Opened by restaurateurs Sandro Silva and Marta Seco of Ten Con Ten and El Paraguas, Amazonico has been drawing Madrid's trendiest crowds since its inception in 2016.  Guests come in off the manicured Salamanca street and are immediately immersed in a jungle-like environment with leaves adorning the ceiling. The menu is eclectic, featuring grilled meats that are presented on a spit, as well as a good mix of Indian, Asian, and South American inspired flavors (including a sushi bar). Once you have thoroughly sampled the carefully curated menu, head downstairs to the clandestine jazz club for a night cap.

The wildly successful Barcelona restaurant group Tragaluz has brought its magic to Madrid. Bar Tomate’s pale wooden floors and rough-hewn tables are brought to life by bright plastic chairs and creative lighting fixtures hanging from a metallic ceiling. The playful furnishings square with a casual menu best enjoyed at lunch or for a relaxed dinner shared among friends. Classic tapas like jamon iberico, sardines on grilled bread and fried artichokes can be ordered all day. Pizzas from the wood fired oven and heartier dishes like bacalao or beef tenderloin are reserved for lunch or dinner, which is available until midnight anyway.

Just around the corner from the Mercado San Anton in the trendy Chueca neighborhood is a lively modern brasserie called Bazaar with excellent farm fresh food.

After opening several Indian fine-dining restaurants across Europe (including the hugely popular Tamarind in London), Chef Atul Kochhar launched Benares in Madrid in 2015 to be an outpost of his London restaurant of the same name. The first Indian chef to win a Michelin star, Kockhar has earned international acclaim for his innovative approach to Indian cooking. He blends traditional flavors with modern techniques to create utterly delicious cuisine.

Benares Madrid carries on the chef’s excellence with a menu of mouthwatering dishes, including monkfish and crab croquettes, lamb shank and tandoori–style chicken. The stylish dining room—designed with groovy-cool floor patterns, modern chandeliers and a palette of burnt orange and gold—is perfect for a chic night out, but maintains a relaxed ambiance during the day (the restaurant serves brunch as well). Be sure to try a dessert, as the menu boasts a tempting selection of dishes that are just beautiful as they are delicious.

A hidden gem on a lively street, family-run Casa Lucas delights guests with their warm service and delectable flavors. The owner will help you choose from an extensive wine selection, and menu items will be listed on the chalkboard behind the bar. The restaurant is small, but do not be discouraged if you don't have a reservation—the food is worth the wait for a table or bar seat to open up. Casa Lucas offers an array of hot and cold tapas as well as larger plates, a favorite being the oxtail, stewed with pistachios and prunes and accompanied with puréed potatoes (rabo de toro).

Madrid-born chef David Munoz refers to his high-end Chinese-Spanish fusion cooking “a gunshot to the head." The talent behind Madrid’s only three-Michelin starred restaurant might be prone to exaggerating, but ranked among the world’s best 50 restaurants, DiverXO is one of Europe’s most talked-about restaurants, with a waiting list to prove it. The space, recently moved to the NH Eurobuilding hotel, is decorated more like a quirky art gallery than a restaurant. Cool blue tones reign supreme and metal sculptures of insects and fish dot the walls. The cooking, imaginative and unique, matches the offbeat decoration. Munoz sources his ingredients from around the world, creating a form of culinary trickery that has gained him rave reviews. Cooks will often finish plating the meal at your table and highlights of the seven-course meal (expect to be there for around four hours) include a delicious fried duck tongue and a tuna cheek that tastes uncannily like filet mignon.

One of the most anticipated restaurants to open in 2014, Dstage is the brainchild of acclaimed chef Diego Guerrero. Having earned two Michelin stars at El Club Allard (a Madrid classic), he took a year off to travel the world, gathering culinary inspiration before returning to the Spanish capital and opening Dstage. The restaurant is located in the newly groovy neighborhood of Salesas (about a 10-minute walk from the AC Santo Mauro), which is itself an emerging destination for hip visitors.

Guerrero's vision at this, his first solo restaurant, is designed to take diners behind the scenes. A meal here starts in the kitchen where guests enjoy hors d'oeuvres before being taken to their table. The menu is broken into two tasting experiences (ten or thirteen courses) and changes frequently. If any of this concept sounds too theatrical (the word "stage" is in the restaurant's name, for one), Guerrero's food is anything but gimmicky. He has already been rewarded with one Michelin star and lunch or dinner at the restaurant are a truly amazing, memorable experience.

Elegant and popular, El Paraguas is the place to go for a big night out – but you need to be sure to get a reservation first, not an easy task, and to arrive properly attired. The handsome dining room looks like it was set up inside an upscale century-old Madrid apartment, with separate dining areas featuring ornate wooden molding on the walls and ceiling, white tablecloths and richly upholstered chairs. Attentive service and an expansive wine list drawing from the best vineyards in Iberia complement the formal ambience.

Spain’s northern coastal province of Asturias inspires the menu, with dishes like hake roasted in cider with apple compote or black rice with scallops and cockles, but the exuberant and youthful chef also draws on a broad swath of Spanish and European influences. Other memorable, and less Asturian, dishes include Cantabrian anchovies with avocado and beef tenderloin with black truffle. For dessert try the Turkish fig mousse or the thin apple tart with white chocolate ice cream.

For over 20 years, Juana La Loca has attracted locals and out-of-towners alike with its creative takes on traditional pintxos—specifically its take on the Spanish omelette, with a special onion confit. Located in Madrid's bustling La Latina neighborhood, Juana La Loca attracts a crowd, so it’s best to have a reservation (we love the cozy corner tables) or to get there early and grab a spot at the bar.

This hot spot also serves incredible food in a stylish, minimalist-chic setting. The ambiance is reminiscent of ever-popular Ten Con Ten, as are the reasonable prices. Note that reservations are a must. This is truly one of Madrid's most popular restaurants and it fills up, especially for dinner.

Bright, airy and quirky, the newly opened Mama Campo is as much a celebration in design as it is of cooking. The high-ceilinged space is whimsically decorated, with a chandelier of glass-blown lamps dotting the market’s ceiling, reclaimed wood covering the walls and works from internationally renowned artists on every surface. The eccentric design belies an organic, local menu that serves up responsible, sustainable fare. Getting a table isn't easy–reservations have been full since the restaurant’s opening. After your meal, head over to Mama Campo’s adorable market that sells natural, organic goods from local producers that can’t be found anywhere else in the city.

A great stop for lunch during your exploration of the city, this outpost of the popular Madrid tapas chain Ochenta Grados is at the confluence of the Salamanca, Chamberi, and Malasana neighborhoods. It serves up experimental tapas in a fresh, relaxed setting. Make sure to get here before 2:30, as it fills up with the young business lunch scene later in the afternoon. Enjoy the set lunch menu with a caña of beer to feel like madrileño.

The food hall revolution continues to evolve in Spain. The culinary country first transformed their antiquated neighborhood markets into elegant food halls like Mercado San Miguel. The latest iteration, though, takes the glamour a step further with Platea; once the most stylish movie theater in Madrid, it has now been transformed into a five-level temple to cuisine. In the basement are food stalls (Japanese, Mexican and more) and gourmet cookware outlets; on the main floor are counters where you can order oysters and champagne or wine and tapas and bring them to cocktail tables. Another level up is the cocktail bar, and a movie screen still hangs over the old stage, and concerts, entertainment and vintage movies provide a festive atmosphere. Don’t miss the pastries at Mama Framboise.

Too much of one thing is never a bad thing—at least that would seem the motto at Poncelet Cheese Bar, a happening gastrobar that lists more than 140 Spanish cheeses on its menu. The specialty restaurant, which features a beautiful vertical garden, serves a number of fish and beef entrees, but the true stars are of the queso-centric variety: risotto, fondue, raclette.

Most people come to Ramses for the scene, not the food. A hit with the city’s in crowd, the Philippe Starck–designed bar/restaurant/club feels a good deal chicer and sexier than almost anywhere else in town. Low, seductive lighting, killer cocktails and servers who look as if they’d stepped off a runway are complemented by a hipster-meets-goth decor of Victorian candelabras, graffiti-scrawled walls and chairs ranging from gilt Queen Anne to curvy midcentury modern. It’s a bit much, but it’s also a lot of fun.

Surprisingly, the food isn’t terrible. The menu draws from a range of cuisines, from Thai to Italian to traditional Spanish, and in most cases it more or less delivers. When I visited, the ingredients of a tomato salad were not entirely ripe, but the croquetas and carpaccio stood up to those of more food-focused venues, and I heard a couple raving about their Thai curry. Although the dishes will never impress true foodies, visitors to Madrid who want a taste of how the city’s beautiful people live should at least stop by for a drink.

The noisy, high-energy StreetXO is run by Dabiz Muñoz, the same chef behind Madrid’s only three-Michelin star restaurant, DiverXO. Located on the top floor of El Corte Inglés Serrano in the Gourmet Experience culinary space, it’s a fun and casual spot with mostly bar seating, known for its high-quality, whimsical street food. Highlights include the range chicken (butter tikka masala xo style with egg yolk, mini corn cobs and cheddar cheese naan), roasted black cod, the steamed club sandwich (ricotta cheese, fried quail egg sichimi-togarashi) and the Korean lasagna (old Galician beef and wontons, with shiitake mushrooms, pickled spicy marinated tomatoes and cardamom bechamel). The cocktails are avant-garde and fantastic. Reservations are not accepted, so be prepared for a long wait—but it’s worth it. 

The biggest restaurant news in Madrid is the opening of the joint venture of Spanish superstars Rafael Nadal, Pau Gasol, Enrique Iglesias and others who have teamed up to create what they hope will be the ultimate watering hole to represent the Spanish good life around the globe. The global celebrities wisely partnered with the successful beach club owners behind Blue Marlin and Ushuaia of Ibiza. With a stylish, clubby atmosphere (leather banquettes, fireplace nooks and modern Spanish art), Tatel has only been open since May and already reservations take weeks to secure. The chef serves traditional Spanish classics like gazpacho and jamon Serrano and there are plans to export the brand to Ibiza and Miami this year and possibly Mexico and London next.

Following on their success with Los Paraguas, the team of chef Sandro Silva and manager Marta Seco have created another Madrid sensation with Ten Con Ten. Ten Con Ten’s aim is to offer equally excellent food, but in a livelier atmosphere and at a less extravagant price point. The result is that getting a reservation at Ten Con Ten is these days more difficult than even at Los Paraguas, so I suggest you book well in advance of your travel.

Ten Con Ten is still a posh dining experience, with white tablecloths and fresh flowers on most tables – with the exception of the tall tables in the always hopping bar area, which are available for walk-ins. Within the restaurant, alternate dining areas from the library to the bistro each offer a slightly different vibe. While still celebrating the cuisine of the Atlantic, with dishes like roasted hake with scallops, Silva also offers many decadently rich options like oxtail hamburger or beef tenderloin grilled with a chestnut purée. You’ll find some lighter options as well, like strawberry gazpacho and snowpeas with avocado oil. The wine list is nearly as impressive as at Los Paraguas, although you may prefer to start your meal with one of several classic cocktails. Dinner at Ten Con Ten is meant to be a festive evening out, after all.

This new hot spot in Madrid is referred to as simply Quintin, and as the latest venture of the team behind the runaway restaurant successes El Paraguas and Ten Con Ten, it is no surprise that it is packed for lunch and dinner. Set in a former corner grocery, the owners paid homage to the location’s history by keeping some of the produce displays, and a ham station that resembles a butcher’s counter greets diners. The focus is on the freshest local ingredients, and the scene buzzes with happy regulars. Reservations recommended.