5 Classic Madrid tabernas that are worth it
A taberna is not a restaurant, and not quite a bar. It is a room you drop into: you stand, you order a vermut or a caña, something small arrives to pick at, and the point is the pause rather than the meal. Most have poured the same drinks in the same tiled rooms for the better part of a century.
What a taberna is not: a place to book ahead, to linger over a tasting menu, or to be waited on at length. These five keep the ritual intact, and are still full of locals rather than tour groups.
What to Know
Bodegas El Maño
The last of nine bodegas opened by an Aragonese wine family, still on its corner of Calle de la Palma with the marble bar, old ceilings and wine tinajas untouched. Come for a well-pulled caña or a vermut with a small tapa, then stay for the bravas, croquetas and albóndigas. It fills up fast, any night of the week.
Calle de la Palma 64, Malasaña, 28015 Madrid
Stop Madrid
A former charcutería just off Gran Vía, busy and bullicioso, where the draw is the house vermut reserva from the tap, poured over ice with a slice of orange. Line it with jamón, chacinas ibéricas, mojama and piparras. Loud, warm, and never touristy despite the address.
Calle de Hortaleza 11, Centro, 28004 Madrid
Taberna de la Elisa
A 1907 taberna that has kept its original tiled walls and long bar, now serving proper home-style madrileño cooking alongside the vermut. The kind of room where the plates taste like someone's grandmother made them, and nothing has been prettified for show.
Calle de Santa María 42, Barrio de las Letras, 28014 Madrid
Marcelino, Vinos y Ultraporcinos
Chamberí's little temple to wine and everything that comes from the pig. A tight, castizo-modern taberna built around good bottles by the glass and superb embutidos ibéricos, for when you want to eat and drink seriously with not a tablecloth in sight.
Calle de Caracas 1, Chamberí, 28010 Madrid
Taberna de Ángel Sierra
The grand tiled classic of the set, on the corner of Plaza de Chueca since 1917. Painted-tile façade, a zinc-and-marble bar, and a house vermut de grifo poured all day. Order it with banderillas or a few boquerones, take it standing or out on the plaza, and you are drinking in one of the last true tabernas of the center.
Calle de Gravina 11, Chueca, 28004 Madrid
How to do it right: go at aperitivo hour for the vermut, stand at the bar, pay cash, and do not rush.
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