Casa Ciriaco

Pick your way down the side of the open kitchen to a deep dining room hung with pictures of visiting royals and grateful celebrities, along with rather grimmer photos of the 1906 bombing of Alfonso XIII's wedding procession – which happened right outside the door. Undamaged, and still going strong, Casa Ciriaco was a meeting place for the intelligentsia in pre–Civil War days, and although it no longer attracts too many thinkers, the Castilian fare is a taste of days gone by. 'Cochinillo' (suckling pig) is the speciality, along with partridge and butter beans, when in season. Waiters are as old-school as you'd expect, but very friendly.