Paco Roncero Restaurante
Paco Roncero turns the calamari sandwich of Madrid's bars into one bite of fried and raw squid under a bread meringue.
Why go
Roncero took over the kitchen of La Terraza del Casino, on the top floor of the Casino de Madrid, in autumn 2000 with Ferran Adrià as his adviser.3 Adrià's advice ended in 2012. Since then the restaurant has carried Roncero's name alone.4 He told Guía Repsol in 2025: We had the chance to work with the greatest and to know the avant-garde kitchen from the inside, which evolved into my own cooking.
4 The restaurant holds two MICHELIN stars in the 2026 guide.5
In 2024 most of the menu was small bites eaten by hand.3 Roncero built the 2025 Madrid, Madrid, Madrid menu around his city and explained the snacks to Guía Repsol: We're very much a bar people, so we wanted to pay homage to them with the snacks.
4 The MICHELIN inspectors loved his version of the calamari sandwich.
5 Pilar Portero and Sofía Moro of Guía Repsol ate the 23-plate Madrid menu in September 2025. They had a slice of tuna belly with tomato tartare, anchovy and caviar, rolled up at the table. The beef was Guadarrama sirloin aged 30 days, served as a tartare under smoked Osetra caviar.4
José Carlos Capel, the Gastroactitud critic, ate the previous menu in June 2024 and scored it 7.5 out of 10. He liked the opening truffle pizza, a very fine summer-truffle pizza, ethereal as air, on a dry-meringue base instead of wheat dough.
3 The run of snacks after it lost him. He called the house classics, the white-chocolate and foie-gras filipino among them, a run of bland flavours,
and found the salt-cod lemon pie sweet, with no taste of the salt fish. Up to that point the meal was a boring run of uneven mini portions, technically correct, with too many sweet notes.
3 Then, he wrote, the meal suddenly changed course with a magnificent
parmesan ice-cream sandwich. He called the beetroot flowers with black-garlic ice cream and maraschino sauce outstanding.
His verdict on the whole: a restaurant with glamorous interiors and a haute-cuisine standing that is partly out of balance.
3 The salt-cod lemon pie was still on the menu when Guía Repsol ate in September 2025.4
Dabiz Muñoz, the DiverXO chef, said in 2023: I always go to Paco Roncero Restaurante when I have something to celebrate. It has a unique sense of hospitality.
7
Order this / avoid
- On the menu: the tuna belly you roll at the table (José Carlos Capel, 2024; Guía Repsol, 2025).3
- On the menu: the beetroot flowers with black-garlic ice cream (Capel, 2024:
outstanding
).3 - On the menu: the calamari sandwich (the MICHELIN inspectors, 2024).5
What locals & experts say
- Alberto Chicote, chef (2025): of Paco Roncero and one other room, the two he visits most each year:
I never tire of them, because they are superb, they cook superbly and they are such good people.
8 - Award: two MICHELIN stars, 2026 guide.5
- Award: 3 Soles Guía Repsol, held since 2011.6
Good to know
- Where: the top floor of the Casino de Madrid, Calle de Alcalá 15.6 Jaime Hayon designed the dining room.2
- Price: in September 2026 the Madrid, Madrid, Madrid menu of 23 creations cost 240 euros and the Grand Madrid menu of 25 cost 310. The 15-course Essence menu cost 190 euros at Thursday and Friday lunch.1
- Timing: in 2024 it shut on Sundays, Mondays and at Tuesday lunch.3
Verdict
should-visit — Book Paco Roncero for a big night at the top of the Casino de Madrid and a long menu built on the city's bar food. A critic in 2024 found the first bites too sweet and the later courses much better. The Madrid menu costs 240 euros a head before wine in September 2026.