Bruce Lee, 'mochis' and artisan noodles in 13 new Asian restaurants in Madrid

A handful of restaurants and other oriental cuisine outlets sprang up like mushrooms in the outskirts of Madrid's Gran Vía shortly before the pandemic.

Today, some resurface and others are released.

And the phenomenon pervades half of Madrid.

They are found in avenues, alleys and even in a market in the capital.

They surprise with classic autochthonous elaborations and modern experiments where fusion cuisine also fits.

We will visit 13 new enclaves and their surroundings with six world cuisines as protagonists: those of China, Korea, India, Japan, Lebanon and Vietnam, in a centrally located

.

With its pluses and minuses, there is life beyond ramen.

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China: between steamers and sea bass

1.Hunan

One of the specialties of the Hunan Chinese restaurant, near Madrid's Gran Vía.Carlos Marques

In Madrid there are hundreds of international cuisine establishments.

Proof of this are the multiple websites and applications for reservations and gastronomic reviews.

Chinese restaurants monopolize a large part of the offer, and not only in the Usera neighbourhood, where they abound.

The variety of its gastronomy and its colorful dishes once again attract all eyes.

We are in the TriBall, the central area that is hidden at the ridge of Gran Vía, known for its urban regeneration and its wide range of alternative venues.

In 2018, he opened at the beginning of Ballesta Hunan street, a restaurant for a diverse public, decorated inside with wickerwork and wallpaper, which moves away from the more commercial concept.

It is known for reproducing one of the eight regional Chinese cuisines.

Spicy lovers and those faithful to aromatics will find ways to delight here.

Even the daring ones with some oddity, like frog or pig intestine.

On the menu there are refined proposals such as organic cauliflower casserole or steamed prawns with sweet potato noodles, which are served in traditional pans.

In addition, versions of stews, smoked, fried, braised... Nearby, and also in the millennial vein, is the Sichuan restaurant (Caballero de Gracia, 8).

Address: calle de la Ballesta, 4. Menu: from 30 euros.

2. Lanzhou Beef Noodles

Artisanal noodles from the Chinese restaurant Lanzhou Beef Noodles, in Madrid.LANDIS LIANG

Asian gastronomy is common in the culinary offer of the most central part of the city, with a large number of fast food establishments.

Heading to a neighboring movie alley in this intricate area, and in front of the famous

Hattori Hanzo

(Innkeeper Romanos, 17), hides Lanzhou Beef Noodles, a tiny place with just 10 tables and a year old that registers queues at peak hours.

In the background, the chef kneads the noodle strips in the open kitchen, before pouring them into steaming pots.

What triumphs here are the Lanzhou beef noodles.

Every 10 dishes, overlooking the business, they give one free.

Address: Horno de la Mata crossing, 5. Lanzhou noodles: 7.50 euros.

3.Kung Fu

Interior of Chinese Kung Fu restaurant.

The smells and flavors of oriental cuisine, mostly framed in the Asian continent, pose a challenge for foreign palates.

In order to adapt to them, fusion attempts arise, as with Spanish gastronomy.

Leaving aside the remodeled Plaza de Soledad Torres Acosta, and some landmarks like the portentous Chinese El Buda Feliz 1974 (Tudescos, 5), there is another neighboring enclave that closes a triangle on the map for lovers of the exotic.

We take an adjoining street to enter Kung Fu, another authentic place with a chess floor that shows off a silhouette of a Bruce Lee cook in the background,

wielding a slotted spoon and a frying pan

Due to its ten tables, it is common to see native patriots sipping with chopsticks before a bowl

The service is Mandarin, although this time it is inspired by recipes from the Guizhou province (rival from Hunan and Lanzhou).

They are connoisseurs of Chinese-style sea bass served in pretty ceramics and washed down with Tsingtao beer.

They cook up classics like kung fu crab or orange Peking duck

Their sour soups are also worth it.

Among the sweets, we find the classic Japanese

or tapioca with coconut milk and mango.

Address: calle Luna, 12. Menu: 20-25 euros.

Korea: fried chicken and dumplings

4. Mama Uma

Korean restaurant Mama Uma, inside the Barceló Market.

From China to Korea, and from Callao to the neighboring Tribunal area, where we sneak inside the Barceló Market.

Upstairs, at the bottom of the escalator, is Mama Uma, a family-friendly Korean cuisine bar, which fills up by mid-afternoon.

“Korea is in fashion, although its gastronomy is unknown,” confesses Gonzalo Torres, 39, his lanky owner who loves superfoods and, according to him, from “a wild country for tourists.”

He returned to Spain two years ago to open this business with three basic dishes at affordable prices:

(rice, meat and vegetables), KFFC (fried chicken) and

a kind of empanadas.

To drink, it offers plum or rice wines.

The gastronomic stall formula in a market works even better in the neighboring Mercado de San Ildefonso (Fuencarral, 57), and a genuine

like Akma Fusión, where they serve tenera

dishes

under the reddish light of a neon.

Address: Barceló Market (Barceló, 6).

From 4.90 euros.

India: five levels of spiciness

5. Masala Darbar

In the 1970s and 1980s, the first forays into international cuisine began in Madrid, and the now-defunct Chinese Zhou Yulong, among others, triumphed in the

Plaza de España

Also, the Japanese Musashi (Shells, 4), the famous

Santo Domingo, and Donzoko (Echegaray, 3), in the Barrio de Las Letras.

In this last area, it is a good idea to explore one of the most popular cuisines: Indian, which has not only always been successful in the nearby Lavapiés neighborhood.

Since 2021, Masala Darbar invites you to an immersive adventure in the desert with walls that simulate dunes, although its owners are from Bangladesh.

Elaborate dishes circulate around its tables with up to five levels of spiciness and attention to allergens.

In its delicious repertoire there is no pork, but cheese or onion bread, rice such as basmati

various fish, vegetables, beef and the popular

(a spicy chicken dish) or

(lamb with curry

In addition, there are other vegetarian proposals: "

always works," says Farhan Rasel, one of the local partners.

Half of his clients are English;

the other, Spaniards looking for “lighter cuisine”.

Perhaps as light as the Japanese.

Address: calle Huertas, 53. Tasting menu: 21.50 euros.

Japan: between ramen and lanterns

6. Art & Sushi

Bar of the Art&Sushi Japanese restaurant, a place where temporary exhibitions are also organized.

In Madrid the variety of international cuisine is mostly Asian and Latin.

In the midst of it all, the Japanese triumph.

It can be seen in any corner, even on the noble boulevard of Carranza, contained between the central roundabouts of Bilbao and San Bernardo.

Here is Art & Sushi, a fusion cuisine venue with low tables and temporary art exhibitions.

On the other side of the bar, busy chefs work cuts of sushi

They also prepare tempura prawns, stuffed

and ceviches

that are served between glasses of white wines and cavas.

As a counterpoint, in the neighboring La Uramakería (Manuela Malasaña, 3) they prepare sushi

in containers to share and take away or deliver at home.

Address: calle Carranza, 9. Menus: 15,30 or 45 euros.

7. Tokyo ball

Osaka's typical flour balls, called 'takoyakis', are the stars of the Japanese restaurant Balon Tokio.

We went down to the popular area of ​​Atocha to visit Balón Tokio, Ryuta Ichinohe's place.

What led this 29-year-old Japanese to change Tokyo for Madrid?

Essentially, making their famous Osaka flour dumplings or

He started out in a shack next to Calle de Huertas with three tables, a bar, and an Asahi beer tap, where he offered his balls stuffed with octopus, vegetables, and ginger.

Now, he has replicated the business with

an elevator size store and a vending machine for orders.

To create them, they pour a dough into plates in the shape of egg cups and mold them with punches, and then they are served with sauces (Japanese, cheese

chili

sesame...).

There are also

rice balls) and

(sweet pancakes).

To drink, there is plum sake and green tea.

They hold a record: creating 600 balls for an event held at the Japanese Embassy in the capital.

Address: calle Echegaray, 29 and Tortosa, 6. 'Takoyakis': 6 units, 6.50 euros.

8.Igo Ramen

The Japanese lanterns and the manga aesthetic stand out in the Japanese gastronomy place Igo Ramen.

Returning to the outskirts of the Plaza de Callao, there is another new place worthy of

the Sofia Coppola film that ventured into Tokyo karaoke.

At Igo Ramen, ramen and

(chicken in batter) triumph, Japanese tunes play, Japanese lanterns shine on the wooden tables and the bar and napkins are decorated with manga drawings

They have another very Tokyo local on Tudescos street

with slogans in

and waitresses dressed as geishas

Another nearby Japanese restaurant is Kaiten Sushi (San Bernardo, 10), with a revolving buffet.

Address: calle Navas de Tolosa, 9 and Tudescos, 4. Menu: from 12.95 euros.

9.Kippu

'Sukiyaki', from the Japanese restaurant Kippu, in the Salamanca district.

ALBERTO T.

What leads many to visit an Asian restaurant is possibly the idea of ​​living a different experience.

After a tour of the center, we look at the Salamanca neighborhood.

On a journey back in time, we arrive at a local exposed brick that contrasts past and present.

At Kippu they receive some illuminated cubes on the bar and appetizing half meter trays with crunchy

,

trio :

three pieces

genuine sirloin, butterfish and bull tuna.

It should be finished off with a sake cocktail, among the punctual

Two steps away is Tora (Padilla, 5), a Japanese haute cuisine restaurant.

Address: Calle General Pardiñas, 70. Keiken tasting menu: 50 euros.

10.Tori-Key

'Tsukune' dish from Tori-Key Japanese restaurant.

Hiroshi Kobayashi is another lively entrepreneur originally from Tokyo, 44 ​​years old and about 10 of them lived in Spain.

His forte is the Galician free-range chicken with which he makes his

Japanese skewers.

In Tori-Key's menu there is no sushi or any type of raw fish, because he has opted for specializing in meat.

For this, he uses the charcoal grill.

He claims not to use glutamate (a flavor enhancer) or coloring.

He recommends the

his signature dish: a delicate skewer of minced chicken dipped in low-temperature cooked egg yolk.

In addition, he makes

, rolls,

and desserts such as the green tea French toast with vanilla ice cream.

Kobayashi went through El Chaflán and Miyama, and today runs his exclusive tavern near Santa Engracia street.

Address: Plaza Descubridor Diego de Ordás, 12. From 45 euros.

11.umiko

The cooks of the Japanese restaurant Umiko, in Madrid: Juan Alcaide and Pablo Álvaro Marcos (on the right).

skewers

and Ricardo Sanz's Japanese fusion cuisine paved the way for culinary innovation in the sector.

Since then, the dynamic has not stopped.

Juan Alcaide and Pablo Álvaro Marcos are a duo of chefs seasoned in Madrid's kitchens who have garnered a Repsol Sun with their new restaurant Umiko, a stone's throw from the Congress of Deputies.

In their lounge and on the futuristic bar they serve delicacies from cuisines from the East and the West, such as shrimp ramen or

paella

On the same street they have opened Umiko Bake, a pastry shop that fuses national and Japanese sweets.

Kitchen of the Japanese restaurant Zuma, in Madrid's Plaza de Colón.

A little further on, towards Plaza de Colón, Zuma has also opened, in the old Hard Rock Café.

It is a branch of the chain, with both sushi and

bars , house music and a modern atmosphere

A little further on are Sibuya (Ibiza, 33) and Casa Srito (Marqués de Riscal, 6).

Address: Calle Los Madrazo, 6. From 85 euros.

Lebanon: Beirut on the table

12. Mune

Image of various dishes from the Lebanese restaurant Mune, in Madrid.

We cross Alcalá street to enter the Chueca neighborhood.

It is seen: each area treasures its offer.

Amongst the crowd, the thousand and one bars, fashion shops and art galleries, the Lebanese designer Dalia Nahas has recreated an exposed brick venue in the shape of a Lebanese tavern.

Ella mune sports solid Beirut ceramics and serves up delicacies like the colorful

Salad or the

a dish of lamb meatballs with

sauce and basmati rice.

There are vegetarian

to share, and the sturdy central table is shared as well.

They offer grilled sirloin, desserts and Lebanese wines.

and

the

Saturdays (from 11:00 to 13:00).

They have opened with another beautiful venue on Calle del Prado, in the Las Letras neighborhood.

Address: Calle Pelayo, 57 and Prado, 3. From 30 euros.

'Brunch': 20 euros.

Vietnam: rolls and adaptations

13.Vietnam

Image of various dishes from Vietnamese restaurant Vietnam.

We end the tour on the central street of Huertas, in a neighborhood that contains its surprises, such as Yugo The Bunker (San Blas, 4), with a Michelin star since 2019, which recreates a World War II bunker.

The Vietnamese owners of the also authentic Vietnam restaurant laid the egg nine years ago, but now they are renewing themselves by also offering their repertoire at home.

They serve traditional cuisine among beautiful crafts and exotic wallpaper.

Rolls in all their varieties and vegetarian dishes rule here, such as

based on tofu.

They make adaptations with sirloin, Iberian secret or scallops.

And they boast that their clients are 80% Spanish.

Nothing like dreaming of traveling on a plate.

Address: calle Huertas, 4. Menu: from 13.90 euros.

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