Madrid's Best New Restaurants This Autumn: From Valencian Rice to a Basque Steak Txoko

Valencian rice near the Bernabéu

Bar Mistela Chamartín is the easiest place in the city to eat proper Valencian rice without a fine-dining bill. Paella valenciana is €21.90 a head and the senyoret €22.90. The kitchen cooks one kind of paella per table, so settle the argument before you sit down. Red wines start at €19 a bottle, and the set lunch is €18.90 from Tuesday to Thursday. It's on calle Manuel de Falla, near the Santiago Bernabéu stadium, and opens every day from 9:30 to 00:30. Come early and you can have the esmorzaret, the Valencian breakfast sandwich, which is €8.90 with a drink. From the old centre it's a metro ride north, and worth the trip for a long lunch.

Malasaña and Justicia

Ultramarinos Marín Madrid opened on 15 October on the corner of calle de San Andrés, and it's the opening people argue about. You sit at a long bar with the shellfish and the griddle working in front of you, and you'll leave smelling faintly of fish. Raw langoustines are €20 for two. Sea urchin is €9 a piece, and the fish of the day runs €110 to €150 a kilo, so ask the weight before you nod. Reckon on €80 to €100 a head before drinks, although cheaper plates like smoked tongue at €7 pull that down. Wine glasses start at about €4. Open Tuesday to Saturday for lunch and dinner, with the kitchen going until 00:30.

On Plaza de las Salesas in Justicia, La Once Mil is the first branch this taquería has opened outside Mexico. There are no reservations. You turn up in person from 12:30, pick a time slot, and your name goes on the door glass in marker. The day's slots usually go within the hour. Tacos are €7.50 for the campechano and €19 for A5 wagyu, with the Black Angus trompo taco at €8.50. There's no takeaway. You get 45 minutes to an hour at a high table you may be sharing with strangers, so come as a pair and come hungry. Open Tuesday to Saturday from 13:00 to 01:00, and Sunday from 13:00 to 19:00.

For one unfussy Madrid dinner in a walkable barrio, go to Hipocampo on calle Manuela Malasaña. Two young Venezuelan cooks run it. They cook Spanish tavern food with their own streak through it. Pig's ear with callos, cod fritters, potato omelette with pisto. The menu is short, seasonal and meant to be shared, at around €45 a head. It closes on Sunday evenings and all day Monday, and you book on the website.

Dining rooms with tablecloths

Bresa is on calle Villanueva in Salamanca, and it's the first sit-down restaurant from a family who already run several of the city's best bars. There's no bar and no high tables here, just a quiet room with set tables. The cooking is French-rooted and follows the market, so you'll see anchovies, raw prawns and hake, and there's no fixed carte. Average spend is around €85 a head. It serves every day, lunch from 13:30 and dinner from 20:00, and the last tables go at 22:00, which is early for Madrid.

Caja de Cerillas is the most praised small room in the city, with eight tablecloth tables on calle de Donoso Cortés in Chamberí and Canal the nearest metro. It's chef Enrique Valentí's first solo place, and he cooks casa de comidas food, the everyday home cooking of Spanish dining rooms, with expensive produce. Think dressed anchovy with pan con tomate, white beans with clams, then flan. That's why the bill lands at about €100 a head and surprises people. Open Monday to Friday only, for lunch from 13:00 and dinner from 20:00. Book well ahead, and don't plan it for a weekend.

Tasting menus worth the afternoon

The serious one is SEXTO, Juan Suárez de Lezo's own project, on the seventh floor of calle de Atocha. That's the museum stretch between the Prado and the Reina Sofía. There's a single twelve-course menu at €150, with a wine pairing for €90 more, and it is served at lunch only, Tuesday to Saturday. Courses have included ceviche, cigala stew, turbot with peas and venison with a potato croissant. If your evenings are the only free time you have, this one is out.

The best value is Flor on calle Algete in Legazpi, south of the centre near Madrid Río, where Cadu Gasparini cooks six vegetable-led courses for €65. A shorter three-course lunch is €38 on Thursday and Friday. Full sittings run Thursday to Saturday at lunch and dinner, and Sunday at lunch only. The cellar is all natural and low-intervention wine, and records play through service.

Pipilacha is the strangest table in Madrid, a tiny counter on calle del Azulejo in Fuente del Berro where a different edible flower leads each of 14 courses. The autumn menu is called 'Danza de las flores'. It's €90 a head, €60 more with the pairing, and takes about two hours. You sit a metre from the stoves while the cooks explain each plate. Sittings are at 14:00 and 21:00, Wednesday to Sunday. Vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free and lactose-free versions are made on request. There is no à la carte, so come willing to eat what arrives.

Tetsu sits in the pedestrian passage behind the Villa Magna hotel, with Serrano the nearest metro. It's a U-shaped counter around iron griddles, with no tables at all. Two young chefs cook Japanese-Mediterranean food in front of you. Omakase, where the chef chooses, is 10 courses at €90 or 12 at €110, with pairings at €60 or €75. Eating à la carte averages about €120. The short carte changes every couple of weeks, and dishes have included steamed Galician clam with dashi and sea bass cured in fermented rice with cocido madrileño broth. It closes Monday and Tuesday, and seats go weeks in advance.

Big groups in Chamberí

Manifiesto 13 crosses fresh pasta with Peruvian flavours, on calle de Hartzenbusch a short walk from Glorieta de Bilbao metro station. Casarecce with loche squash and goat's cheese is €24, corvina tartare €22, and cocktails €14 to €17. Groups of seven or more pick one set menu for the whole table at €45, €60 or €80 a head, the dearest with wine, water and coffee included. Flag allergies or vegetarian diets at least 48 hours before you arrive. Dinner only from Monday to Thursday, from 20:00, with lunch as well from Friday to Sunday. The room is all hard surfaces and gets loud after 21:00.

Inside the hotels

Nobu Madrid opened on 1 September inside the Nobu Hotel on calle de Alcalá, and it's the first in the capital. The classics are all there, black cod with miso, yellowtail jalapeño, rock shrimp tempura, alongside plates built on Spanish fish such as Canary sea bass. Dinner is every day from 19:00 to 01:00, and a weekend brunch starts on 21 November. Go for the room and the greatest hits, as these are hotel prices. The dress code is elegant casual, which rules out shorts, tracksuits and sporty sandals. The seventh-floor terrace serves only light bites and cocktails, and access is sometimes limited to hotel guests. Confirm it when you book if the rooftop is the point.

The most useful opening of the year is Lhardy Café, on the ground floor of the Hotel Wellington on calle de Velázquez. It's a few minutes from the Retiro park. It's a spin-off of the old Lhardy on Carrera de San Jerónimo, mixing house classics with newer bistro dishes over two floors. What matters is that it's open every day from 9:00 until midnight with no break. That makes it the answer to the dead hours between 16:00 and 20:00, when most Madrid kitchens are shut. Breakfast needs no reservation, and you book the website for meals.

Before you book

Fit the closed days first, as Caja de Cerillas shuts at the weekend, Tetsu on Monday and Tuesday, and Flor opens Thursday to Sunday. Reserve SEXTO, Tetsu and Pipilacha well ahead, and for La Once Mil just turn up from 12:30. See the Madrid guide and the Madrid hotel search.