There is no shortage of Chinese restaurants in Madrid: finding one is relatively easy, but the food corresponds to what a Chinese citizen would associate with good food or at least traditional food is more difficult. That is why we will never overcome the closure of the Chinese restaurant in Plaza de España.
There are two clear areas to eat authentic Chinese food in Madrid: the area around Plaza España, especially the area around Calle Leganitos, and the area around the Plaza de la Plaza de España Usera, where the Chinese New Year celebrations take place.
1. Shanghai Mama
First class Shanghainese food. One of those places that boasts a list of at least three or four dishes you’ll want to come back for again and again. For example, their chicken kubak. In addition, they have several locations in Madrid, which undoubtedly proves their good reception.
📍 Various locations
🥢Get your complete menu here at Shanghai Mama
2. China Crown
China Crown is one of the first Chinese restaurants in Madrid, in the early 80’s the interest in Chinese gastronomy was awakening. Maria Li Bao and Felipe Bao, owners and architects, followed the family tradition and opened this restaurant in the Salamanca neighborhood, which is still a safe bet among the wide gastronomic offer in the area.
📍 Calle de Don Ramón de la Cruz, 6 (Salamanca neighborhood)
🥢 €€€€€
3. Biang Biang Bar
In Biang Biang Bar you will find the best homemade noodles in Madrid. Without exaggeration. You’ll finish your plate and you’ll be sorry you can’t eat more. The menu is brief, but full of flavors that are always a hit. Noodles like you’ve never tasted them before. The size of a meter and with spectacular toppings. A well-kept secret in the middle of Chueca.
📍 Calle de Pelayo, 8 (Chueca).
🥢 €€€€€
4. YGF Malatang
Fast food takes different forms depending on the country’s gastronomy and YGF Malatang is the Chinese contribution to this format. But instead of pizza or hamburger the star dish is soup. You choose the ingredients yourself and put them in a bowl which is then weighed (the price per 100 grams is 2.19€) and you also choose the type of broth and that’s it, ready to eat.
📍 Calle de San Bernardino, 6 (Downtown)
🥢 €€€€€
5. Lao Tou
Lao Tou is one of the cult Chinese restaurants in the Usera neighborhood. One of its most outstanding dishes is the hake soup, and the one that will catch your attention, the stewed duck tongues. Ordering here has an almost random appeal: you don’t know the menu in its entirety, but we’ve come to play.
📍 Calle Nicolás Sánchez, 35 (Usera)
🥢€€€€€
6. Yue Lai
Yun Lei is also known by the name of Oriental Jewel. It is famous for its hot pot a pot with Chinese broth in which you can put the ingredients of your choice. Its peanut sauce can be eaten practically by spoonfuls. After the craze for the ramen chinese fondue has arrived to compete with it and is a growing trend.
📍 Calle Hermosilla, 101 (Salamanca neighborhood)
🥢 €€€€€
7. Mr. Doulao
Mr. Doulao is “the modern Chinese of Usera”: it could be a hamburger restaurant or a designer coffee shop, but it is a very authentic Chinese restaurant. This is a restaurant that is also based on hot pot. You can order more than one round of food that you will cook in the broth that you will have at your own table. You also have an individual ceramic hob so that the broth does not stop bubbling.
📍 Olvido Street, 46 (Usera)
🥢 €€€€€
8. Don Lay
Don Lay’s beginnings date back to 2002 in the Zone area Angel’s Gate. That restaurant that sought to offer typical Cantonese food ended up closing, but after several years, it returned in 2019 with a new location in the Salamanca neighborhood as the most elegant Chinese in Madrid. Their menus state that ‘it is not a place for three-delicious rice’ and they boast of serving authentic Cantonese delicacies, among which they keep the classics of the first Don Lay, such as duck, suckling pig and pork lacquered dishes.
📍 Castelló, 117 (Lista)
🥢 €€€€€
9. Royal Cantonese
It is a bit far from the center, but its location is a sign of quality: Usera, the Chinatown of Madrid. Their dim-sum are famous, but their eggplants with meat are no slouch either. El Comidista (through Mikel Iturriaga) considered that Royal Cantonese is the best Chinese restaurant in Spain. Big words that do it justice.
📍 Calle Olvido, 92 (Usera)
🥢 €€€€€
10. Gyoza Go!
Gyoza GO! is one of the first restaurants to focus its menu on gyozas (or dumplings), instead of having them as a starter. Handmade on the spot, you can see how they are made right there. They are grilled or steamed and you will find them in a variety of flavors. This location is perfect for a quick stop on a stroll through the center.
📍 Calle de Carranza, 4 (Trafalgar) and Plaza del Comandante las Morenas, 5 (downtown).
🥢 €€€€€
12. Tse-Yang
Tse-Yung is an upscale Chinese restaurant where it is worth indulging in and trying their Peking duck. They define their work as follows: “passion and respect for traditional Chinese haute cuisine” and this is reflected both in their menu and in the way they treat their customers. For more than 25 years, they have been reaffirming their know-how in the salamanca neighborhood.
📍 Calle del Marqués de Villamagna, 1 (Salamanca district)
🥢 €€€€€
13. Hutong
If one sits at the table at Hutong and orders the Beijing-style lacquered duck, the question may fall, “And how do you do that?” In that case, the response of the maître d’ or the cook would most likely extend to the cafés. The duck you’re about to eat is made in 24 hours and follows 18 steps. It has to be macerated, blanched, stuffed and baked. Sold alone.
Calle de Lagasca, 81 (Salamanca district)
🥢 €€€€€
14.Soy Kitchen
Soy Kitchen is both a food house and a life lesson. Because of how delicious they cook and how much you learn from Julio Zhang’ s signature cuisine. In here, your only guide is the strange intuition that everything will be fine. The tests? Its chilly crab or its variety of dim sum.
Calle de Zurbano, 59 (Chamberí)
🥢 €€€€€
15. Hong Kong 70 in Chinatown
In Hong Kong 70 started in Usera, then opened in Toledo street, its proximity to Plaza Mayor made it better known than the original location, but in 2022 they closed this establishment.
As expected, they focus on cuisine specific to the city that gives the restaurant its name and is one of Asia’s gastronomic strongholds. One of its specialties is duck in almost all its forms: roasted, fried or shredded in its dim sum. The latter are homemade and have interesting fillings such as duck with foie flambé.
📍 Calle de Nicolás Sánchez, 11 (Usera)
🥢 €€€€€
17. Chun li
Another restaurant that has made Chinese dumplings its forte is Chun Li, where they are handmade one by one in the traditional way. Its menu is concise and focused on Chinese dumplings, there are colorful, vegetarian, fried or steamed in the typical bamboo baskets. The name and aesthetics of this small, but very decorated place refer to the Street Fightervideo game.
📍 Various locations
🥢 €€€€€
18. Buen Gusto Restaurant
El Buen Gusto is a Chinese restaurant in Madrid that has been one of the culinary jewels of Palos de la Frontera since the 90s. It became known in 2005, when the emeritus King Juan Carlos I visited them, since then it has a large photo of the event at the ticket and is already a hallmark of the local identity.
They serve typical Chinese street food dishes, with aluminum foil as a base, as is typical in the Asian country. They have a robot that serves the dishes and adds an extra kitsch touch to the ambiance.
📍 Paseo de Santa María de la Cabeza, 60 (Palos de la Frontera)
🥢 €€€€€
19. Xiongzai Restaurant
This Chinese restaurant in the vicinity of Plaza de España is better known by its unofficial name “Winnie de Pooh” or “El Winnie” in reference to the cartoon on the glass of the ticket. In addition, it has expanded its business and now also has a store near Gran Vía. Its extensive menu is full of dishes of authentic Chinese food such as soups, skewers, baos and jiaozi and almost none exceeds 4 or 5 €. In addition, it has vegetarian and vegan options that are as good or better than the originals.
📍 Calle de San Leonardo, 3 (downtown) and Calle de la Salud, 8 (downtown)
🥢 €€€€€
20. Juan Men
Juan Men is a play on words that phonetically makes sense to Chinese and Spanish. Huang Men Ji is the technique used to cook the chicken they serve here, which has a distinctive yellow color thanks to the ginger they use, among other seasonings.
The menu is mainly divided into bowls of soup with different vegetables and chicken and tapas, among which the fried lotus root skewer is a triumph.
📍 Calle de las Hileras, 19 (Downtown)
🥢 €€€€€