La Camarilla

hubby and i came here for our very first meal in madrid. we’d just gotten off a lengthy train ride and checked into our home for the week and were famished (we’d eaten a very light lunch on the train). it was recommended that we check out calla cava baja, famous for tapas bars and cheap eats and night life, so we didn’t hesitate to walk over… it was only about 5 minutes away!
we walked up and down the street, peering into windows and display cases, oohing and aah-​ing at the savory tapas that we saw. apparently, madrid has lots of pintxos type tapas (tapas eaten with a toothpick since they are small portions) since that’s pretty much all we saw in the windows. we’d yet to have pintxos style tapas in spain and were quite excited to try this new type of tapas.
la camarilla caught my eye for two reasons, the beautiful, colourful tapas on display and the michelin-​rated restaurant sticker on their front door. the prices looked reasonable, so we decided to try it out. since it was only about 1930, it was way too early for the locals to eat dinner, so the place was fairly empty when we arrived.
we ordered several pintxos to share, smoked salmon, iberian ham, red pepper and cheese, all on small pieces of bread, and a small cup of gazpacho soup (a very traditional spanish soup). hubby ordered a miniburger and a glass of red wine. we also ordered a salmon salad to share since it also had «gulas» a type of local fish that reminded me of eel. everything tasted good and the tapas were filling enough that we didn’t have any space left for dessert! what a shame b/​c their dessert display (in the center of the restaurant) was absolutely beautiful! cakes, tarts, crème caramel, mmmm… if only i’d seen this display before we ordered, i’d have made sure to leave a little space for some sweets! the total bill was € 28.80, a fair price for the quality and quantity of food we received.
service was very good as our server spoke a good amount of english. when i was at the bar, pointing and asking questions about the pintxos on display, the bartender (another staff member) did his best to explain to me in english what i was looking at.
i don’t know if i’d call this a michelin-​star worthy establishment, but it was quite good and we enjoyed our introduction to pintxos and madridian cuisine on our very first night in spain’s capital city.

We were going down Calle de la Cava Baja looking for a restaurant after we were turned away from Casa Lucio since they were fully booked. We stumbled upon La Camarilla as it looked like there were a few tables free — we didn’t want to get turned away again!
When you first walk in, you can have a casual drink and pinxtos at the bar. They had quite a good range of items from mini hamburgers and such. We decided to have a proper sit down lunch in the restaurant. It was surprisingly quiet — given it was a couple of days before reyes.
We didn’t want to order too much so we decided to have 2 starters — the croquetas and oxtail and aubergine. Both really huge! For our main, we had the grilled piglet. The croquetas were creamy yet nice and crunchy on the outside. After 3 each, it is already quite heavy! I really liked the oxtail starter. Really tender and full of flavour. By the time the piglet arrived, I was glad it was only a small slide of it because I was already full. It was simple yet well done.
Next time — I’d be interested in trying some of the pinxtos at the bar!

So to clarify, this place doesn’t have a michelin star (from what I checked in the michelin website) but is a nice alternative tapas place. The options are good, and some quite innovative, but the service is slow and there are lots of food misses. However, the Saquitos de Morcilla, a must order, took this experience from average to awesome.

My husband and I had lunch here in May of 2013. The food and service was top notch. We highly recommend the tomato, mozz, and asparagus «gourmet tapas». The tomato was tempura and totally delicious. The ratatouille was also great — but I love anything that has a fried egg on top. :) For dessert we had an amazing lemon mousse /​dark chocolate concoction — just the right amount of lemon and sugar. Perfect flavor combo. This was our first meal in Madrid — I am curious to see if anything can top it!

Para mi, una de las mejores opciones de esta calle masificada.
No se abarrota de extranjeros, aunque no esta vacío, y los pinchos y tostas son muy elaborados, en especial el pincho de pollo al curry y la tosta de jamón ibérico con tomate.
Servicio bastante bueno, y no es nada caro.

This Michelin star restaurant is located about 5 minutes away from Plaza Mayor (on foot) in Calle Cava Baja. Although their menu outside and their website info state that they open at 1:00pm they won’t open until 1:30pm. My reservation was at 1:30pm and I got there an hour early in case I couldn’t find the place so, I waited for 40 minutes until I decided to just march right in anyway. They let me sit at the bar. The bartender (he speaks English) recommended Madrid’s local beer, Mahou. They also gave me some crackers with pimiento mousse.
I got seated at 1:30 and I was their first diner of the day (I’m still used to having lunch at 11:30am regardless of the time zone). I ordered off of the tapas menu and got croquettas, pan de tomate with jam on Iberico, and tuna empanada. I was full and I forgot that was only the appetizer! I forced myself to eat my entrée: peppers stuffed with cod topped with crispy Iberico. The croquettes were creamy on the inside and nice and crisp on the ouside with just enough breading. The jamon Iberico melts in your mouth. I found myself in such a huge dilemma. The food was so good but I had no stomach space. I don’t think they’d allow me to run a mile first and then come back to finish my food. And then, there was dessert…3 of them! Lemon mousse with chocolate, cheese flan and tiramisu. The lemon tiramisu was incredibly delicious and that’s coming from somebody who hates chocolate + citrus fruits. I kept looking at the menu… I was tempted to order the foie gras but I know I’d end up wasting it since I couldn’t eat another bite.
I got great service even though there was a barrage of people who came after I did. For all that food, my bill was only 23euros! They gave me the beer for free — what a nice gesture.

This was our second stop on the tapa hop and I don’t think the waiter appreciated us for not ordering much. The place was pretty empty and it was also a Monday night. Anyways, we’re here for the food. We shared Skewer vegetables and Tempura Prawns in Paprika, Spicy Mushroom Casserole and Shrimp, Piquillo peppers and Beef Carpaccio with arugula and parmesan shavings. Good choices right?
1. Everything was salty
2. Tempura prawns were heavily breaded and not flavorful at all
3. Peppers were decent, not a blast of flavor I was hoping for
4. Beef carpaccio was pretty good. don’t add too much parmesan in your bight, or it overpowers the beef taste

I was on an adventure to find succulent tapas and just happened to found them here! This place has innovative and delicious food! The tapas are simply to die for!
I started with a trio of hot tapas: the first mouth watering tapa was the bacalao (or salted cod) which was extremely good, then we build up our tastes buds to the second one; duck paté on a bed of chopped walnuts drizzled with an sweet citrus glaze, which was out of this world delightful. Seriously, we thought we had found food heaven until we tried the third one– «saquitos de morcilla».
Simply THE BEST thing I have ever tried! ! I mean, this little appetizer deserves an entire review on its own!
Saquitos de Morcilla are little pouches filled with a mixture of pine nuts, raisins and coagulated blood– yes I said coagulated blood! And to make them even more succulent, they get drizzled with a berry jam top that just elevates it to a higher level! All those flavors and textures combined really make this an award winning tapa!
I have to say that I was so pleased with the tapas that I did not want to order more food. I wanted to leave the restaurant with a great and pleasant experience in mind. And I did just so.

Fuimos a parar a La Camarilla por casualidad, estas Navidades vinieron de Sevilla varios familiares y fuimos a cenar por La Latina y acabamos allí.
La comina estaba buenísima, pedimos unos saquitos de morcilla (tremendos) entre otras cosas.
El trato de los camareros estuvo genial, estuvieron pendientes de nosotras en todo momento.
Nos quedamos tomando unas copas hasta bastante tarde… yo pedí un mojito y eso fue o único que no me gustó, pero vamos, el día menos pensado repito!

Voici un très bon resto, recommandé par le guide Lonely Planet. Il est situé dans le quartier Latina. L’idéal est d’y aller après la visite d’El Rastro (le plus grand marché aux puces d’europe, qui attire une foule monstre).
Les tapas sont de qualité, les prix plutôt corrects et l’accueil sympathique, mais sans plus (on a connu des serveurs beaucoup attachants dans d’autres restaurants). La déco est contemporaine, les toilettes et l’ensemble du resto sont très propres.
Un inconvénient (dont nous n’avons pas fait les frais): les serveurs sont longs à prendre la commande (plusieurs personnes ont quitté leur table avant de commander). Peut-​être un simple problème temporaire de personnel

Dentro del abarrotamiento de bares y restaurantes que hay en esta calle, la Camarilla se distingue por su decoración, su ambiente, el servicio y su cuidada carta.
Es un restaurante moderno, elegante y acogedor. Ideal para sorprender a tu pareja, amigos o incluso para una comida de trabajo. Hay dos zonas, la barra, que tiene mesas para tapas y tostas y la zona del restaurante, solo con mesas.
El ambiente es muy agradable, suele haber parejas, algun grupo de amigos, incluso alguna familia con niños. A ello ayudan los camareros, que son muy atentos y amables, ¡así da gusto!
Al leer la carta ya se te empieza a hacer la boca agua. Tienen platos originales y apetecibles, algunos con algún ingrediente exótico y otros muy típicos de nuestro pais. Tienen dos menus diferentes, uno pensado para la zona del restaurante y otro más pensado para la zona de barra, que incluye tostas, croquetas, raciones Dejaos aconsejar por el somelier para elegir el vino, merece la pena.
Los domingos por la mañana tienen un brunch (hasta las 2). Incluye 2 cafés, zumo o cava, un plato con bollería y tostadas, un entrante con huevos revueltos o benedictine y un plato fuerte que puede ser ensalada, carne o pescado. La foto que he incluido es del brunch de este domingo. Además, no resulta nada caro (en comparacion con los bruch que hay por ahí), os aconsejo ir a probarlo.

There are many tapas restaurants around in this area of Madrid, but we were looking for a decent location which was not crowded by tourists. After lquite a long searching I think we came up with a pretty good match with this one.
La Camarilla with its black and white furniture style attracts people from nearly all ages who either kick-​start the night here with some tapas or have lavish dinners with some good wines from the broad selection offered. We tend to the first and were fully satisfied. The prices are reasonable and the service good. If you want to secure a place for dinner I would go for a reservation as it has been at least during our time there quite full. The only downlight would be that it does not provide any outside seatings, but with the doors opened it was pretty much alright even during our summer night.