Best Place in the World to eat… Steak!
Last September, The Observer, Sunday newspaper from the English Guardian Media Group, published a great article by Killian Fox, titled “The 50 best things to eat in the world, and where to eat them“. We are very proud to have Spain featured in nothing less than 6 of the 50 best places to eat those things!
El Capricho
So this post goes to the first one, El Capricho, a traditional rural bodega (cellar) restaurant in Jiménez de Jamuz, a small village in North of Spain, in the region of León. This region is famous its food and good wine and it is here also where we do our great Tortilla de Patata, slowly frying potatoes from the region.
The chuletón (T-bone steak) from El Capricho was described by Time magazine as “the perfect steak”, whereas Vogue’s food critic Jeffrey Steingarten defined it as “probably the greatest steak I’ve ever eaten”.
At La Buena Vida, we haven’t tried the steaks from El Capricho yet, although it is already in our To Do list, for our next trip up North. However we do have our favourites that we would like to share with you.
Illumbe, although a bit outside the city, this is one of the best places in Madrid to eat meat (they do have great fish dishes too!). Not fancy dishes to be found here, just simple great quality food, cooked to perfection. Our recommendation is to have something to share to start with (a bit of Jamón Ibérico, croquetas, buñuelos de bacalao - cod fritters) and then a big chuletón steak with piquillo peppers slowly cooked that are out of this world (only surpassed by our own Piquillo Peppers!).
Another great choice in the city center is the Asador Donostiarra. Like the Illumbe, this place features basque cuisine, simple but great ingredients. Besides great food, it is a place to see and be seen, where it is not unusual to see some of top Real Madrid players having dinner and other celebs.
And if rather than steak, roast beef is your thing, then definitely our favourite place in Spain is La Pondala, a long established restaurant located in Gijón, a city in the North coast. With a beautiful garden, eating roast beef in their outdoor dining area during the summer is definitely one of the highlights of the Spanish summer!
Do you have a favourite steak place in Spain? Send it to us and we will add it to the list!
El Capricho. Paraje de la Vega s/n. Jiménez de Jamuz, León. +34 987 664224
Illumbe. Avenida de Bruselas 9. Alcobendas, Madrid. +34 914 901096
Asador Donostiarra. Calle de la Infanta Mercedes 79. Madrid- +34 915 796264
La Pondala. Avenida de Dionisio Cifuentes 58. Somió, Gijón. +34 985 361160