International Hostel Posada de Huerta

I stayed there for 4 nights in Sept 2005 and was generally satisfied with it so can highly recommmend it

Pros:
+ excellent location : not exactly in the middle of all action, but still all touristic sights are witin walking distance though you can also take the metro (the main square, Sol, is just one metro stop away)
+ the hostel is located very conveniently tapas-wise: Huertas and neighbouring streets are the area where both locals and tourists gather at night moving from one bar to another - tapas here are a real value for money and very varied
+clean beds and fully-equipped kitchen
+separate girls/boys rooms
+there is a market close to the hostel which means you can get fresh fruit and veg and also much better cheese and ham than in supermarket (which is also nearby)

Cons:
- breakfast is very basic (only cereals and tea/coffee, though they do have excellent juice machine)
-the street gets rather noisy at nights so if you're not part of the bar crawl crowd and just want to get some sleep, you might have an issue if your room is looking out on Huertas
- lockout from 10.30 am till 1.30 pm for cleaning (which means you can't cook any lunch or anything)

In short - despite some drawbacks, I enjoyed my stay there as the staff were helpful and the location was more important than minor annoyances like lockout or scant breakfasat

Directions: Metro station 'Anton Martin' then take the street Calle Amor de Dios leading to street Huertas and turn left walking along Huertas street until you see a house with the sign 'posada de huertas'