Set on the eastern side of Retiro park, away from the crowds, this unpretentious barrestaurant serves some of Madrid’s best food. You can eat excellent tapas in the bottle-lined bar with a perfectly chilled caña, or reserve a table in the slightly dated-looking restaurant at the back. The cooking is classically Spanish, but don’t expect patatas bravas. The menu leans towards fish and everything is beautifully prepared and presented: clams in manzanilla sherry, octopus and squid rice, chickpeas sautéed with langoustines. The wine list is a tour of Spain’s D.O. regions. Michelle Obama ate here with her daughters when they visited Madrid, but the dueño of the Castela is not the type to shout about it.