Plekken in Madrid

High-end Tokyo-style sushi and robata in Salamanca

Six-table San Sebastián cooking on the Ponzano corridor

The Retiro-edge canteen of Castellanos and Morales

Arzábal's garden restaurant inside the Reina Sofía

Persian market cuisine from a one-woman kitchen

Calle Argumosa's alternative tapas terrace

Grilled sardines and El Rastro Sunday ritual since 1977

1827 taberna on Cervantes' old street

The Rastro's snail institution since 1942

The 1929 tavern where the Yayo was born

Madrid's championship tortilla inside Mercado de la Paz

1860 tavern of legendary bacalao, croquetas and Madrid history

Loewe's house-like flagship in a 19th-century Serrano building

The Cava Baja institution of huevos estrellados since 1974

A 1920 taberna reborn, ibérico-and-truffle croquetas and noble menú del día

The locals' temple of battered bacalao near Plaza Mayor

Refined Uruguayan parrilla over oak and vine shoots

Churros con chocolate in a marble-and-tile room since 1894

All-day West-Coast cafe with in-house bakery and La Cabra coffee

An eight-seat Michelin room hidden inside the world's great tablao

Madrid's only three-star, Dabiz Muñoz's avant-garde theatre

Specialty-coffee espresso bar in Salamanca

Pescaderías Coruñesas' Salamanca seafood institution

Steamship-styled seafood house in the business north

Seasonal market cooking and a cult cheesecake in stripped-back Chamberí

The anchor of Madrid's gallery street in Lavapiés

The chef who brought Nikkei to Spain, on his own terms

Communal-table specialty coffee with an Asian-vintage touch

Lavapiés roaster supplying the city's best specialty bars

A 19th-century Salamanca palace with two Michelin stars downstairs

Iron-and-glass design five-star with a Michelin-starred kitchen

Yong Wu Nagahira's Japanese-Spanish fish maturation

Mediterranean-leaning Japanese with a six-seat sushi bar

Cantabrian cooking in a minimalist-chic Salamanca townhouse

1929-rooted tin-bar taberna by the Retiro

Juanjo López's seasonal cocido house by the Retiro

Navarrese vegetable and produce temple in Justicia

Classic seafood and casa-style tapas on Ponzano

Bohemian all-day kitchen with a Michelin-pedigree hand

Market-driven Madrid cooking, a chef's cult on Calle Ballesta

1922 sherry-only bar frozen in Civil War Madrid

César Martín's modern Spanish cooking with cult croquetas

Bohemian Basque pintxo bar on Cava Baja since the 1980s

Madrid's 1839 grande-dame restaurant for cocido

Malasaña's mid-century living room, all day into the night

1931 gourmet grocer with 1,500-plus wines

Arzak-trained signature cooking on Doctor Castelo

The credible Turkish kitchen Madrid actually has

Salamanca's real neighbourhood food market

Chueca's real food market with a rooftop terrace

Lavapiés's real neo-Mudéjar market, from fishmongers to natural wine

Chamberí's 1933 market reborn as a boundary-pushing food hall

Hola Coffee's specialty café and bakehouse on the Conde Duque edge

From-scratch artisan gelato on Calle Goya

Beirut-rooted Levantine cooking, modernised in Chueca

A collector's mansion of Old Masters and decorative arts

The canonical Spanish painting collection, Velázquez, Goya, Bosch

Spain's modern-art museum and the home of Guernica

The collection that fills the gaps, eight centuries on one walk

Three-decade Galician seafood house near the park

Lázaro Rosa-Violán-designed mansion hotel in Salesas

An 1886 building reworked by Lázaro Rosa-Violán, beside Retiro

Coco Montes' L'Arpège-trained microseasonal star near Bernabéu

Japanese-Mexican fusion in residential Chamartín

The barrio's benchmark for biryani and cheese naan

Artisan sourdough bakery across from the Conde Duque centre

Two-star chef's most personal 10-seat room in Salamanca

A 32-room 19th-century mansion on a quiet Chamberí street

The world's oldest restaurant, a once-in-a-lifetime cochinillo pilgrimage

Reborn Castellana grande dame with Jesús Sánchez's Amós

The chefs' beloved cult bistro of Chamartín

Michelin-starred revival of grand-hotel dining-room luxury

Nose-to-tail tapas served in an industrial cutting room on Ponzano

A Chamartín izakaya with a 12-seat omakase counter

DiverXO's three-star chef's wild street-food counter

Madrid's oldest tavern, untouched since before 1787

Madrid's second-oldest tavern, beloved of Lorca's generation

Small wine-led tapas tavern off the Retiro

Cava Baja vermut taberna with the secret 'Manuela' pour, since 1996

Neo-taberna with sharp Spanish tapas on the Conde Duque edge

1908 tiled-facade tavern for vermouth and tapas

Toma's Chamberí roastery room near Plaza de Olavide

Justicia gallery with a strong Latin American program

Three-chef Bib Gourmand with half-portion freedom

Michelin-starred Spanish-twist Japanese counter

Conde Duque specialty roastery cafe with natural wine after dark

Madrid's first boutique five-star, in a 1915 neoclassical townhouse

Santceloni heirs' market cuisine, starred in 18 months

Michelin-starred izakaya with a WWII-bunker speakeasy below

Spain's exclusive La Cabra outpost for coffee and bakehouse

1892 bodega, vermut de grifo and one of Madrid's best tortillas

Herzog & de Meuron culture house with a vertical garden

1941 bullfighting tavern famed for its fried merluza

Reborn 1950s vermouth tavern on an 8-metre marble bar

One-star Mediterranean-Japanese bistro by Juan D'Onofrio

Influential contemporary gallery in a Justicia townhouse

Michelin-starred creative Canary Island cuisine

Plaza de San Ildefonso specialty café and work-friendly hub

Lavapiés's avant-garde cultural centre with a rooftop terrace

Quiet old-school tapas bar beside the Conde Duque centre

Home-style Senegalese on Plaza Nelson Mandela

Tiny Georgian bistrot for khachapuri and khinkali

Eco specialty coffee and all-day brunch in Lavapiés

Wood-fire asador with a Neapolitan oven in Chueca

Belle Époque ducal palace-hotel with a private garden

Beam-and-stone Cava Baja wine taberna with a deep Spanish list

The roaster that lit Madrid's specialty-coffee fuse, since 2012