Yes, great new creations bring a lot of prestige, but few things are as comforting as a classic, freshly made mixed sandwich. We may also be in one of the few preparations that even the average Spaniard would choose to make with butter rather than olive oil. This gives us a clue that although its origin is not entirely clear, Spain does not seem to be the starting point. Another sign of this is the two names: sandwich and bikini, both borrowed from English. Although the story of why in Barcelona, especially, the mixed sandwich is called a bikini, we leave it to Barcelona Secreta.
Melo’s
As if you asked Art Attack’s handyman to make a mixed sandwich and, moreover, instead of British, he was Galician. This is how the famous Melo’s shoes could be defined, which fit perfectly with the mythical TV character’s philosophy of doing things “in a big way”. Almost 1kg -or 500gr, if you order half a slipper- of Galician loaf bread, lacón and melted tetilla cheese.
A legendary recipe, which is also included in the list of those typical dishes from Madrid to try at some point.
ave María Street, 44 (Lavapiés) and Andrés Mellado Street, 16 (Moncloa)
💸 €€€€€
Osom
At Osom they don’t call the mixed sandwich “mixed”, they call it “our toast” and they prepare it with a glass muffin, ham, cheese and butter. And to that you can add extras for a supplement such as low temperature egg, avocado or scrambled eggs and accompany it with any of their specialty coffees.
📍 Calle de Santa Teresa, 2 (Salesas), calle del Moratín, 38 (Centro) and calle del Castillo, 22 (Chamberí)
💸 €€€€€
Mission Café
do you know where the sourdough bread for the mixed sandwiches of Mission Café? From the next door, literally. Because just a short walk from the cafeteria is the Bake House, the bakery of delicacies that bakes, daily, their loaves. If this is not a product of proximity..
But let’s go with the x-ray of his bikini: ham, grated tomato, thyme spiced butter and pasiego cheese. Either heat, or melt so that you have to lick the cheese strands that fall off the edges of the bread.
📍 Calle de los Reyes, 5 (Noviciado)
💸 €€€€€
DOT Café Bar
This mixto is served “a cuchillo”. Because it is this utensil that binds the layers of a mountain of flavor, which serves as a link between the hot ingredients pierced by the cold metal.
Ingredients that, like Mission, are local: the ham and cheese, brought from the local charcuterie, and the bread from Panadario. All that remains is the finishing touch: the French butter, to seal this magnificent mixed bikini.
In addition, as a reference in the Bikini & Café that they are at DOT in their menu they always show their love for the bikini with more daring and innovative formats: tomato bikini, pepperoni and cheese, three cheese bikini, pastrami bikini with cheese… even inventions that appear in their menu to surprise whoever passes by, like the one with gruyère cheese, ham, mustard, mayonnaise, powdered sugar and maple syrup.
📍 Calle de Eugenio Sellés, 6 (Arganzuela)
💸 €€€€€
The 33
From the outside, Los 33 looks like an exclusive cocktail bar with a doorman and a line at the door, and yes, they do have drinks, but one of the stars of the menu is the mixed sandwich. The restaurant’s Uruguayan roots mean that almost everything goes over the coals, including its special bikini. They serve them cut in strips and crustless, like at a childhood birthday party, but with the mark of having been through the fire and the cheese melting into threads. If after a couple of years open it is still one of the trendiest restaurants in the city, it is for a reason.
📍 Plaza de las Salesas, 9 (Salesas)
💸 €€€€€
Arce Sisters
Although it’s not always on the menu (because it changes every day), the Arce Sisters’ mixed sandwich is so hearty that it serves as a main course. They make it with the bread they make right here, they use comté cheese, fresh ham and lots of butter. To toast it, they grill it in a frying pan, until the cheese begins to melt and the bread browns.
📍 Calle Marqués de Monasterio, 6 (Salesas)
💸 €€€€€
Greenhouse Vegan District
It is believed that the mixed sandwich was brought to Spain at the end of the 19th century by the Spaniards of Cuba, who knew this simple recipe from their American neighbors. Back then, their best bikini lists – if they had them at all – would consist of virtually identical sandwiches: sliced bread, baked ham, yellow cheese and butter, lots of butter. Today, the variety of types of mixed sandwiches is overwhelming and adapts to all audiences. Even to the vegan clientele.
The mixed vegan sandwich of Greenhouse Vegan District is the perfect example of this. Pan-toasted brioche bread with vegan butter, filled with cashew mozzarella and soy-based vegan ham. A simple but delicious delicacy that would blow the minds of the Yankees of the last century but that is becoming more and more common to see in Madrid’s gastronomic offerings. It is fortunate that something so seemingly easy is also available for vegans.
📍 Calle del Conde de Romanones, 10 (Tirsode Molina)
💸 €€€€€
Grillao
Grillao’s menu is a bit like a reggaeton remix with ten singers of high reputation: how else can you understand that they have dishes such as katsu sando, grilled veal sweetbreads, fish and chips or, of course, bikini?
Grillao’s bikini is grilled (acquiring that characteristic grilled flavor) and reaches the standards of excellence by replicating the usual logic: cheese, ham, sliced bread, butter and the grill. Nothing could be simpler.
📍 Calle de Eloy Gonzalo, 4 (Chamberí)
💸 €€€€€
Mami Tacos
The maxim of Mami Tacos is not only to make a good birria stew and put it in taco format, but to take birria to any possible dish. And if they have already done so with the burrito or ramen, now the time has come for the bikini.
is it a regular bikini? No, far from it: no ham (no pork, in fact) and its birria stew, Havarti cheese and little else. It is worth the pilgrimage to try it.
📍 Calle de San Andrés, 31 (Malasaña)
💸 €€€€€
This article was written by María f. Carballo, Miguel Sánchez, Isabel Nieto, Alberto del Castillo and Elena Francés.