Restaurants

Madrid boasts the most varied cuisine and the widest choice of dining opportunities in Spain. At the fancy tourist restaurants, prices are comparable to those in New York, London, or Paris, but there are many low-cost taverns and family restaurants as well.

Breakfasts are served in cafes or in your hotel between 7:30 and 10am, although if you want to make a very early start of it, you'll find the occasional bar open around 5:30 or 6am.

It's the custom in Madrid to consume the big meal of the day from 2 to 4pm. After a recuperative siesta, Madrileños then enjoy tapas. Indeed, no culinary experience would be complete without a tour of the city's many tapas bars.

All this nibbling is followed by a light supper in a restaurant, usually from 9:30pm to as late as midnight. Many restaurants, however, start serving dinner at 8pm to accommodate visitors from other countries who don't like to dine so late.

Many of Spain's greatest chefs have opened restaurants in Madrid, energizing the city's culinary scene. Gone are the days when mainly Madrileño food was featured, which meant Castilian specialties such as cocido (a chickpea-and-sausage stew) or roasts of suckling pig or lamb. Now, you can take a culinary tour of the country without ever leaving Madrid -- from Andalusia with its gazpacho and rabo de toro (braised bull's tail) to Asturias with its fabada (a rich pork stew) and sidra (cider) to the Basque country, which has the most sophisticated cuisine in Spain. The city also has a host of Galician and Mediterranean restaurants. Amazingly, although Madrid is a landlocked city surrounded by a vast arid plain, you can order some of the freshest seafood in the country here.

International restaurants also abound. You can take your pick from a variety of European, Latin American, North African, and Asian eating spots.

Meals include service and tax (7%-12%, depending on the restaurant) but not drinks, which can add to the tab considerably.

In most cases service can seem perfunctory by U.S. standards. Waiters are matter-of-fact and do not fawn over you, nor do they return to the table to ask how things are. This can seem off-putting at first, but if you observe closely you'll see that Spanish waiters typically handle more tables than American waiters and that they generally work quickly and more efficiently. Top restaurants such as Zalacaín have a formal dress policy (jacket and tie for men).

Follow the local custom and don't overtip. Theoretically, service is included in the price of the meal, but it's customary to leave an additional 10%.

The recommended restaurants are categorized by the average cost of one entree, an appetizer, and glass of wine. Very Expensive means a meal averages $50 per person and up; Expensive, $30 to $50; Moderate, $20 to $30; and Inexpensive, under $20.

Fixed-Price Menus

Order the menú del día (menu of the day) or cubierto (fixed price) -- both fixed-price menus based on what is fresh at the market that day. These are the dining bargains in Madrid, although often lacking the quality of more expensive a la carte dining. Each generally includes a first course, such as fish soup or hors d'oeuvres, followed by a main dish, plus bread, dessert, and the wine of the house. You won't have a large choice. The menú turístico is a similar fixed-price menu, but for many it's too large, especially at lunch. Only those with big appetites will find it the best bargain.

Cafeterias

These are generally not self-service establishments but restaurants serving light, often American, cuisine. Go for breakfast instead of dining at your hotel, unless it's included in the room price. Some cafeterias offer no hot meals, but many feature combined plates of fried eggs, French fries, veal, and lettuce-and-tomato salad, which make adequate fare, or snacks like hot dogs and hamburgers.

Going Green in Madrid

Being a "veggie" no longer means being an outsider in the Spanish capital. A recent naturalism and biology festival held in the Retiro's Casa de Cristal signposted the capital's changing attitude to food. In the past decade the traditional dominance of carnivore-oriented establishments has been challenged by a small but growing number of vegetarian restaurants.

You don't have to confine yourself to 100% green establishments to get the goods, though, as many standard Spanish eating spots offer a large choice of noncarnivorous platos.

Apart from the ubiquitous tortilla (made, naturalmente, with eggs Spanish-style and not from cornmeal Mexican-style), check out the menus for dishes like pimientos fritos (fried peppers), berengenas al horno (eggplant baked in the oven), calabaza guisada (stewed pumpkin), setas al jerez (mushrooms cooked in sherry), and pisto (Spain's answer to ratatouille, with tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, zucchini, and onions all cooked in oil and garlic: Avoid the Manchego version, though -- this has bits of ham in it). Jamón (Mountain or cooked, Serrano or York) is scarcely regarded as "real" meat in Spain and can even appear in apparently innocuous dishes such as caldo (broth), so confirm with the waiter before you order.

Arabic, Indian, and Italian restaurants may also provide what you're looking for, with their inventive range of couscous, rice, and pasta-based dishes, and if fish is an acceptable option, there are, of course, plenty of seafood restaurants to choose from, though these tend to be expensive. (Check the restaurant listings below for top-value spots such as Ribeiro do Miño.)

Potato power: Anyone wanting a ración, or single dish, of something cheap and meat-free should try patatas bravas (potatoes sautéed brown and served in a picante sauce). Between Sol and Tirso de Molina there's a trio of eating spots all called Las Bravas and all specializing in this simple but filling dish, though it's also widely available in tapas bars.

Picnic, Anyone?

On a hot day, do as the Madrileños do: Secure the makings of a picnic lunch and head for Casa de Campo (Metro: El Batón), those once-royal hunting grounds in the west of Madrid across the Manzanares River. Children delight in this adventure, as they can also visit a boating lake, the Parque de Atracciones, and the Madrid zoo.

Your best choice for picnic fare is Rodilla, Preciados 25 (tel. 91-522-54-67; Metro: Callao), where you can find sandwiches, pastries, and takeout tapas. Sandwiches, including vegetarian, meat, and fish, begin at .75€ (94¢). It's open Monday and Tuesday from 8:30am to 10:30pm; Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday from 9am to 11pm; Friday and Saturday from 9am to 11:30pm.

Drinks

Beer -- Madrid's favorite cerveza is the home-brewed Mahou, which comes in light and dark versions and is served draught or by the bottle. Also popular and widely available locally are Aguila from Valencia and Cruzcampo from Seville.

Wine -- Rioja from the province of La Rioja adjoining Navarra is by far the best and most popular quality vino tinto, followed by Ribera del Duero from nearby Valladolid. Rueda (Valladolid again), Penedès (Cataluña), and the expensive Albariño (Galicia) are the favorite whites. Though the capital has its own regional Vinos de Madrid -- modest wines but admirable for quaffing -- these are still sadly undervalued and struggling to find a niche. You may find them in the cave bars behind the Plaza Mayor.

Cider -- Still or fizzy sidra is the favorite drink in Asturian eating spots such as Casa Mingo and Casa Lastra. Warning: The still version is stronger than you'd think.

Spirits -- Adventurous imbibers can try orujo, a fiery liquor or aguardiente (made from the stalks and skins of grapes) that tastes like a rough grappa and is sometimes offered free after a meal. Magno and Carlos 1, mellow coñacs from Cádiz, or Pacharán, a rose-purple anise-flavored sloe gin spirit from Navarra, are more conventional after-dinner tipples.

Cava -- Spain's answer to champagne is best from Cataluña (though recent political differences between the capital and Barcelona led to a not-too-successful boycott of the stuff). Look for Codorniu and Freixenet. Up-and-coming rivals from Extremadura and Toledo aren't bad either.

Up in Smoke

At the beginning of 2006 Spain instituted a smoking ban in office buildings, malls, and cultural centers and on public transportation. Cafes, bars, and restaurants were allowed to decide whether smoking on the premises should be permitted or not. Unwilling to lose customers, the vast majority of these businesses opted for the former, much to the dismay of Spain's anti-smoking lobby. Although premises over 100 square meters in area are now required to have a small nonsmoking zone, totally smoke-free locales remain almost as rare in Madrid as a pub in Saudi Arabia. Nicotine haters can nevertheless find solace in clear-aired oases such as the inimitable Starbucks and vegetarian Elqui. Two more 100% nonsmoking newcomers to watch for are the light-filled "gourmet" fast-food joint Dosa Grill Café, Calle Libertad 17 (Chueca; tel. 91-360-47-50), and the intimate new-style organic food and wine spot, Urban Cowboy, Calle de Cañizares 14 (Huertas) tel. 61-921-99-70).

Vineyards & Wineries

Spanish wines are some of the best in the world, and the country's famed Riojas and Penedeses are widely available and remarkably affordable. Better value still -- and barely known even in the rest of Spain -- are the honest traditional wines emerging from Madrid province's own underrated vineyards.

Three of the top wine-producing regions in the Madrid province are Colmenar de Oreja, San Martín de Valdeiglesias, and Chinchón. Colmenar de Oreja's prize-winning red and white Jesús Díaz wines are made from the Malvar and Airén grapes, while San Martín de Valdeiglesias' strong (13%-13.5% alcohol) Señoría de Valderrábano reds are made from the Garnacha variety. Chinchón (of anise fame) also produces a hearty and palatable red called Viña Galinda. Look for these and other Comunidad de Madrid wines from Arganda del Rey and Villarejo del Salvanés in the supermarkets and restaurants. They're worth a try.

For wider information on Spanish wines in general, contact Wines from Spain, c/o the Commercial Office of Spain, 405 Lexington Ave., 44th Floor, New York, NY 10174-0331 (tel. 212/661-4959; www.winesfromspain.com).