Restaurant in Colmenar Viejo, Spain
Good-value tasting menu, 30 min from Madrid.
El 22 holds a Michelin Plate (2025) and a 4.7 Google rating while staying firmly in the €€ price range — making it one of the stronger value cases for serious cooking within reach of Madrid. The kitchen moves confidently between tiraditos, kimchi, game, and stews, with a tasting menu format that suits special occasions. Booking is easy, but weekend evenings fill quickly.
The tasting menu at El 22 fills up — and in a town the size of Colmenar Viejo, that happens faster than you'd expect. If you're planning a special occasion dinner or want to experience what a Michelin Plate recognition looks like at the €€ price point, book before the week is out. This is a kitchen doing genuinely ambitious fusion work at a price that undercuts almost everything comparable in the wider Madrid region, and the dining room is not large.
El 22 sits on Calle de Salvadiós in Colmenar Viejo, about 30 kilometres north of central Madrid, and it earns a Michelin Plate (2025) for cooking that moves between culinary traditions with more confidence than the price tag would suggest. Stews and game sit alongside tiraditos, kimchi preparations, and curries on the same menu — not as a gimmick, but as a coherent statement about how the kitchen thinks. The execution, according to Michelin's own assessors, is consistent across those disparate influences.
The flavour profile here is genuinely wide-ranging: sharp acidity from Latin American preparations, the fermented depth of Korean-influenced dishes, the weight of Castilian game and slow-cooked stews. Those contrasts are the point. If you want a single regional cuisine presented in a classic format, El 22 is the wrong room. If you want a kitchen that moves fluidly between traditions and makes each dish work on its own terms, this is a serious option at a price that removes most of the risk.
The wine list is worth noting separately. The selection skews toward lesser-known producers , the kind of list that takes more effort to build than simply stocking recognisable labels. For a special occasion dinner, that matters: you're less likely to encounter the same bottles you've seen everywhere else, and the list is priced in keeping with the €€ positioning of the food.
El 22 works well for a celebration or date dinner precisely because the tasting menu format gives the evening structure without requiring you to manage it. The range of the menu , small bites that reference different culinary traditions, then more substantial dishes , creates a natural arc to the meal. The Michelin Plate recognition gives the occasion a credible anchor: this is not just a neighbourhood restaurant, it is a kitchen that has been formally assessed and found to be cooking at a level above its surroundings.
At the €€ price range, it is also an occasion dinner that does not require a significant financial commitment. For context, a tasting menu experience at DiverXO in Madrid , also fusion-forward, but at €€€€ , costs multiples of what El 22 charges. The gap in price does not represent an equivalent gap in ambition or execution at El 22's end. For a celebration where the food matters more than the prestige of the address, this is a genuinely strong choice.
The executive menu option means there is also a more accessible format available for business lunches or occasions where a full tasting menu feels like too much commitment. That flexibility is useful and not always present at restaurants operating at this quality level.
Hours are not confirmed in our data, but in the context of Spanish dining culture in the Madrid region, evening service typically runs later than northern European equivalents , main dinner service often beginning at 9 PM or later. El 22's fusion format and small-bites approach make it well-suited to the later end of that window: the menu's structure works as a longer, exploratory meal rather than a quick sitting. If you are coming from central Madrid, factor in travel time north to Colmenar Viejo and aim to book a table that gives you a full evening rather than a rushed sitting before a last service cutoff.
For the full experience, the tasting menu requires time. Do not book El 22 on a night when you have a hard finish time. The kitchen is doing considered, multi-influence cooking, and the meal should be treated accordingly.
Booking at El 22 is rated Easy. The Michelin Plate recognition will have brought it to more people's attention, but it is not operating at the booking difficulty level of a starred restaurant in central Madrid. A week's notice should be sufficient for most dates; for weekend evenings or a specific occasion date, two weeks out is a sensible margin. The address is C. de Salvadiós, 36, Colmenar Viejo , reachable from Madrid by car in under an hour from most central locations, or by commuter rail to Colmenar Viejo station followed by a short transfer. Driving is the more practical option if you are coming as a group.
Google reviewers rate El 22 at 4.7 across 284 reviews , a high score on a sample size large enough to be meaningful for a restaurant at this scale in a smaller town. That consistency across a broad base of reviews is a more reliable signal than a handful of critic mentions.
Quick reference: €€ price range, Michelin Plate 2025, 4.7/5 Google rating (284 reviews), Easy booking difficulty, Colmenar Viejo, Madrid.
El 22 is a small restaurant in a town of modest size, so large groups should enquire directly before assuming availability. The tasting menu format suits groups with shared taste rather than mixed preferences. Parties of 4 to 6 are a more practical fit than larger tables. Given the easy booking rating, securing a group reservation should not be difficult with reasonable notice.
Booking is rated Easy, so a week or two of lead time is typically enough outside holidays and weekends. That said, the Michelin Plate recognition in 2025 has raised its profile, and the tasting menu fills faster in a small venue than the easy rating might imply. For a Friday or Saturday dinner, book at least two weeks ahead to be safe.
El 22 is a modern fusion restaurant in a Madrid commuter town priced at €€, which points to a relaxed but considered dress standard. Think neat casual rather than formal: no jacket required, but the tasting menu format calls for something slightly more deliberate than jeans and a t-shirt. Nothing in the venue data suggests a dress code is enforced.
Yes, for a low-key celebration it works well. The tasting menu gives the meal structure and a sense of occasion, and the Michelin Plate recognition (2025) confirms the kitchen is operating at a level above its price point. It is better suited to an intimate dinner for two or a small group than a large party. If you want a full-scale special-occasion restaurant near Madrid, DiverXO or Cocina Hermanos Torres set a different bar — but El 22 delivers at a fraction of the cost.
At €€ pricing with a Michelin Plate and a tasting menu that spans stews, game, tiraditos, kimchi and curries alongside a curated list of little-known wines, the value case is strong. You are getting ambition and range that would cost considerably more in central Madrid. The 30-kilometre drive from the city is the real ask, not the price.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
