Chamartín is now one of the most buoyant districts in Madrid, in fact, with the richest neighborhood in the capital el Viso, El Viso. But until 1948 it was an independent municipality, its main square was located in the current Plaza del Duque de Pastrana and its full name was Chamartín de la Rosa.
It is located on the opposite side of Caro to Tetuan both districts occupy the entire northern part of the city. Since the mid-nineteenth century and like many other areas around the capital, the population increase skyrockets and with it the housing and urban chaos. From the 1950s onwards, as part of the capital, it underwent an absolute transformation within the Urban Development Plan of Madrid, by Pedro Bidagor, with the construction of the Chamartín Station, the Bernabéu Stadium, the extension of Príncipe de Vergara, Castellana and Serrano streets and neighborhoods such as the one of San Cristobal.
Where to eat in Chamartín
Son of corn
From the factory to the restaurant. If you’re familiar with Hijo del Maíz, you may also be familiar with Maíz Maya, the Mexican corn tortilla factory that sells its corn tortillas to chefs such as (for example) Dabiz Muñoz as told by Mar León in this report in El Español.
With this experience, they have opened two stores. A grill and an antojería, the latter, in addition to pozoles, esquites, enchiladas or different types of tacos, has a variety of mezcals and tequilas worthy of appearing on the menu of one of the largest cocktail bars of Madrid.
💶 Average price: 40€
📍 4 Mauricio Ravel St. and 28 Brazil Ave
Cervecería Restaurante Pepe
An open secret. The place of the parishioner, the neighbor and the machinist working from Chamartín station. This is the place. “El Pepe”, as it is known by the regulars, is an unpretentious place with things clear: here you come to eat the menu of the day we went out for the afternoon beers and, above all, to have our breakfast of tomato toast with plenty of olive oil. Seriously: you have to have breakfast at El Pepe.
💶 Average price: 15-20€
📍 C. de Agustín de Foxá, 27
Benigna House
Casa Benigna is a traditional and very peculiar restaurant (because of its crockery and even its way of serving paella) that reflects the restless spirit of its founder, Noberto, who became the first Michelin-starred restaurant in Alicante. Its star dish is the paella the patella, however, is presented here in the patella, a container that enhances its texture and flavor. It is undoubtedly one of the classics around Berlin Park.
💶 Average price: 35€
📍 Street Benigno Soto, 9
Marzeah
Marzeah, which means joy around the table and is a Phoenician word (something like francachela), is the craze led by its chef Sergio Gutiérrez.
With an eye on Asia and a price adjusted to worthy qualities, Marzeah is a place where you can have fun eating. If you can only try two things (which is not going to happen) stick with the steak tartar roll and the snout and trotters dimsum with Huelva shrimp tartar.
💶 Average price: 35€
📍 Calle del Príncipe de Vergara, 202
La Chalana
cantabrian lobster of spectacular thickness, balanced and intense flavor and at 150€ per kilo? A Chigre Menu that includes a scallop au gratin, a block of foie gras, twenty-four prawns, blue cheese and a bottle of cider for 16€? You got it too, even if it sounds like a joke.
La Chalana imports seafood from the north and also imports prices. The same promotions in Asturias are the ones you can find in Madrid in the form of conferences. This is the case of the Chigre Menu: varies every two weeks, can only be consumed in the bar area and is defined by an absurd quality-price ratio – a good amount of products and drinks at only 16€.
Between 8€ and 100€ per person.
Santo Domingo de Silos Street, 6
PaiPái
Let this serve as an introduction: some of the nigiris on PaiPái’s menu are not even nigiris. This is the case of the false nigiri (the second most ordered dish on the menu): a brioche dipped in English cream and topped in the oven serves as rice. The brioche is topped with a piece of fresh grilled foie gras, tartufata sauce, mango chutney and kabayaki sauce.
All the dishes of Fernando Ruiz, the chef, are bastards, so to speak. What other way would there be, then, to define the fusion of a Japanese kabayakisauce and a French brioche?
Around 30€ per person.
Plaza de Perú, 4
Urumea
Cachopo of one meter in length. We have to say it this way, without preamble, so that nobody misses the colossal cachopo of the Asturian restaurant run by Tito. It is stuffed with a kilo and a half of meat, which is soon to be said, Iberian ham, and three of the best cheeses: the pear tree, Afuega’l Pitu and another to melt.
The day you are not accompanied by three hungry friends, order some fabes or a delicious hake in cider.
📍 Calle Cochabamba, 7
💶 Cachopo menu for 4 with starter and 3 bottles of cider for 100€.
Cachivache
The gastronomic offer in Madrid is infinite, but Cachivache is one of those restaurants that you come back to and come back to again. The menu of this “full-color” neotaberna is traveling and curious, from lamb rolls with yogurt raita that do not fail to a torrija of sobao El Macho for which the spoons fight. Before you get up, you’ll be thinking about booking for next time.
📍CalleSerrano, 221
Ni Hao Restaurant
Chinese food in Spain is usually quite westernized and too adapted to the European palate. However, in the ni Han restaurant in Arturo Soria the cuisine is so authentic that it is not unusual to find more than one table with Asian diners. Its specialty is lacquered duck, a Peking dish that does not disappoint, although it also has specialties from other cuisines such as Japanese, Korean or Thai. In addition, it offers different menus of the day (between 10 € and 12 €) and several tasting menus (between 34 € and 40 € for two people) that will keep you satiated and happy for hours.
💶 Average price: 12€
📍 Calle de Arturo Soria, 335.
Zielou
Located above Chamartín Station, the Zielou restaurant is known for its signature cocktails and avant-garde cuisine that fuses traditional Spanish dishes with different flavors from around the world. Zielou is also famous for its after Work with DJs or live music on its large outdoor terrace during the hot season. The so-called Zielou Drunch starts around 17:30 and lasts throughout the afternoon until dinner time.
📍Estaciónde Chamartín, s/n, Planta Ático,
Coffee Park
Every neighborhood needs a place to have a powerful breakfast, and in this bright, cozy cafeteria that somehow encapsulates the concept of picnic in the park, serves great dishes like their avotoast, their brioche jam or their vegetable fritatta , homemade and very personal recipes accompanied by specialty coffee that can also be enjoyed on a terrace surrounded by Verde.
Let’s see who can walk past without succumbing to the pastries on the counter.
📍 Calle Víctor de la Serna, 1
What to see in Chamartín
Canal Foundation
Located next to an imposing water reservoir belonging to the Canal de Isabel II, the Canal Foundation has been offering surprising exhibitions, workshops and various cultural events for years. At present, this exhibition hall is betting on two exhibitions: We Are Water y Madrid: creative chronicle of the 80s.
📍 Calle de Mateo Inurria, 2
National Museum of Natural Sciences
The National Museum of Natural Sciences is located on Paseo de la Castellana, in the former Palace of Arts and Industry. It houses a very large collection with several permanent exhibitions such as Biodiversity, the most recent, which opened in 2012 and occupies about 1,000 square meters. During the visit to the museum you can observe minerals the company’s website,, has a wide range of products including fossils, replicas of dinosaur skeletons and specimens of extinct animals, among others.
The list is long and includes an educational garden, a stone garden and a full calendar of activities. In short: it is one of those museums that do not usually appear on lists but which must be known.
General admission 7€, reduced 3,50€ and free for some groups. All the General Info in its web
📍 Calle de José Gutiérrez Abascal, 2
Student Residence
It is inevitable to think of the Residencia de Estudiantes and not immediately relate it to the Generation of ’27: poets such as Lorca, Juan Ramón Jiménez and Antonio Machado passed through here, as well as pioneers of the stature of Josefina Carabias, Victoria Kent, María Zambrano or Maruja Mallo, in addition to other important cultural figures of the last century.
The institution, located in the neighborhood of El Viso, was founded in 1910 and today still serves as an accommodation for creators, artists and researchers. It also hosts exhibitions and can be visited free of charge: in fact, it has a recreation where you can see some of the original furniture and learn about the rooms where these illustrious characters stayed and conceived part of their work.
📍 Calle del Pinar, 21
Exhibition of classic trains in Chamartín station
In Chamartín metro station we can find a permanent exhibition of classic Metro trains that were fully restored to celebrate the centenary of the company. The exhibition, which belongs to the Metro Museums, includes more than a dozen historic carriages, including the first ones that ran more than a century ago on Line 1.
In addition to the trains, more than 100 photographs, objects and pieces from the history of the suburban train can also be found in the exhibition. The exhibition is free of charge for Metro travelers by prior reservation through the web.
📍 ChamartínStation(lines 1 and 10)
White Lab Gallery
White Lab is a new gallery where you can discover very promising contemporary artists. In addition to painting and sculpture, it also hosts events with designers and live music, making it a space that promotes all the arts. The artistic avant-garde is extremely present in everything that is exhibited in this subway hall and in addition to workshops they also provide a window of exposure to emerging artists who can present their proposals to the gallery’s laboratory.
📍Paseode la Castellana, 166
Things to do in Chamartín
See an original piece of the Berlin wall
There is places in this city that don’t seem to fit the Temple of Debod, for example, is well known, but many people do not know that in the Berlin Park are three original pieces of the wall that divided the German capital.
At the fountain of this park in the Chamartín district stand three graffitied concrete columns that seem to mean nothing, but are real pieces of the wall with their original drawings. The three pieces arrived in Madrid in 1990 to bear witness to the fall of the wall.
📍Avenidade Ramón y Cajal, 2
National Music Auditorium
The home of The National Orchestra and Orchestra of Spain is the Auditorio Nacional de Música. This building, built in the 80’s and designed by the architect José Mª García de Paredes, does not have a particularly attractive façade, but both its concert hall for symphony orchestra concerts and the chamber orchestra have a certain spectacularity due to their capacity and illumination. The centerpiece over the Orchestra is the 5700-pipe organ that steals the stage’s attention.
In this auditorium is usually held the first contact of many Madrilenians with classical music, as it is typical to make a school trip to listen to the Joven Orquesta Nacional de España (National Youth Orchestra of Spain).
📍 Calle del Príncipe de Vergara, 146
Chamartín Market
All markets are for shopping, but not in all of them you can have a drink. And in Chamartín, whose facade gives you the impression that there is a contemporary art museum inside, there are no avant-garde sculptures, but there are meats, fish, fruits and some very interesting stalls, such as a store dedicated exclusively to pistachios (Pistachos de la Mancha), a brewery with more than 300 references (Cervezas La Mundial) or Pasta Mito, one of the best Italian restaurants in the city.
📍 Bolivia St., 9
Bowling Chamartín
In the attic of the station itself you will find Bowling Chamartín a bowling alley that opened its doors in 1979 and since then has been amusing and entertaining locals and foreigners alike. It is, without a doubt, one of the best things to do in Chamartín, especially on those rainy days when you don’t feel like walking or being outdoors. Bowling, foosball, billiards, arcade machines and a cafeteria with dishes that pay tribute to the stars of bowling: a great plan made in USA of the most complete.
estacion de Chamartín, S/N, Zone Ático (1st floor)
This article has been written by Isabel Nieto, Javi Bisbal, Miguel Sanchez, Carmen Seco, Alberto del Castillo, Lucía Mos y Elena French.