La Cava Real

Description:

• If your wine is as important to you as the meal itself, this is the Madrid restaurant of choice for connoisseurs of vino. When the tavern opened in 1983, it was the first real wine bar Madrid had ever seen. Since then, there have been many others, but La Cava Real remains the best. It's linked to Spain's largest wine club. Just don't mention the word beer here and you should do fine. There are more than 350 wines in the cellar, and you can order a staggering 50 of them by the glass, which allows you to sample more than one wine at the same meal if you so desire.

  Turn to the skilled maitre d', Chema Gómez, for advice on wine. The chef, Javier Collar, hardly neglects the cuisine in favor of the wine, turning out a smooth and well-executed cuisine that weds two great kitchens, that of France and that of the Basque country. I was enchanted with his pimientos stuffed with cod and his grilled and sweet-tasting merluza (hake) caught along the Basque coast. He also does wine, and in the autumn wild game such as partridge appears on the menu. The cheese selection deserves an award, and the chef also makes marvelous, really sumptuous, desserts fresh daily; it's worth saving room for one.

• © Frommer's 2013

Awards:

Frommer's

•  Highly Recommended 2010