Best Seafood Restaurant in Madrid: Ribeiro Do Miño

Ribeira Do Miño
Calle Santa Brigida, 1
telephone: 91 521 98 54
Metro: Chueca, Tribunal

So what is it with Spanish restaurants that they have to display all the raw ingredients (dead or alive) in the window of the establishment? I presume it’s the restaurateurs desire to demonstrate the freshness of their produce; showing  that they have nothing rotten hiding in the dark corners of their kitchens, or cold stores. Personally I’d love to think that this was some kind of ploy to induce hunger pangs in unsuspecting passers-by who might otherwise not stop to eat at all.

Whatever its purpose, Riberia do miño, an authentic and hugely popular Galician seafood joint in Chueca, takes this strategy to new heights (literally).

The crab shells and the langostinos in the window are stacked floor to ceiling. So, needless to say, there’s not much point stepping across the threshold here unless you’re into seafood – and lots of it!

A Mariscada – or fresh seafood platter – is the house speciality. A platter for 2 people is over twice as much seafood as this diner would likely eat for the rest of the month. As soon as it’s ordered, an improbable stack of Centollo crab, crayfish, langostines, gambas, gambones as well as some other, hornier, less easily identifiable crustaceans, is whisked to the table without delay.

With seafood freshness is everything, and I think it must be Ribeira’s triumph in this regard that explains the restaurants extraordinary popularity (it certainly isn’t the decor which is authentic 1972). Everything tastes like it was swimming in sea water but a few short hours before.

The pulpo a la gallega (Galician octopus) is also predictably excellent, and if you want to go the whole Galician hog try the queimada as a dessert substitute. This is a hot alcoholic infusion, which sits on the table burning in an earthenware bowl for 10 minutes before they serve it to you. Apparently the Galician Celtic druids in centuries past used to prepare this drink for their flock, while mumbling strange incantations, in order to exorcise evil spirits – does it get any better than that?!

Book or get there at opening time, midweek, to avoid disappointment.

By Ben Dornan

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