Local Gastronomy, Madrid

Cocido is the most typical dish from Madrid. You can have it in many restaurants, but there are classical cocido restaurants if you are interested.
It consists of chick peas, cabbage, chorizo, blood sausage or pudding and vegetables, stewed in broth. You must have that in 2 plates:
- First U take a soup with some pasta on it.
- Then U take the main plate (see photo).
And you must order always both, they don't serve it separate. It's enough for a meal... too much maybe!!

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This restaurant is one that you should definately visit while in Madrid. It's located in the outskirts of the neoghborhood known as Chueca. This restaurant might look intimidating to those that are looking for a nice but cheap place to dine. Rest assired that despite its very upscale design, this place is affordable to even the nonemployed student traveler!! I think that's one of the reasons why in the last 2 trips to Madrid I ate at this place 7 or 8 times!

Favorite Dish: I recomend the Chicken Curry for the main course and the Chocolatisimo for dessert! MMMMMMMMMMMMMM!! Just writing about this makes me want to look online for my next plane ticket!

Located in Cava Baja, where there are numerous tapas restaurants popular with locals, los Huevos de Lucio serves exquisite local tapas. The dining room is long and narrow, so there is usually a fairly long wait during peak meal times. This tapas retaurant is part of the more formal restaurant across the street, called Casa de Lucio. I've eaten here twice (April 2006 and November 2007) and enjoyed it both times.

RESTAURANTE RIBEIRA DO MIÑO
Marisquería-Restaurante
Platos Típicos Gallegos

It was a Saturday night when we went and the restaurant was packed. CON: The noise level was high, but conversation was still possible. As we did not have reservations, we had to wait for about an hour. PRO: But the wait was well worth it.

To get a good table make reservations before 9.30 pm. Avoid Friday and Saturday night if you don't have reservations as the wait could take as long as one hour.

Favorite Dish: The seafood platter, which came with Prawns, Crabs, some type of Barnacle (a delicacy)

After visiting Thyseen Museum we were very hungry and just a few steps from the museum we found this restaurant where we had lunch for just 12.50 euros per person. We had paella as starter, fish (don´t remember the name) and coffee. The staff was nice and the service good.

Después de visitar el museo Thyseen estabamos hambrientas y justo andamos un poco cuando encontramos este restaurante where almorzamos por 12.50 euros por persona. Tomamos de primero paella, pescado de segundo y café. El personal fue atento.

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Try at least these: tortilla espanola (spanish potato omelette), patatas pravas or patatas aioli (pieces of potato with either picante sauce or garlic), jamon (ham), queso (cheese), albondigas (meat balls) and chorizo (slices of pepperoni sausage).

Tapa is smaller portion and racion is bigger. Order several tapas and share them with your friends so you can have a taste what you like. Normally one tapa is appr. 2-4 euros.

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It's a small cave close to Plaza Mayor where you can taste tipical tortilla and chorizo frito and drink a light sangria!
The atmosphere is familiar, simple and funny and you can even enjoy the music of a squeeze-box player close to your table.
Relaxing, cheap and tasty!

Favorite Dish: The best tortilla i have eaten in Madrid!
Have it with some chorizo frito! :)

Below are the names of great restaurants I tried in Madrid during my April 2006 trip. I will add more details later:

- Terra Mundi (Galician)
- Goizeko Kabi (Basque)
- Casa Patas (local cuisine + flamenco)
- los Huevos de Lucio (tapas)