Food

Looking for an oasis in the middle of the city? The Arabic decoration, cushions and low couches makes this is a great place to chill out and relax. They used to even put sand on the ground but I’m kind of glad they stopped. The novelty wears off and you get sick of coming home with your shoes filled with sand.

You can still feel like an Arab prince lounging around on the cushions and smoke a shisha pipe. Early on they serve ethnic food and depending on the day of the week, later on in the evening they often have a live DJ playing house music bringing more of a club type atmosphere.

This is a tapas bar with a large selection of tapas but not your fancy pants kind that you’ll find in some of the more modern Basque bars. This is traditional Spanish fair for a decent price in a bar that has been here since 1879 even if it has obviously gone through many renovations in that time.

The ceiling of the bar is decorated with newspapers paying homage to the name of the bar and at the entrance is a round table with a large Greek statue. Despite this opulent touch the rest of the bar is quite simple with modern and old touches mixed a little haphazardly.

As the “tx” in the name suggests this is a Basque tapas bar specialising in that region’s “pintxos”. The place is standing room only and even then you’ll have to fight to get a place at the bar. Because of this it’s really a place to come as part of a tapas pub crawl rather than spend the whole night here.

“Pintxos” are traditionally something stabbed with a cocktail stick and placed on a small piece of bread. Here they are pretty fancy and are some of the best in La Latina. They seem quite expensive at first but they’re pretty filling. You don’t need many to have eaten a full meal. The tapas are all on display so just point to what you want and they’ll serve them up to you.

There is a sister bar with the same name in Sol on Calle de la Cruz, 11

One of the old traditional bars in Madrid originally part of a chain of bars that was founded in 1892. Bodega de la Arosa was one of the first bars in Madrid to serve foreign beers such as Guinness. In fact for some unknown reason they actually serve the lagers in the same way as Guinness. They half pour them, let the head settle and then pour the rest.

One interesting thing about this bar is that there is a little hidden back room that is only accessible by going under the bar itself. Just pretend as though you’re one of the bar staff and nip behind the bar. It’s a good place to go when it’s crowded as you can usually get a seat or at least a place to rest your beer. The food is traditional Spanish and very good quality.

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.