Madrid is such a wonderful city that holds a very special place in our stomachs. We are so fortunate to have our great friends Amber and Fernando who live in Madrid that were able to give us excellent advise on all of their favorite places to get good grub.

The first evening we arrived in Madrid we followed Amber and Fernando's advise and walked down Calle Huertas, which was only about a five minute walk from our hotel, and had tapas for dinner at a small restaurant called Maceiras. This restaurant lived up to it's hype, and we even came back on our last night in Madrid for another sampling of the delectable offerings.

The first night we ate at Maceiras, we ended up ordering way too much food, which was all delicious and worth every Euro. We ordered the patatas bravas, the champinones (mushrooms sauteed with pork shoulder), chorizo, croquettas (cheese croquettes), and empanadas de pescado (fish empanadas). We paired our meal with an Estrella beer and sangria.

 

Our second time at Maceiras, we ordered the patatas bravas again because we couldn't get enough the first time around. We also ordered pimientos (peppers), and Merluza rellena de gambas (fish stuffed with shrimp, covered in a tomato based sauce). Once again, we were not disappointed with any of our choices.

The second day in Madrid we opted to have lunch at a restaurant in La Latina area called Casa Lucas. We started with a refreshing tomato salad with goat cheese and fresh basil. We also ordered some croquettas de jamon, and one of the dishes that Amber had recommended, Alella (chicken with sauteed onions served on toast with a corn mousse on top). Once again, the tapas did not let us down.

We also walked down to the Mercado De San Miguel that has a huge selection of fresh produce and stands of different prepared food.

That night after watching a flamenco show, we opted to have dinner at another restaurant in La Latina area again, Juana La Loca. We ordered their famous tortilla dish, which is completely different than the type of tortilla that we are used to. It's an egg and potato type dish with a crust…delicious! We also ordered the lomo (a meat dish), and an artichoke dish. We only ordered three tappas to save room for churros y chocolate later that night.

We opted to have churros at Chocolateria San Gines. It is a famous churro y chocolate shop that has been featured on several shows that we had seen, so we figured why not give it a shot! The verdict….delicious!!!

At this point, our waistlines were starting to show the results of our tapas gorging. So on day three we shared a small piece of tomato and mozzarella flat bread we picked up at a little place called Pappizza which can be found all over the city. We spent the rest of the morning walking around the city, hopefully burning off some of what we had eaten the past two days. We walked all the way to a little restaurant to meet up with Amber and Fernando and their new little addition Quique.

We all shared a delicious chilled tomato soup, a fresh salad with crisp apples and cheese, pulpo (an octopus dish), foie gras, and a beef dish. It was all very delicious, however we were so caught up chatting and catching up, that we didn't take any pictures of the food, only the adorable baby.

Our last morning in Madrid we opted for one more go at churros for breakfast. We went to a local chain called Valor. They not only serve churros y chocolate, but they also looked like they had lots of other sweet options. Our verdict was that both Chocolateria San Gines and Valor had delicious churros, they were different but equally good.