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.

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-style (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.

Finally, 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 hadn’t left Madrid I would basically live here.

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

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Madrid bookshops guide: 15 of the best [+ map]

From a market stall where books are sold by weight to cosy bookshop-bars, here are 15 spots in Madrid that book lovers won’t want to miss.

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.

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. [UPDATE: the museum is currently closed for refurbishment, and slated to reopen in early 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. 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.

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. We were not disappointed. 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:

Note: this article was published in April 2024 and was last updated in May 2025.

An ex-local's guide to Chamberí, Madrid