Madrid.

Start at the bar of El Doble on Calle de Ponzano, which opens Tuesday to Sunday. Order a doble, a glass about twice the size of a caña (a small beer), and a tapa comes with it. Lonely Planet got crisps with salty anchovies or pickled mussels in 2019. For food, the chef Sacha Hormaechea's list at this bar runs depending on budget from a spider crab down to camarones (small shrimp), king prawns or bonito salads. Keep count of your beers, because you'll be asked for the tally when you pay.

For dinner, go to StreetXO, because Dabiz Muñoz's counter serves lunch and dinner every day. Order the Peking dumpling with crisp pig's ear, on the card since 2012, and the tandoori pigeon from the robata. Gastroactitud found the pigeon's breast red and full of flavour, spectacular in February 2024 and put the bill at about 70 euros a head. There are no bookings. Give your name at the cocktail bar and wait for the list.

Order the one at Casa Dani in the Mercado de la Paz, which won Spain's national tortilla championship in March 2019. Lori Zaino of The Infatuation explained why it tastes the way it does: they fry the potatoes in sunflower oil, which helps them retain their original, sour flavor that's complemented by the sweetness of the onion. Go around 11 a.m. with a café con leche, as Eater's Paula Móvil advises, because the bar fills at lunch. It shuts on Sunday.

For a sit-down version, book a weekday at Sacha. Sacha Hormaechea sets his tortilla on one side only, leaves the other loose, and lays it over piparras (small green peppers), chorizo and morcilla (blood sausage). It is the dish the city knows him by.

Near Gran Vía, stand at a barrel at Bodega de la Ardosa. The house counts out a fixed number of potatoes and cuts them to one size, and the tortilla comes out soft in the middle. Lori Zaino says to order it instead of reading the menu.

Book La Tasquería in Chamberí, where Javi Estévez holds a MICHELIN star for offal. His callos, veal tripe with trotter and snout, take two days, and Pilar Salas of 7 Caníbales called them essential. Around them he pairs each inside cut with something from the sea: pig's tails with eel, trotters with langoustines. Order the suckling pig's head as well, confited, fried and brought out whole. Skip the desserts, which José Carlos Capel found unconvincing in April 2024. The menus cost 59 and 95 euros when he ate, and the room shuts on Sunday.

On a weekday, book La Tasquita de Enfrente off Gran Vía. Time Out calls Juanjo López Bedmar's callos the finest in Madrid, and Pilar Salas named them in 2016 among the signature dishes built on offal. Ask what came in, because the daily list is where the money goes. The tasting menu was 110 euros in January 2025.

For tripe another way, Ugo Chan fills its gyoza with Madrid-style tripe and serves them with fried chickpeas. Philippe Regol ate them in 2025: Japanese meets Spanish. Delicious.

Book Desde 1911, the restaurant the fishmongers Pescaderías Coruñesas opened in 2021. The main course is a single fish, the best they received that day. You pick three to six of the day's starters first, then finish from the cheese and dessert trolleys. Julia Pérez Lozano had inshore sole two ways there in December 2021: The sauce is perfectly done. Just enough lemon and a magic touch of caper. The frying impeccable. Her menu cost 130 euros for three starters and the fish. The house served Wednesday to Saturday in September 2026.

For shellfish, book Estimar, where Anna Gotanegra's family of Roses fishmongers supplied the fish when it opened. Order the Roses red prawn steamed, which Pérez Lozano liked best since the warmth brings out the sweetness. Don't go alone. The MICHELIN inspectors warn that many of the fish are large and may not be available just for one person. It shuts Sunday and Monday.

For aged fish, go to Bistronómika by the Retiro. Carlos del Portillo ages the big fish for a week, then grills them skin side down over charcoal. He put his average ticket at 100 euros a head with drinks in 2024.

Book one of the sixteen seats at Tripea in the Mercado de Vallehermoso. Roberto Martínez Foronda cooks a tasting menu off one induction bench, and the mussel ceviche comes out of a wok, hot. He learned nikkei in Peru and changes the menu daily with what the stalls around him had. You eat at a single wooden table in a corridor of the market, with shoppers buying vegetables past your shoulder. Eight courses were 60 euros when The Infatuation last updated in 2024.

For a cheap lunch, sit at the bar of Casa Dani in the Mercado de la Paz. The menú del día (the set lunch) cost 15 euros in June 2026 and got you an appetizer, main, dessert, and coffee, and the tortilla that won Spain's championship in 2019 is on the same counter.