity of stores from yesterday and the day before yesterday. One of the latest to arrive is El 5 de Tirso, a sophisticated two-level tavern-restaurant that combines modern architecture and a menu of the day that is surprisingly varied. From Monday to Friday, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., the menu consists of 10 starters to choose from, 10 main courses, drink, bread and dessert. And if you still can’t decide, there is always a dish of the day waiting for the undecided.
Price: from Monday to Friday for 18€ (express menu: 16€)
📍Location:Plaza de Tirso de Molina, 5 (La Latina)
El Jefe
El Jefe Travelling Food offers 3 starters to choose from and 7 main courses that rotate, and without losing sight of its traveling, international condition, with quality product. Of course, with drink and dessert or coffee. In autumn and winter, in addition, the menu is enlarged with spoon dishes every day. And every Thursday, in a nod to the native Ávila of its founders, the star of the slate is the patatas revolconas.
Price: Monday to Friday for 15€.
📍Location: Calle Alonso Cano, 103 (Cuatro Caminos)
Mercado de la Reina
Since its opening on Gran Vía, this sort of gastronomic market has been gathering legions of regulars thanks to a menu full of seasonal produce, a certainly Madrilenian atmosphere and its location. Every school lunchtime, the tables of the “market” are filled with executives, travelers and discerning students to taste a menu (with bread, drink and dessert) consisting of four starters (choose one), two main courses (meat or fish) and several sweet options to close a meal that leaves its mark. Must-tries: salmorejo, the mellow rice and the low-temperature braised chicken.
Price:Monday to Friday for 16,50€ and burger menu 15,50€.
📍Location: Gran Vía, 12 (Center)
Ponzano
Ponzano is a street mainly known for its nightlife, but during the day it is also one of the obligatory stops on this tour. At number 12, the restaurant of the same name offers a daily menu of traditional food with two choices of first and second courses, bread, drink, dessert and coffee or tea. The dishes, among which you will find from its famous stew, white asparagus or salmorejo to veal cheeks or grilled rooster, can be consulted on the web.
💶 Price: Monday to Friday for 18€.
📍Location:Ponzano street, 12 (Ríos Rosas)
La Charca Tavern
In this place the tradition of the traditional tavern and modernity go hand in hand to create a unique and quality gastronomic space with an important role of Asturian gastronomy. And for proof, a button: in 2020 it received the recognition of Best Cachopo of Spain. In its menu of the day you can choose between a reasonable amount of first and second courses accompanied by bread, drink and dessert or coffee. You can rest assured that, whatever you choose, you will get it right.
Price:Monday to Friday from 1pm to 3pm for 18€ (half menu: at the bar 11,50€ and at the restaurant 14€).
📍Location: calle de Juan Álvarez Mendizábal, 7 (Argüelles)
La Tasca de Ventura
In the center of Madrid, very close to Plaza de España, you can try a menu of the day based on market products. La Tasca de Ventura offers a selection of dishes made with seasonal products: vegetable creams, salads, fresh meats and fish or its fake risotto are some of the dishes that can be found on the menu. It includes first, second and dessert or coffee or, if you prefer, you can order a single dish with dessert or coffee.
Price:Monday to Friday for 14,90€.
📍Location:Calle de Ventura Rodríguez, 9 (Argüelles)
The menu of Chirón with Michelin Star
Chirón, commanded by the Muñoz Bargueño brothers (Iván is the chef and Raúl the sommelier), holds the Michelin star since 2013 and revalidates it year after year. In addition, it is the restaurant with this recognition in which you can eat cheaper in Madrid. The executive menu served from Tuesday to Friday includes snacks, oil from Madrid, artisan bread, appetizer, starter, fish, meat, dessert and two glasses of wine. For 10€ more you also have a scallop and aioli socarrat rice.
Price:executive menu 39€.
📍Location: Calle Alarcón, 27 (Valdemoro)
Casa Dani
Casa Dani’s tortillas are worthy of mention even for Netflix -the restaurant appears in an episode of Food for Phill-, but every day they have a different menu of the day with at least 5 first and seven seconds to choose from. If you want to preview what they have that day you’ll find it on their website and Facebook account. A spoiler: typical dishes of national and homemade gastronomy.
Price:weekdays 14€ and Saturdays 15€.
📍Location: Mercado de la Paz (Calle Ayala, 28) and Calle Lagasca, 49 (Salamanca neighborhood).
The history of the menú del día does not matter as much as this list of the best menus of the day in Madrid. The menu of the day is one of those things that sometimes it is said that if they did not exist they would have to be created, although in recent years (mainly due to teleworking) has endangered its existence.