Dua Lipa’s connection to Madrid runs deep and includes such prominent ambassadors as Pedro Almodóvar, but in her new collaboration with Google, she has made it clear that her emotional connection to Madrid isn’t limited to the Prado, San Ginés, or a flamenco tablao: in her personal guide to the city, the artist has singled out a very specific tapas bar as a “unique experience.” It’s called Sala de Despiece, and at first glance, it looks more like a market butcher shop than a trendy restaurant.
Sala de Despiece began in Chamberí as an experiment and ended up becoming one of the most influential gastronomic concepts of the last decade in Madrid. Its aesthetic, as its name suggests, replicates an authentic butcher shop, thanks to white-tiled walls, hooks and cutting codes on the walls, stainless steel work counters, and a menu presented as an order sheet with ingredients, origins, and weights—almost as if you were buying goods at a central market.
That “contemporary butcher shop” atmosphere is part of the experience: you sit at a bar that looks like a workbench, watch as dishes are assembled just inches from your stool, and move through a space that feels more like a kitchen than a typical dining room. The result is a highly theatrical, almost performative experience, where each course is finished and plated right in front of the diner.
Why it has won over Dua Lipa
As the singer herself has shared on her book platform, Service95, Sala de Despiece is a must-visit every time she’s in Madrid. In her description, she speaks of “a delicious dinner with tapas-style dishes to share” and highlights that the restaurant’s aesthetic—that imitation of a meat-processing plant—makes it something “that turns the night into a unique experience.”
Dua Lipa has revisited the spot and included it alongside other places that define her relationship with the city: the Chocolatería San Ginés, the Corral de la Morería tablao, the ChinChín cocktail bar in Malasaña, Ultramarinos Quintín, and the Cine Doré, home to the Spanish Film Archive. The fact that a restaurant like Sala de Despiece appears on that list—half touristy, half personal taste—says a lot about what the artist looks for when she goes out to eat: places with character, a striking aesthetic, and cuisine designed for snacking and sharing.
What to eat at Sala de Despiece
Although the name and decor point to meat, the menu goes far beyond the T-bone steak. The common thread is the product: aged cuts of beef, fish from the fish market, seasonal vegetables, seafood, and less common cuts prepared in small portions and served at the bar.
Among its specialties are the “chuletón cenital,” a sort of carpaccio of aged beef with tartufata, fresh tomato, and olive oil finished right in front of the customer, and the “Rolex,” a bite that combines pancetta, foie gras, wine gel, and truffle, finished with a blowtorch in front of the diner. These are joined by tapas such as Japanese tomato with tuna and seaweed, langoustines with hollandaise sauce, candied artichokes, or bar-style reinterpretations of hearty stews.
The original Sala de Despiece is located at 27 Alonso Cano Street in the Chamberí neighborhood, an area that has established itself as one of the city’s culinary hubs. The concept’s success has led the group to expand into two other neighborhoods: a location near Sol and another in the area around Ayala Street, in the Salamanca neighborhood, where the concept of the counter, the products, and the butcher shop aesthetic remain, though with their own nuances and developments.
