A local's guide to Chamberí, Madrid

Plaza life, where to eat and drink, a bookshop to fall in love with, and a ghost station. Here’s my guide to one of Madrid’s most beguiling barrios.

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When I moved to Chamberí at the start of 2020, it didn’t take me long to fall in love with it. This neighbourhood is just a stone’s throw from the centre of Madrid, but it still retains the “barrio life” that is missing from some of the city’s more tourist-thronged quarters.

It’s also home to some great cultural attractions, a myriad of interesting places to eat, and one of the city’s nicest plazas. On which note…

Plaza de Olavide and surroundings

Chamberí district is made up of several barrios: Vallehermoso and Ríos Rosas in the north, and Gaztambide, Arapiles, Trafalgar and Almagro in the south.

In the middle of Trafalgar, you can find this turtle-shaped plaza, which used to house the barrio’s covered market until the whole structure was dynamited in the 1970s. 

Today, the space left behind is the epicentre of the neighbourhood. There’s a central fountain, playground space, plenty of greenery, park benches and a perimeter ring of bars and restaurants with outdoor seating.

Plaza de Olavide: full of life, even in the middle of winter

Families meet up for play dates, teens walk arm in arm with their grandparents, and people of all ages congregate to enjoy life from breakfast to post-dinner copas late into the night. It’s everything I love about Madrid, and it’s easy to see why the Financial Times dubbed it the European dream. 

Since summer 2024, the plaza has had even more to recommend it thanks to improvement works that left it with 160 more trees, thousands of shrubs, and new street furniture (including some very popular ping pong tables). The streets leading up to it have also been semi-pedestrianised.

Where to eat and drink near Plaza de Olavide

I tend to agree with the Financial Times writer that the restaurants in Olavide itself are “pleasant but unexceptional”, but there are a few spots in the streets immediately nearby that are worth tearing yourself away from the plaza for. 

Toma Café is a specialty coffee place that makes a reliably great flat white.

La Gildería is a perfect bar to stop for an aperitivo before a weekend lunch or evening of tapas crawling. Order a vermut, the aromatic fortified wine that’s one of Madrid’s most popular drinks, and choose from their extensive selection of snacks.

In my view, there’s no better pairing for vermut than the spicy, sharp, umami hit of a classic Gilda - the Basque pintxo that consists of anchovies, olives, and pickled green peppers threaded onto cocktail skewers.

Gildas and gilda-adjacent snacks at La Gildería

Bar Trafalgar is the perfect spot for a long, boozy lunch with friends. They do excellent cocktails and classic “tapas with a twist” like patatas bravas hojaldradas (essentially, potato mille-feuille with bravas sauce), a dish I first ate in Zaragoza a few years ago and became instantly obsessed with.  

Shift Public House is a new-ish place around the corner from here. It’s a bar run by two lovely guys both called Alberto, and their current cocktail menu has drinks inspired by the different neighbourhoods of Madrid. It would be cheesy if it weren’t so thoughtful and well-executed. If you like bitters, try the Chamberí.

Chez Pepito is a solid choice if you’re looking for a fun, casual and creative tapas spot that won’t break the bank. It’s named for its beef pepito (steak sandwich), but I particularly like their Asian-fusion dishes like the gamba shiso - a wonton-fried prawn served on zesty shiso leaves - and their take on patatas bravas, which come topped with their house blend of chilli crisp.

Olavide Bar de Libros is my favourite kind of hybrid: a bookshop where you can also have a glass of wine or a coffee and a slice of cake. They hold regular events such as author interviews and writing workshops, using a room in the basement which is also kitted out as a laptop-friendly space available for coworking. The atmosphere is delightful, the staff are very pleasant, and I think if I hadn’t left Madrid, I would basically live here. 

Looking for more bookshops? Check out my guide to Madrid’s best:

Best things to do in Chamberí

You could quite easily spend a whole weekend in Chamberí just exploring its museums, wandering and eating, perhaps visiting a cinema like Cine Yelmo Luxury Palafox (where you can order a meal at your seat) or the Teatros de Canal theatre complex, which has an impressive programme of contemporary dance. Here are some more detailed recommendations.

Take a tapas tour

As you can probably tell by now, Chamberí is a foodie’s paradise - so much so that getting into its most popular spots can be next to impossible these days. One solution is to book a specialised tapas tour, where there’s always a table or spot at the bar reserved for you.

Victor of Flavours of Madrid invited me to try out their new Authentic Madrid tour this summer, which includes some of Chamberí’s most emblematic bars and restaurants and follows the stages of a Spanish meal from aperitivo to dessert. There was even a jamón tasting in a local deli.

I expected delicious food and drink (and was not disappointed), but what surprised me was how much I learned about the social history and architecture of my old neighbourhood on the way.

I highly recommend this tour if you’re new to Chamberí or looking for a tapas route outside of the busy historic centre. The tour can be adapted to different dietary requirements and has a maximum group size of seven - ideal for couples, small groups of friends and solo travellers.

Book the Authentic Madrid tapas tour here

Visit Chamberí’s museums

Valencia-born Joaquín Sorolla was one of Spain’s most important artists of the late-19th and early-20th centuries, and he lived and worked for many years in a stately home in Chamberí which is now a museum about his life and work. Museo Sorolla has a pretty Andalucian-style garden complete with fountains, and you can pop in to look at it even if you’re not visiting the museum. [NB: the museum is currently closed for refurbishment, and slated to reopen at some point in 2026].

The pretty patio of Museo Sorolla is a delight on a hot day

Museo Geominero‍ ‍is (pun absolutely intended) a bit of a hidden gem in barrio Ríos Rosas. As well as housing an impressive collection of gemstones, rocks and fossils, the Geomineral Museum has a striking building with beautiful stained-glass ceilings and windows (shown below). Entry is free. On the first Sunday of each month, the neighbouring Mining School has a market where you can buy all kinds of rocks, gems, fossils and shells.

Estacion Chamberi, also known as Anden 0 (Platform Zero), is one of a series of museums belonging to the Madrid Metro. This one is located underground in the former Chamberí Station, which closed in the 1960s, and has walls covered in vintage ceramic tiles. If, like me, you’re fascinated by “ghost stations”, then keep on eye out for this one when you’re travelling on Metro Line 1 between Iglesia and Bilbao stations. Here’s some footage I recorded on my phone in slowmo.

Frontón Beti Jai‍ ‍is an architectural gem that’s hiding in plain sight on a leafy residential street in the lower part of Almagro. It’s the last surviving 19th-century Basque pelota court in Madrid, a remnant of a time when the craze for this ball sport was at its peak.

Frontón Beti Jai as seen from its third balcony.

After decades of neglect, Beti Jai underwent a restoration process and reopened to the public as a cultural heritage site in 2024. It’s a beautiful space with a fascinating history - be sure to check out the accompanying museum. Entry is free. Fun fact: the singer Rosalía recorded one of the first interviews about her hit album LUX here.

Where else to eat in Chamberí

Finally, a round-up of some more cafes and restaurants in Chamberí. 

In and around Calle de Ponzano

This is one of Madrid’s trendiest streets for tapas bar hopping. It was the original home of the industrial-chic restaurant Sala de Despiece, which opened in 2013 and revolutionised the tapas scene in the city with its butcher’s slab aesthetic (the name means the Cutting Room) and innovative approach to tapas.

In late 2024 they moved their flagship restaurant around the corner to Calle Alonso Cano, but they still have signature dishes like the Rolex on their menu.

My personal favourites on Ponzano itself are Fide and DeAtun, which specialise in seafood, stylish La Maquina for a bit of everything, and El DeCano when you just fancy some traditional tapas in a cosy taberna-style environment.

Mercado de Vallehermoso

Over on the other side of Chamberí, this market is full of places to eat as well as stalls selling fresh produce. When I first came here I recall there were only a few bars and restaurants, but now it’s packed with them.

Kitchen 154 is my absolute favourite, with some great Korean-influenced dishes (they also sell an excellent homemade hot sauce), and I hope to one day be organised enough to get a booking at the award-winning Tripea, which serves Peruvian-Asian fusion food by “market cuisine” trailblazer chef Roberto Martínez Foronda.

The last time I visited Vallehermoso with a Madrileña friend, she noticed the queue for Biang Biang Bar and insisted we join it. It was worth the wait. Specialising in a type of thick noodle from China's Shaanxi province, this restaurant first opened in trendy Calle Pelayo in barrio Chueca, and this is its second venue.

Biang Biang Bar in Mercado de Vallehermoso. The Lang Ya (“wolf teeth”) potato fries topped with garlic, coriander and spicy Sichuan pepper were sensational.

Madrid’s best bagels

There’s one place I always make a pilgrimage to when I’m back in Chamberí, and that’s Mazal Bagels. We ordered these New York-style bagels by delivery throughout the pandemic, and the small joy of opening the paper bag and inhaling the “everything bagel” seasoning was sometimes the highlight of the day. 

As much as I love Spanish food, I also love that Madrid, like London, has pretty much every world cuisine you could want these days. But that’s a subject for another day!

Map of locations:

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Note: this article was first published in April 2024 and was last updated in June 2026.