If you’ve ever passed by Calle Marqués de la Ensenada, 12, you may have noticed a solemn, almost diplomatic building that looks more like an embassy than anything else. Inside is the Institut Français de Madrid, one of the most active cultural centers in the city. Among exhibitions, film series and talks on the state of the world, it also hides a café with an indoor terrace that has just entered the latest list of Soletes de verano of the Repsol Guide.
That café, known simply as Le Café, serves breakfasts with French specialties -the croissant is the protagonist- and offers one of those daily menus that still allow you to eat well in the center without the meal ticket souring your afternoon. The Repsol Guide has included it among its recommendations on its own merits: its menu changes frequently, but it moves between classics of French cuisine and well-made homemade dishes.
One day you can find an onion soup and the next a croque Monsieur with freshly toasted bread, bechamel sauce and melted cheese. The menu offers four starters and four main courses, and there are options such as ratatouille, pumpkin cream, chicken curry or salmon with dill. In other words, unpretentious but with intention.
The complete list of Soletes
The inclusion of this café in the Summer Soletes 2024 is not anecdotal. This classification, prepared by the Repsol Guide with fifty experts spread throughout the country, looks for places that work especially well during the hot months, either for its terrace, its light cuisine or simply for being a good place where you do not mind repeating.
Along with Le Café, in the Community of Madrid there are other summer Soletes that have also caught the attention of the Repsol team. Here are some of them:
- La Zarza(Plaza Rodríguez Marín, 3, Alcalá de Henares).
- Rita La Cantaora(calle Juan Muñoz, 43, Leganés)
- Volea(Calle La Pedriza, 6, Pozuelo de Alarcón)
- Mama Campo Arroyofresno(calle de María de Maeztu, 21)
- Obrar(9, Galileo St.)
- La Raspa VK(Calle de Josefa Díaz, 4)
- Lorena 57(calle de la Cañada, 17)
- Las Hernandas(avenida de la Gran Vía del Sureste, 32)
- Mama Rosa Restobar(1, Alejandro Saint Aubin St.)
- The Central House Lavapiés(Calle de la Encomienda, 16)
- Dai Gelato(Calle de José de Cadalso, 88)
- Magadán(Paseo del Pintor Rosales, 9)
- Egun-On(Paseo del Zurrón, 31)
- Havana Blues(Paseo de Santa María de la Cabeza, 56)
The Repsol Guide app, as its director María Ritter reminded us, has become this summer a sort of compass for those who don’t want to go around asking “where is good food here?