Sala De Despiece

Cuisine: Spanish – Modern

Average price per person: 60€

Environment: 9.5/10

Food: 8.5/10

Service: 9.5/10

Other: Gluten-free options, Solo-dining, Table – side preparation

Website: https://www.saladedespiece.com/

During my first year in Madrid, I had dinner at Sala de Despiece (SDD) with a few friends who visited for my birthday. Following that great experience, I have been a few more times, often picking this restaurant to bring any of my guests visiting Madrid. At Sala de Despiece, The main focus is modern Spanish cuisine, while maitinging a food market vibe. Apart from the well-prepared dishes, the table-side preparation is a key part of the experience.

I hadn’t been at Sala de Despiece for at least a year, so I was excited to try the new menu, as well as the restaurant’s classics.

Location / Environment

Sala de Despiece’s original location, established in 2013, is in Calle de Ponzano, together with a satellite location that was created in 2020 (one is in Ponzano 11 and the other in Ponzano 10). The restaurant also has a location in C. Virgen de los Peligros, which is the one I visited this time.

The location is central and even from the outside, you get a feeling about the concept and the setup of Sala de Despiece. The entrance is designed in the form of a container type of wall and the door opens like a refrigerator truck.

The restaurant is designed with the concept of a central/meat/fish market in mind. The walls have white tiles and there is a big stainless steel barra that dominates the space. The cupboards, the open part of the kitchen for preparation, the butcher shop kind of hooks on top of the bar to leave your bag and everything in between was designed with this concept in mind.

Even by ordering wine, you can tell from the ice bucket they are using (which is practically a plastic container to store things like olives), that the experience here is going to be different than what you might be used to.

Service

The staff is attentive without being too formal and everyone can explain the dishes and the menu in English. If you have been in other restaurants in Spain, even high-end ones, you will know that this is not always the case.

Also part of the charm of Sala de Despiece is that a lot of the dishes are finished at the table and the staff is focused on ensuring that every customer enjoys the table-side preparation.

Overall there was a good pace to the meal, although there were times that there was a gap between some dishes.

Sala de Despiece Food

To begin with, you get a small welcome basket with fried dough, shaped almost like mini abstract churros with paprika. The dough was very light and had a slightly spicy and tart flavor.  

The first dish was the artichoke, which you can order as a unit and it comes with imperial Osetra caviar and avocado cream. The crunch of the first bite is unbelievable and you get a perfect combination of a sweet and crunchy artichoke, with salty and delicious caviar, topped up with tart avocado cream. The perfect starter for the meal.

Next a tomato with fried basil and olive oil. Although the dish is quite simple, the ingredients are very fresh. A juicy tomato, rich olive oil and some sweet and crunchy basil. It almost created an explosion of taste.

One of the most famous dishes at Sala de Despiece is the “rolex”. A thinly sliced pancetta is filled with foie and an egg yolk that was cooked for several hours at low temperature, remaining firm but with a smooth creamy texture. The staff is torching the “rolex” at your table, rolling the pancetta and creating (apart from a great spectacle) the perfect salty, rich and sweet bite.

The next dish was the chuleton. Thinly sliced beef with tomato and tartufata. Similar to the “rolex”, the chuleton is rolled in front of the customer at the table. Great quality beef, sliced perfectly makes a decadent combination with fresh tomato and the delicious truffle-based paste. Surprisingly fresh as a dish.

The octopus is served with muhamara, a traditional Middle Eastern red pepper dip. The octopus was well-cooked and the dip had a nice texture.

The smoked eel with fois mi cuit and apple was another dish that was finished at the table. The staff used a torch to caramelize the fois and the eel, combining all the ingredients before serving it to us. I love eel, so I am a bit prejudiced here, but this was really tasty.

The burrata is a smart dish. Small house-prepared cannolis are filled with burrata, topped with cacao and spices. The burrata is mixed with smoked sardines in pistachio oil and pickled fennel. The cannolis are stuffed in front of the guests and topped with basil and lemon salt, as well as bottarga. 

The ingredients fit well together, but I found the saltiness of the sardine overpowering. In some bites, it was completely covering the rest of the flavors. If it was more balanced, it could be a great dish, as all the ingredients were of high quality and the cannolis were perfectly thin and crispy.

Another dish, the Shimeji mushrooms are fried and served with a parmesan and egg yolk sauce type of bearnaise sauce. The color was deep yellow, so it was not a standard bearnaise sauce and the egg was more prominent. On top of the mushrooms were 3 types of salt: raspberry-flavored, gold salt and dill-flavored. The presentation was very good and the combination of the sauce and the mushrooms was great. 

The mushrooms were a little soft and not very crunchy, which might have given a different dimension to the dish. I thought that the first bites were quite salty. However, it might have been a specific part of the plate, because the sauce and the same combinations were not very salty if you tried them separately. Smart combination, but I felt the dish could be better executed.

Next, we tried another new dish on the menu, the cephalopod with honey buns with squid ink, filled with sobrasada (a Spanish cured sausage paste) and topped with tarragon and garlic sauce. 

One of my favorite dishes. The honey buns were fluffy and light, the sobrasada was not overpowering and the staff cooked the squid in front of us with a torch. The tarragon sauce was rich and flavorful, a great combination with the squid.

Finally the “Revolcona” potatoes. Mashed potatoes mixed with paprika and olive oil are placed on a chip. With the addition of cecina (similar to jamon, but from beef) and veal sausage the ingredients are combined to form a type of delicious sandwich.

The mashed potatoes were smooth and rich and the combination with the meats was perfect. Very smart thought to combine them in a mini crispy sandwich for additional texture.

No dessert for us as we were already full, but Sala de Despiece has a few equally inventive dessert options. I should also note that we wanted to try the Pig’s ear, but it was not available that day.

Conclusion

Sala de Despiece is one of the best restaurants in Madrid if you want to try creative dishes with high-quality ingredients. A great bonus is the impressive spectacle, with most of the dishes finished at your table. Sometimes the execution could be improved, but overall it remains among the top restaurants in Madrid you can visit.

Visit: March 2024

Address: Calle de la Virgen de los Peligros 8, Centro, 28004 Madrid