What are Madrid’s best fine-dining spots when you’re after haute cuisine without a forced tasting menu? The Spanish capital boasts 31 Michelin-starred tables in the 2026 Guide, but for twenty years, high gastronomy has largely shifted toward sequence-based dining, with DiverXO and its three stars leading the way. Three restaurants have kept the joy of choosing from the menu: a grand 1920s café on Gran Via, a contemporary classic in Chamberí, and the dining room that welcomes the daily catch from Spanish shores every morning. We tell you everything.
1. Brach Madrid, the Grand Café on Gran Via | Chef: Adam Bentalha
On Gran Via, the avenue Madrileños lovingly call their Broadway, Brach has taken over a 1922 building that Philippe Starck has transformed into a reconstructed prewar café. Terracotta floors, an original wrought-iron staircase, columns clad in glazed ceramic: the designer has recreated the décor of a brasserie that could have always existed. A sly wink to the neighborhood’s theaters, the house offers a Teatro menu at 45 €, designed for dining before the curtain rises: tzatziki-pita, bar tacos with guacamole, cecina croquettes, followed by braised carrots over charcoal or cod confit in a pissaladière style. Those who prefer to linger head to the Dining Room, a completely brown-tiled alcove tucked at the back of the restaurant and reservable for a private table.
Brach Madrid © Nolwenn Pernin
In the kitchen, Adam Bentalha, coming from one of Paris’s five-star hotels—the Brach on the 16th arrondissement—serves a Mediterranean menu all oriented toward the heat of a charcoal oven. We often start with the crudos: corvina ceviche with house seasoning, amberjack tiradito with apple gel and cardamom finished with jalapeño, crispy rice with tuna tartare, before the big grill selections meant to be shared. Vegetables hold their own: Aranjuez asparagus baked with hollandaise and vanilla kumquat, multi-colored carrots with apple condiment and IGP Piedmont hazelnuts, cauliflower in textures with apricots and piquillos. Everything can be ordered à la carte, midday and evening, in full or half portions, and that’s what earns Brach a place among Madrid’s best restaurants for those who refuse the fixed-menu format. At 35 € for the lunch Ejecutivo, the bill stays very reasonable.
Brach Madrid – Pâtisserie © Guillaume de Laubier
We also come back here in the mid-afternoon, as is the local ritual, for the pastry: a white-enamel display in the middle of the dining room, showcasing Paris-Brest, vanilla flan, lemon tart with meringue, and revised turrón, extended on weekends by a cake-brunch buffet. And for the bar, finally, where large demijohns wrapped in braided straw pour rancio catalan on tap, while cocktails borrow their names from Madrid’s neighborhoods—Prado, Serrano, Plaza Mayor. The restaurant occupies the ground floor of a five-star Gran Via hotel, with 57 rooms, four suites, the La Capsule spa and its 20-meter pool two floors below: few Madrid luxury hotels let you lunch, savor a cake, and then dash to the pool in the same hour. Brach MadridCarte, menu Ejecutivo 35 €, menu Teatro 45 €Gran Vía 20, 28013 MadridClosed August 3–23Official site of the property
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2. Saddle, the Contemporary Classic in Chamberí | Chef: Pablo Laya
One Michelin star since 2021, two Soles Repsol, and a proudly claimed status: at 6 Calle Amador de los Ríos, opposite the Interior Ministry, Saddle reopened in autumn 2019 in the Jockey’s former space, a table that delighted all of Madrid for much of the 20th century. The house makes no secret of it: as many of Spain’s top restaurants shifted to tasting menus in the 2000s, Saddle chose to return the grand restaurant experience to the customer on an à la carte basis, in full or half portions, letting each diner assemble four or five courses.
© Saddle
In the kitchen since autumn 2024, Galician-born Pablo Laya reinterprets the great repertoire with nods to modern cuisine: pâté en croûte, callos as an homage to the Jockey, beef fillet Rossini, veal shank dedicated to Santi Santamaría. The menu turns once or twice a season and always leaves room for daily off-menu selections. But Saddle’s real signature is the dining room: a butter cart before the bread, a cheese cart at the end, courses carved in front of guests, all beneath a glass roof that lights the inner garden. A craft rarely seen, and worth the trip on its own. The Grand Marnier soufflé can be ordered right from the aperitif. SaddleCarte and demi-portions, around €190 per personCalle Amador de los Ríos 6, 28010 MadridClosed SundaysOfficial site of the establishment
3. Since 1911, the Spanish Market at Madrid | Chef: Diego Murciego
Six starters, one fish, and a menu that doesn’t exist until the morning itself. Desde 1911 is the dining room of Pescaderías Coruñesas, the house that has been supplying Madrid with fish since 1911 and now in its fourth generation of fishmongers. Each day, the team gathers to examine what arrived from the coast markets within the last 24 hours, and decides what will be served. Guests then choose three, four, five, or six entrées; the day’s fish is presented whole before the wood-fired oven, and the meal ends with cheeses and desserts. A Michelin star since 2024, two Soles Repsol: the house is rising quickly.
© Desde 1911
The setting is impressive, a former industrial warehouse on Calle Vivero repurposed around a garden, with forty staff circulating. In the dining room, Abel Valverde, formerly maître d’hôtel at the late Santceloni, has just earned the Michelin Guide 2026 service award—and you can feel it from the moment the first platters arrive. Expect a bill ranging from €190 to €270 depending on the approach, with an wine list rich in verticals and aged Spanish vintages. The Private Salon 1911, glassed onto the garden, seats about twenty guests, with a menu set the day before based on the announced catch. Desde 1911Menus from €190 to €270Calle Vivero 3, 28040 MadridClosed Sundays and MondaysOfficial site of the establishment
