SALA DE DESPIECE 1 (SDD1).

Sala de Despiece

Every server carries a blowtorch, and one of them scorches the eel with foie gras and apple at your table.2 Javier Bonet built the room as a butcher's cutting stall, hooks in the ceiling included, and the menu prints where each thing came from and what it weighs.1

Why go

Bonet opened the first one on Calle Ponzano in 2013 and built it around Chamberí tapas. The day's produce lay along a bar you ate at.4 In 2024 he moved the whole thing to Alonso Cano, a few streets over. The new room seats sixty and keeps the same white butcher's fittings.4 The staff wear butcher's aprons, the pass is built like a slab and a glass-fronted fridge shows what came in that morning.1 Food arrives on wax paper on trays at communal tables, which is the format the whole place runs on.1 There are three doors now. This is the original. The other two are on Virgen de los Peligros near Sol and on Ayala in Salamanca.4

Order this / avoid

• The Rolex, a strip of egg yolk with pancetta, foie gras, truffle and sauternes.2
• The eel with foie gras and apple, doused in the house sauce and blowtorched where you can see it.2
• The Navarra peeled tomato with fried basil and olive oil, which 50 Best calls legendary.1
• The Basque truffle, served on talos with txistorra and a pickled egg.1
• There is sake on the list alongside the whites and the rosé.4
• Avoid walking in. All three doors book out.

What locals & experts say

• Lori Zaino, for The Infatuation, on what dinner here actually is: Dinner at Sala de Despiece is a full-on event—for starters, servers each carry around personal blowtorches and caramelize pretty much everything, from appetizers to desserts. On the Rolex: it is infinitely more satisfying than a wristwatch.2
• 50 Best Discovery, on Bonet's room: Waiter's clad in butchers' aprons bustle, the pass looks like a slaughterhouse slab, walls are decorated in cabinets of cook's knives, hooks hang from the ceiling and a fish-market vibe glass-fronted fridge shows what's hot each day.1
• The Infatuation on booking, and it applies to every door: Even with two locations, you'll still need to reserve well in advance.2
• I have not found a review of this kitchen by a named Spanish critic, and it holds no MICHELIN star in the 2026 guide.5

Good to know

• This door is Alonso Cano 28, in Chamberí. The Ponzano room it grew out of is gone.4
• Sixty covers, at the bar or at a table.4
• 50 Best puts an average head at sixty dollars, which is the only figure any page carries.1
• Hygiene: I have not read a Spanish inspection record for this room, so I have nothing to report either way.

Jeff's take (his words)

• Note: Saved with no note; the note on my list belongs to the other door.

Verdict

should-visit — Book it, ask for the counter, and let them bring the tray. The Rolex is the plate to say yes to and the blowtorch work is the reason to sit where you can watch. I have not found a Spanish critic's review of this kitchen, so what stands behind it is The Infatuation and 50 Best's own directory.