
A conversation between friends planning to have a drink may very well refer to the sanctum sanctorum of Madrid’s bar areas that make up circuits such as la Latina o Ponzano or any other trendy Zone around which restaurants are swirling and whose price goes up due to the fact that the rent of the premises is more expensive.
Everything is in Madrid a tourism promotion program of the Madrid City Council, has consulted Rogelio Enríquez, president of the Madrid Gastronomy Academy, for some of the restaurants included in three not so usual categories –seafood restaurants of Tetuan, chinese restaurants in Usera and food houses.
The Academy is “a non-profit cultural association whose main purpose is to research, promote and disseminate the gastronomy of Madrid, its Community and its geographical environment in each and every one of its different aspects”.
And in this regard, Enriquez comments on something really interesting: that the gastronomic level of the city is defined by the places where its inhabitants eat every day.
The seafood restaurants of Tetuán
“Despite its humble ancestry Tetuán has always been a neighborhood fond of seafood from the most modest bars to the great seafood restaurants in the noblest Zone” says Rogelio Enríquez.
And a fact that supports this curious fact is that what is probably the best seafood restaurant in Madrid (since 1911) is almost at the ticket to the neighborhood. In any case, the best seafood restaurants in Tetuán for Enríquez are the following:
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- La Castañal (78, Berruguete St.)
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- Casa Adriano (19 Pamplona St.)
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- Naveira do Mar (57, Santa Juliana St.)
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- Burela (Nardo Street, 2)
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- La Toledana (31, Aviador Zorita St.)
The food houses
In a somewhat misguided metaphor, it could be said that just as Galicia has furanchos and the Canary Islands has guachinches, Madrid has eating houses. In the words of Enríquez: “They are places that were originally linked to a family, generally the woman cooked and the man in the dining room was the waiter, he sold the dishes”.
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- Barrera Restaurant (25 Alonso Cano Street)
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- Ponzano Restaurant (12 Ponzano St.)
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- Asturianos Bar (Calle de Vallehermoso, 94)
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- De la Riva (13 Cochabamba St.)
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- Restaurant Nantes (15, Maestro Arbós St.)
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- Isamar (42, Emilio Ferrari St.)
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- Conduma Restaurant (calle del Mar de Bering, 7)
A stroll through Usera Town
Gone are the years when going to eat at the rest chinos in Usera was almost an exotic act. Who more who less, any dilettante of eating in Madrid has his favorite restaurant in Usera.
Enriquez says: “We could say that Nicolas Sanchez Street is the gastronomic epicenter of Usera. This, and its parallel and adjacent streets, are home to most of the neighborhood’s most interesting restaurants.”
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- Sichuan Flavor (3, Nicolás Sánchez St.)
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- Hong Kong 70 in Chinatown (11, Nicolás Sánchez St.)
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- Hong Du Restaurant (16 Nicolás Sánchez St.)
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- Lao Tou Restaurant (35 Nicolás Sánchez St.)
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- BAMMBAO Restaurant (54, Nicolás Sánchez St.)
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- Mianxiang Yuan (Dolores Barranco Street, 24)