Paco Roncero Madrid

Paco Roncero sits on Calle de Alcalá, a ten-minute walk from the Puerta del Sol. The restaurant holds two Michelin stars and is ranked no. 58 on La Liste.

The dining room runs smart and elegant, but the focus is resolutely on the technical precision of its creative, contemporary menu. While its proximity to the city’s major plazas makes it an obvious target for tourists, the kitchen avoids the trap of crowd-pleasing tradition. Instead, the kitchen pursues a level of modern invention that its immediate neighbours in the centre largely abandon in favour of familiarity. You go here for the discipline of the cooking rather than the convenience of the location, proving that ambitious gastronomy can exist in the middle of a tourist circuit without surrendering to it.