Restaurant in Madrid, Spain
Five menus a year, zero tourist crowds.
Èter is a strong case for a special occasion dinner in Madrid without the €€€€ price tag of the city's starred restaurants. The Tofé brothers run a seasonal tasting menu that changes five times a year, with Latin American influences and a sommelier-led wine program that rewards ordering the pairing. Michelin Plate 2024 and 2025, 4.8 on Google across 617 reviews.
Èter is the right call for a special occasion dinner with someone who pays attention: a partner who notices wine pairing choices, a colleague who appreciates when a small restaurant has genuine conviction, or a celebration where you want craft over ceremony. At €€€ pricing in a city where the serious tasting-menu restaurants more often sit at €€€€, this is one of Madrid's more compelling arguments for spending less and eating better. If you are planning a milestone dinner and want a room that feels considered rather than corporate, Èter earns the booking.
The address puts you in Arganzuela, a few minutes from Plaza de Legazpi and well south of the tourist circuit. That distance is part of the point. The premises are deliberately intimate and minimalist — not the kind of room that announces itself, but one that holds your attention once you are inside. Paintings by different artists punctuate the walls, giving the space a quiet, gallery-adjacent quality without tipping into pretension. The scale is small enough that the room feels personal. For a date or a celebration dinner, that intimacy works in your favour: you are not competing with a large dining room for attention or atmosphere. For groups, the compact footprint means this works leading for two to four people who want focused conversation alongside focused food.
Sergio Tofé handles the kitchen; Mario Tofé runs the floor and the wine. The format is a tasting menu that changes five times across the year, which is a higher rotation than most tasting-menu restaurants maintain. The five iterations have names: Talo (served twice in spring), Karpo (summer, with a vegetable focus), Ouros (October, drawing on mountain produce), and Thalate (seafood). Each menu is built around a distinct seasonal and ingredient logic rather than being a minor refresh of the same base. If you are returning for a second visit, timing it around a menu change is worth doing deliberately. The Latin American influences , particularly from Mexico and Colombia, reflecting the Tofé brothers' experience with chefs from those regions , give the contemporary Spanish framework a distinct character that you will not find at most Madrid contemporaries in this price tier.
Mario Tofé's dual role as maitre d' and sommelier is worth taking seriously when you consider how to approach the meal. At a restaurant of this size and format, having the sommelier also run the floor means the wine pairing is not delegated to a junior member of staff , the person who curated the list is the person explaining it to you. That integration tends to produce more coherent pairing decisions, and at €€€ pricing, a well-executed wine pairing here will almost certainly outperform what you'd get for the same spend at a larger, more impersonal operation. The Latin American culinary influences in the menu also give the wine program an interesting mandate: Spanish bottles alongside choices that can hold their own against more pronounced spice and acidity signals. If wine matters to you on a special occasion, this is a room where ordering the pairing is likely to be worth it rather than just an upsell. For context on how Madrid's wine culture sits within Spain's broader wine geography, see our full Madrid wineries guide.
One detail that distinguishes Èter's approach: the background music is curated to match the current menu and shifts with the stages of the meal. It is a small thing, but it reflects a level of intentionality about the total experience that is consistent across the room's other decisions.
Èter holds a Michelin Plate for both 2024 and 2025, and appears in the Opinionated About Dining Leading Restaurants in Europe ranking at position 614 (2025). The Michelin Plate signals the Guide's recognition without carrying star-level expectations on price or formality , it is a useful indicator that the kitchen is performing consistently. The Google rating sits at 4.8 across 617 reviews, which at that volume is a meaningful signal of sustained quality rather than a small-sample artefact. For a restaurant at this price point in Madrid, the combination of critical acknowledgement and strong diner feedback puts Èter in a tier above its direct comparables by price.
For wider context on how Èter sits within Spain's serious restaurant culture, the reference points worth knowing include El Celler de Can Roca in Girona, Arzak in San Sebastián, Azurmendi in Larrabetzu, and Martin Berasategui in Lasarte-Oria. Closer to home in Madrid, the neighbourhood restaurant scene includes places like Adaly, BANCAL, Desborre, En la Parra, and Ferretería. For a broader sweep of where Èter fits in the city, our full Madrid restaurants guide has the full picture. If you are planning a trip around the meal, our Madrid hotels guide, bars guide, and experiences guide cover the rest of the logistics. For international comparisons in the contemporary format, César in New York City, Jungsik in Seoul, Cocina Hermanos Torres in Barcelona, and Aponiente in El Puerto de Santa María are the useful benchmarks.
Address: C. del Granito, 20, Arganzuela, Madrid 28045. Booking: Easy , reservations are available without the advance pressure required at Madrid's starred restaurants; book a week or two ahead for weekend dates to be safe. Budget: €€€ (tasting menu format; add wine pairing for the full experience). Format: Tasting menu only; the menu changes five times a year across named seasonal editions. Leading for: Date nights, milestone dinners, and small groups of two to four. Dress: Smart casual; the minimalist, gallery-like room calls for effort without requiring formality.
There is no à la carte option , Èter runs a single tasting menu that changes five times a year. The menu you experience depends on when you visit: Talo in spring, Karpo in summer (vegetable-focused), Ouros in October (mountain flavours), and Thalate for seafood. The most useful decision is whether to take the wine pairing. Given that Mario Tofé, who built the wine list, is also running the floor, the pairing is better integrated here than at most restaurants of this size, and is worth ordering.
The location surprises people , Arganzuela is not where most visitors think to eat, but it is a short distance from Plaza de Legazpi and easy to reach. The room is small and the format is tasting menu only, so go in knowing you are signing up for the full experience rather than a flexible dinner. At €€€ pricing, it sits well below the €€€€ cost of Madrid's starred restaurants while delivering a level of intent and execution that justifies the evening. Book a week or two ahead for weekends. The five seasonal menus mean a repeat visit at a different time of year is a genuinely different meal.
If budget is the priority and you want a creative tasting menu at €€€, Èter is among the stronger options in Madrid's current field , comparable options at this price tier include Adaly and BANCAL. If you want to move up to €€€€ and are after more established critical recognition, Deessa and Coque are the most direct comparisons in the contemporary Spanish format. DiverXO is the city's highest-profile tasting menu but operates at a different price level and requires considerably more advance booking. For a more casual neighbourhood feel alongside creative cooking, Ferretería and En la Parra are worth considering.
The room is intimate and minimalist, which means it works leading for two to four people. Larger groups are likely to feel cramped and the service dynamic in a small room shifts at larger party sizes. If you are organising a celebration dinner for six or more, it is worth contacting the restaurant directly to confirm whether the space can accommodate you , no dedicated private dining information is published. For groups wanting a guaranteed private room experience at €€€€, Coque or Deessa offer more room to manoeuvre.
Yes, at the €€€ price tier, it is. The menu changes five times a year , more frequently than most tasting-menu restaurants at any price level , which means the kitchen is consistently working on new material rather than coasting on a fixed format. The Michelin Plate recognition for both 2024 and 2025, combined with a 4.8 Google rating across 617 reviews, confirms the execution is consistent. For what you spend relative to Madrid's €€€€ tasting menu restaurants, the value case is clear.
The tasting menu format with five distinct seasonal editions suggests the kitchen has strong ingredient-level awareness, but no specific dietary accommodation policy is published. Contact the restaurant directly before booking if you have restrictions , this is essential at any tasting-menu restaurant where the menu is fixed in advance and substitutions require kitchen preparation. The Karpo summer menu, with its vegetable focus, indicates the kitchen works comfortably in that register.
No bar seating information is published for Èter. The room is described as intimate and small-scale, and the format is a tasting menu, which suggests the experience is structured around seated dining rather than a walk-in counter option. If flexibility is important to you, this is not the venue for a spontaneous drop-in , book in advance.
Smart casual is the appropriate read for a room at this price level with a minimalist, gallery-influenced aesthetic. The restaurant does not publish a formal dress code, and the Arganzuela location and unpretentious premises suggest the room is not demanding on formality. That said, at €€€ pricing with a considered tasting menu format, arriving dressed for the occasion is appropriate , this is not a jeans-and-trainers dinner unless you are comfortable standing out.
| Venue | Price | Booking Difficulty | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Èter | €€€ | Easy | — |
| DiverXO | €€€€ | Unknown | — |
| Coque | €€€€ | Unknown | — |
| Deessa | €€€€ | Unknown | — |
| Paco Roncero | €€€€ | Unknown | — |
| Smoked Room | €€€€ | Unknown | — |
Key differences to consider before you reserve.
There is no à la carte — Èter runs a single tasting menu that rotates five times a year across named seasonal editions: Talo (spring), Karpo (summer, vegetable-focused), Ouros (October, mountain flavours), and Thalate (seafood). The menu you experience depends entirely on when you visit, so check which edition is running before you book if a particular focus matters to you.
The format is tasting menu only, in an intimate, minimalist room a few minutes from Plaza de Legazpi — well outside the central Madrid tourist circuit. Sergio Tofé cooks while his brother Mario runs the floor and the wine, which makes the sommelier pairing unusually coherent. One practical detail worth knowing: the background music is curated to match the menu and changes with each course sequence.
For a more theatrically ambitious tasting menu with Michelin star credentials, DiverXO is the reference point but requires months of advance booking and a significantly higher spend. Smoked Room offers a focused, chef-counter tasting format closer to the centre if you want a similar intimacy at a comparable price tier. Coque and Deessa both sit at a higher price point with more formal service structures.
The premises are described as intimate, which typically means a small cover count — this is not a venue for large party bookings. Groups of two to four are the practical fit; if you are booking for six or more, check the venue's official channels to confirm whether the space can seat you together. The tasting menu format also works better for tables where everyone is eating the same thing.
At the €€€ price range, Èter sits below Madrid's Michelin-starred tier and offers a menu that changes five times a year with genuine Latin American influences and a programme that extends to music curation. The Michelin Plate in 2024 and 2025, plus an Opinionated About Dining Europe ranking (614 in 2025), confirm the kitchen is taken seriously. For the price, it delivers more creative ambition than most restaurants at this tier in the city.
No specific dietary restriction policy is documented for Èter. Given the tasting menu format, it is worth contacting the restaurant ahead of your visit to discuss any requirements — fixed menus at this level generally require advance notice to adapt. The summer Karpo menu, which focuses on vegetables, may be a relevant option if plant-forward eating is a priority.
No bar seating option is documented in the available information for Èter. The restaurant operates an intimate, minimalist dining room rather than a counter or bar-focused format. If bar-counter dining is what you want in a Madrid tasting menu context, Smoked Room is built around exactly that format.
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