El Txoko de Ander

¡qué bárbaro! Bin geschäftlich in Madrid. Kann man nur weiterempfehlen. Hier ist Spanien.

Calidad buena, quizás un poco caro. Buen trato

This place has restored my faith in humanity. After an absolute nightmare of a day, with an historic snowfall in Madrid and the subsequent closure of Madrid Barajas, one of Europe’s largest international airports, with tens of thousands of passengers left stranded, in despair for a decent place to have a quick bite before bed, I find this gem, this absolute heavenly gem of a place in the city’s northernmost outpost of ugly nothingness, Barajas. Not the airport, the suburb. You would never think it. Once inside, with half a foot of snow outside, sludge and frozen locals, you find a warm, pretty standard looking Spanish place (wooden barrels, hams hanging upside down, wines by the glass in chalk on a blackboard) but what you don’t know is that you’re going to get first-​class, polite service, gorgeous tapas and a real passion for wine. I had a delicious salad of tuna, good juicy tomatoes, roasted peppers, amazing dark green olives, white asparagus, hot green peppers and a rich olive oil dressing, a good plate of bellota ham, little slices of toasted bread with tomato sauce, an excellent cold beer, two glasses of a fruity, velvety Rioja in a beautiful, graceful glass, and then, just like that, they served me six tiny canapés of goat’s cheese with cabello de ángel (a delicious sweet preserve made from a kind of pumpkin or squash). I mean, really. And the people who served me were utterly charming. Please please please more of this.
Officially I’m not supposed to be here, spending the night in some random place. But if there’s an airport to be stranded in, Madrid might be it. Get thee to El Txoko and forget your troubles.