Cocktails

Café Belén is an old traditional bar that is understated, intimate and subdued. The bar is split into two levels and is decorated with small marble topped tables and wooden details. The walls are lined with works from rising new artists that can usually also be purchased.

Café Belén is a bar that offers a variety of things. You can come during the day to get away from Madrid's midday sun, have a coffee, and use the free wifi in a relaxed atmosphere. In the early evening, with the low candle lit lighting and sophisticated atmosphere, it would be an ideal place for a romantic date. Later on, the funky chilled out music and great mojitos makes it a perfect place to enjoy an evening with friends.

This is a great little Mexican bar at the top of Lavapiés. Strangely, in Lavapiés it is pretty hard to find a good place for Mexican food. (There are probably 100 Indian places though).

The margaritas are available in the traditional fresh fruit flavours like mango and strawberry and also some rather odd ones like cucumber. The Micheladas are also great; you don’t only get a choice of what beer to have in it but also if you want Clamato.

The front room is more of a bar and the back a restaurant. The decoration is modern and clean making a nice change from the majority of Mexican franchises in Madrid which are full of wrestlers and other bits of tat hanging from the ceiling. If you’re in Malasaña they also have another spot in Duque de Liria.

A small bar that is absolutely reaming to the brim with tat, but nonetheless good. Already the entrance beckons you with blue and green neon lights but when you enter: lamps, chandeliers, disco balls, pictures, photos and mirrors every inch of this bar is filled with something.

There is a small terrace outside but that would be defeating the purpose of this bar. You have to enter to experience the sensory overload that is “El Imperfecto”. With the little seats and tables there is quite a cosy atmosphere helped by the friendly staff.

This is a great looking bar which is pretty large for Madrid especially in Lavapiés. There is a small street terrace and three rooms. The front main room is where the long wooden bar is situated. The first of the back rooms is fairly large and a nice place to grab a table if the front bar is full. The third room is very small and a little bit dismal being more of a passage way to get to the toilets.

The walls are lined with art exhibitions so there is usually something new to see and they often play a nice mix of blues.

Cafe del Soul seems to be a Gaudi inspired bar in Madrid, fitting as it’s on Calle de Barcelona. I say inspired by Gaudi but don’t expect too much, it is certainly no masterpiece of beauty. It has cave type seats and walls where there are very few straight lines.

The staff is friendly and it is relatively unique in a zone dominated by irish bars and tile walled Spanish bars. There are 2 entrances, one on Calle Barcelona that leads to the cave type room and one on Calle de Espoz y Mina that leads to the bar itself.