For me, Madrid could be summed up in about three words - museums, food, and fútbol.
Yes, I went to a Real Madrid game, and yes, it was amazing. And yes, Christiano Ronaldo scored a hat trick while we were watching. (!!!!!!!!!!!)
I'll be honest, Madrid felt a little too much like New York City for me to want to actively explore, which was disappointing. But I still enjoyed myself quite a bit because like I said, the food and the museums were incredible.
Restaurants
We got to Madrid around 7 pm, and went to our hotel to freshen up before heading out for dinner. The receptionist at our hotel - the very cool and funky Petit Palace Lealtad Plaza - recommended that we walk basically around the corner and into the literary quarter, or the Barrio de Las Letras, for dinner. It's a fairly sizeable neighborhood; there are a few lovely plazas to stop and have some drinks and tapas in, and all three major museums in the city are within close walking distance. It was home to many of the Spanish Golden Age writers and playwrights, such Lope de Vega and Miguel de Cervantes himself.
We ate in this neighborhood every night we were there, we loved it so much. The first night, we decided to forego tapas for the first time and had a really nice, delicious full sit down dinner - unfortunately, I cannot remember the name of the restaurant and for the life of me cannot find it online. But god did I have some delicious lamb chops that night. Ah, the memories. Edit: The name of the restaurant is El Barril de Las Letras. Of course. How embarrassing.
The second night, we ate at a traditional tapas restaurant very popular with the locals called Taberna de la Daniela. It was a mouthwatering meal, and it was also where I had my first piece of Spanish meat - a few perfect little chorizos. Like I mentioned in my Barcelona post, my family is Jewish and the Spanish love their ham. It proved a little difficult to find meat on a tapas menu we could eat, but I decided to screw it and just try something not too similar to sliced ham (I had a bad experience in elementary school. It's scarred me to this day). It turned out to be a great decision, and definitely made the whole tapas experience easier afterwards.
Our other two nights in Madrid, we ate in the Plaza de Santa Ana, which is bordered by the ME Madrid Reina Victoria Hotel (located in a beautiful 19th century building) and the Teatro Español. It's also surrounded by a bevy of tapas bars with promising menus. There was a restaurant called O Cacho de San Jose that had an Italian side and a tapas side - the first night (the night before we left for Sevilla), we did Italian, and the second night (our last night in Spain) we went back to good, old, classic tapas. It was a delicious pair of places to cap off different parts of our trip.
I'll be honest, Madrid felt a little too much like New York City for me to want to actively explore, which was disappointing. But I still enjoyed myself quite a bit because like I said, the food and the museums were incredible.
Restaurants
We got to Madrid around 7 pm, and went to our hotel to freshen up before heading out for dinner. The receptionist at our hotel - the very cool and funky Petit Palace Lealtad Plaza - recommended that we walk basically around the corner and into the literary quarter, or the Barrio de Las Letras, for dinner. It's a fairly sizeable neighborhood; there are a few lovely plazas to stop and have some drinks and tapas in, and all three major museums in the city are within close walking distance. It was home to many of the Spanish Golden Age writers and playwrights, such Lope de Vega and Miguel de Cervantes himself.
We ate in this neighborhood every night we were there, we loved it so much. The first night, we decided to forego tapas for the first time and had a really nice, delicious full sit down dinner - unfortunately, I cannot remember the name of the restaurant and for the life of me cannot find it online. But god did I have some delicious lamb chops that night. Ah, the memories. Edit: The name of the restaurant is El Barril de Las Letras. Of course. How embarrassing.
The second night, we ate at a traditional tapas restaurant very popular with the locals called Taberna de la Daniela. It was a mouthwatering meal, and it was also where I had my first piece of Spanish meat - a few perfect little chorizos. Like I mentioned in my Barcelona post, my family is Jewish and the Spanish love their ham. It proved a little difficult to find meat on a tapas menu we could eat, but I decided to screw it and just try something not too similar to sliced ham (I had a bad experience in elementary school. It's scarred me to this day). It turned out to be a great decision, and definitely made the whole tapas experience easier afterwards.
Our other two nights in Madrid, we ate in the Plaza de Santa Ana, which is bordered by the ME Madrid Reina Victoria Hotel (located in a beautiful 19th century building) and the Teatro Español. It's also surrounded by a bevy of tapas bars with promising menus. There was a restaurant called O Cacho de San Jose that had an Italian side and a tapas side - the first night (the night before we left for Sevilla), we did Italian, and the second night (our last night in Spain) we went back to good, old, classic tapas. It was a delicious pair of places to cap off different parts of our trip.
