My wife and I just finished a lovely two week stay at this apartment, and to be honest it was hard to leave. We could have just as easily stayed there six months or longer – it was that much of a nice place to stay. The floorplan is a very open concepy, with high ceilings and plenty of room to relax. Storage was another thing that was amazingly ample – literally two closets to hang things in, as well as a built in dresser which easily held our clothing and other belongings with room to spare. Even the bathroom had a large drawer to hold all of your amenities. We bring our own shampoo, hair stuff, and Kleenex when we AirBnB, but those things were there as well – basically like staying in a hotel (except with a working washer and dryer so you can pack light!)
The bathroom is straight out of a fancy hotel, with a lovely rain shower feature and a smaller handheld as well. Coupled with a towel heater that was simple to use and towels that were softer and more fluffy than we could have hoped for – showering there is something I will miss!
The apartment is located very close to all of the action and the main streets but tucked away on a smaller side street. There can be some street noise from late at night, so if you must have absolute silence, you will be bothered by the late night bar crowd shouting and living it up. The neighborhood of Chueca is super cool and very gay friendly, if that is your bag. Lots of rainbow flags and openness and acceptance. We are from California, so that made us feel right at home.
Madrid obviously has many wonderful restaurants all over, but we found several wonderful places just a quick walk down the street. My advice in general when eating out is to make reservations. A lot of bigger restaurants have online reservation systems through their websites or google maps, so it is really easy, even without a command of the language.
Our favorite restaurant in the city was just a block or two away, called Restaurant Morgana. Here they mix traditional Galician cuisine with just a hint of Asian flair. Definitely make reservations (online was easy) because they constantly turn people away and only have one lunch and one dinner service (a two hour window) each day. Their wines were also amazing.
For something traditional and super tasty, I would recommend La Nieta, which is right down the street. The front room is a bar and they have tables in the back. Their fixed price menu comes in around 11 euros, depending on what they are making. We went and had a very traditional meal, with simple but rich flavors and were lucky to grab a couple of spots at the bar without reservations.
For breakfast, just a couple of blocks away is a little bakery called El Horno de Almudena. This place makes great café con leche (and several other espresso drinks) and has great pastries as early as 7:30 in the morning. If you want something a little more hearty, go around 9:30 in the morning and they make lovely little egg sandwiches for just a few euros. Just homemade rolls, rubbed with a little tomatoe and olive oil and a little scrambled egg omlette – pro tip, try the ones with local ham as well for a really nice savory breakfast. They also have fresh squeezed orange juice. We started out most of our days at this place and on our last day (and day trips) ordered a flauta (“flute”) sandwich with jamon iberico to go. Those sandwiches were great on trains and on our plane ride home.
Other places of note that were close by were La Carmencita – great grilled fish dishes and other fun things and right next door was Celso y Manolo – if you like tomatoes, their tomato starter is to die for. If you take a little walk to Bodega de Ardosa, you can experience a traditional tapas bar, full of locals and a few tourists in the know. Their service there is better than any bar I have been to in Spain, where usually you have to fight your way to get noticed (you still will have to flag down someone to order, but they are unusually helpful).
Now part of what I love about Spain is their vermouth. Madrid has a lot of vermouth and I tried well over 20 different kinds while we were there. My favorites were at Taberna La Concha, where they have theirs made in Reus. How they make it is also a production, so when you order it have your phone on video and ready to go. Their tapas were also really tasty – if you want the best ones, just ask for recommendations. Everything recommended was amazing and everything we chose on our own was good but not mind-blowing. My absolute favorite vermouth (and I think our favorite tapas place) was called El Sur. They have a very old vermouth that I have been wanting to try forever, called Iris – and they have it on tap. Again ask for recommendations and be sure to order the shrimp in garlic oil, because…wow. Both of these places are just a quick metro walk away.
To sum up, we absolutely fell in love with Madrid, coming here for the first time. But a big part of what made it great was this apartment. We will be trying to stay here again when we return, if I can squeeze in a reservation. Easily the best AirBnB we have ever stayed at in so many ways. From the service from our host to all of the amenities, we could not have been more satisfied.