Where to eat in Malasaña: a guide from someone who works in the neighbourhood

We've had the doors open on Calle del Espíritu Santo since 2020. Six years of service teach you a neighbourhood: where the locals eat, where cooks go for vermouth on their day off, which places outlast the trends. This guide is that list. Real places, with addresses, that we recommend when someone asks us at the door.

Where to have vermouth or a good glass of wine in Malasaña?

Casa Camacho (Calle San Andrés, 4). Open since 1929 and almost unchanged. Order a yayo — vermouth, gin and casera, a house invention — and pair it with anchovies or Almagro aubergines. Small, loud, standing room. As it should be.

La Colmada (Calle Espíritu Santo, 19). Half deli, half bar. Good tinned fish, cheeses, cured meats and wine. Drink it there or take the tin home. It's a few metres from our door; on Sunday vermouth hours, the street belongs to it.

Casa Botella (Calle Jesús del Valle, 31). A neighbourhood wine bar with a high bar: well-chosen glasses, food to match and long hours, until 1:00. For the conversation that doesn't want to end with dinner.

Where to eat traditional Spanish cuisine?

Casa Macareno (Calle San Vicente Ferrer, 44). A castizo tavern with serious cooking behind it: Iberian and truffle croquettes, escabeches, stews. A bar for tapas at any hour and tables to sit and eat properly.

And if I'm not in the mood for Spanish food?

Icaza (Calle Espíritu Santo, 12). Mexican cooking of family heritage, born in Cancún and brought to Madrid by its own cooks. No textbook tacos: gorditas, chilaquiles, enmoladas with a 53-ingredient mole. We share the street and the clientele.

Vira Vira (Corredera Alta de San Pablo, 1 and Fuencarral, 93). Gyros and Turkish-Greek cooking until late. When service ends and hunger doesn't, this is where it ends.

Where to have a good coffee?

Zéfir (Calle Espíritu Santo, 4). Specialty coffee and matcha in a small venue that takes both seriously. A 4.8 on Google that's hard to argue with. Opens at 9:00: the street's breakfast starts here.

Café Manuela (Calle San Vicente Ferrer, 29). Living history of the Movida: mirrors, wood, board games and afternoons that stretch out. You don't come for the coffee; you come for the place.

And the fresh pasta?

That's ours. My Pasta My Art (Calle Espíritu Santo, 16). Pasta made by hand each day in our workshop, with our own system: choose a homemade sauce, personalise it with fudys — cheeses, vegetables and proteins — and finish with your pasta. Dishes start at €13.90, there's gluten-free penne and vegan options, and bookings are made online or on 854 76 03 63. Open every day from 12:00.

Three tips from someone who works here

The neighbourhood fills up on Friday and Saturday from 21:00; if you drop in without a booking at any place on this list, aim for before 20:30. The metro solves more than the car: Tribunal (L1, L10) and Noviciado (L2) leave you within five minutes of everything. And Calle del Espíritu Santo, end to end, covers a whole day without walking more than two hundred metres: coffee at Zéfir (number 4), Mexican food at Icaza (12) or fresh pasta at our place (16), and vermouth and tinned goods at La Colmada (19).