31. May 2013: Restaurant Sobrino de Botín
Recommended by a fellow foodie and the hotel chauffeur I figured I should try the – according to the Guinness Book of Records – “oldest restaurant of the world”. And of course, as I have been warned in advance, it was a tourist trap. No surprise there! But the dishes were astonishingly good. I had “Morcilla de Burgos” (EUR 9.30) as a starter and I must admit that they were astonishingly good (I did not expect so)!
My main dish was the “Filete de ternera a la plancha” (EUR 18.80) – the meat was quite fine and aromatic but also rather dry. The vegetables and the potatoes were somehow not really tasty but the meat made up for it.
To drink, we ordered “una media jarra de Sangría” (EUR 7.60) and I expected something almost non-drinkable but I must say that it was tasty, sweet, boozy, just the way you actually want Sangría to be.
To sum it up, the food at the restaurant Botín is not really the best I have ever had but I must say that it is astonishingly tasty for being a very touristic place. Only the fact that the bread they serve you is charged with EUR 1.60 per piece – even if you did not touch it, is quite a rip-off!
More interesting than the food is the restaurant itself – it already looks quite interesting from the outside and you can easily see it has quite some years on its back.
When you enter the place you are warmly welcomed and then led downstairs into the cellar with …
… pretty steep stairs!
The cellar itself is nice, quite small but provides you with a nice atmosphere. The service is limitedly friendly but rather efficient but you easily realize that they are not doing their job for the passion of it but much more because it is well-paid due to the relatively steep prices.
At the restaurant entrance you can find some kind of metal inscription which is supposed to proof that the restaurant was founded in 1725. Well, I do not know if this is really the case but at least it is kind of officially confirmed by the Guinness book.
In any case, the food at the “oldest restaurant of the world” is not that mind-blowing but I guess as a foodie you should still go there to tick the list of having visited this restaurant. In any case, even if you do not eat there, it is worth seeing as you can definitely realize that it is quite old being constructed quite narrowly.
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Contact Details:
Restaurant Sobrino de Botín
Calle Cuchilleros 17
28005 Madrid (E)
Tel.: +34 913 66 56 77
Homepage: http://www.botin.es
About the Author: Sven
I started the blog in October 2009, while living in Milan which I definitely consider to be one of the food capitals of the world. I was in touch with food since my early childhood (as my father is a former chef). Whenever I can, I travel the world to discover new places, to meet people but mostly to try local dishes and to find hidden gems! If you know a place worth going, please drop a line to: info@thediningexperience.org.
Currently, I am a member of the following food-related associations: Chevalier @Chaîne des Rôtisseurs Zurich-Ville; Membre Gourmet Dégustateur @Ordre Mondial des Gourmets Dégustateurs [OMGD]; Gesellschafter @Goldener Fisch and Member @Slowfood Convivium Zurich City. 
