Restaurant in Madrid, Spain
Book it if fire-grilled meat is the goal.
A Michelin Plate modern asador from the Triciclo group, Sua brings genuine live-fire range to Las Letras — Galician T-bone, Iberian pork, auction-fresh fish, and grilled Tudela vegetables in a distinctive winter garden setting. At €€€, it sits well above the neighbourhood grill tier without reaching the €€€€ tasting-menu circuit. Easy to book and well-suited to special occasions and business dinners.
The most common mistake visitors make with Sua is treating it as just another steakhouse in a city full of them. It is not. Part of the respected Triciclo group and holding a Michelin Plate for both 2024 and 2025, Sua operates as a modern asador — a fire-cooking restaurant with genuine range, from Tudela grilled vegetables to fish sourced direct from the auction and serious cuts of Galician T-bone, veal skirt, and Iberian pork. If you are looking for a celebration dinner or a date-night option in the Las Letras district that goes beyond the standard Madrid grill formula, Sua is worth booking. At the €€€ price point, it sits in a comfortable middle tier: more ambitious than a neighbourhood asador, but significantly more accessible than the €€€€ tasting-menu circuit.
Sua takes its name from Basque mythology, and the reference is intentional — fire is the organizing principle of the kitchen. The open grill is the room's centrepiece, and the menu is built around what that grill can do across different ingredient categories. That breadth is what separates Sua from single-format competitors: you are not choosing between meat and fish, you are choosing which expression of live-fire cooking fits your appetite that evening.
The setting amplifies the experience. Sua occupies a winter garden in the heart of Las Letras, one of Madrid's most pleasant central neighbourhoods. The atmosphere is warm rather than loud , ambient energy from a room that fills steadily through the evening, but not the wall-of-noise problem that affects some of Madrid's busier dining rooms after 10 PM. For a special occasion or a business dinner where conversation matters, this is a practical advantage. The room is dressed for a €€€ price point: comfortable, considered, and visually distinctive without tipping into showiness.
On the food side, the grilled vegetables from Tudela in northern Spain are worth ordering as starters rather than skipping straight to the main event. Tudela is one of Spain's most respected vegetable-growing regions, and the quality of the produce shows on the plate. If you have come specifically for meat , the Galician T-bone and Iberian pork cuts are the draws , the starters still help the meal feel complete rather than one-dimensional. The fish-from-auction sourcing model means the seafood selection will vary by day, which is a sign of genuine market-driven cooking rather than a fixed menu padded with whatever is convenient.
This is where Sua offers a decision worth thinking through. Madrid's €€€ restaurants often run a lunch menu , menú del día or a shortened set , that delivers the kitchen's core proposition at a lower spend. If Sua follows this pattern (common across the Triciclo group's Madrid venues), lunch represents the better value proposition for first-time visitors who want to assess the kitchen before committing to a full evening spend. The winter garden setting works as well at lunch as at dinner; natural light through the glass structure during daytime service is, if anything, more flattering than evening mood lighting for a room of this character.
Dinner, by contrast, is the format for a special occasion. The full range of the grill program, a longer evening, and the neighbourhood's evening energy make dinner the right choice if you are celebrating or hosting. The Michelin Plate recognition applies to the full kitchen output , both service periods benefit from the same sourcing and technique, but dinner gives you the time to work through the menu properly. For a date or a group celebration, book dinner. For a business lunch or a value-conscious first visit, check whether a lunch menu is available and time your reservation accordingly.
Compared with fire-cooking peers across Europe, Sua's positioning makes sense. Carcasse in Sint-Idesbald and Damini Macelleria & Affini in Arzignano both demonstrate how seriously the continent's leading grill restaurants treat sourcing and technique. Sua fits within that tradition, with the added context of Madrid's strong asador culture behind it. Within the city, Leña Madrid and Rubaiyat Madrid are the natural peer comparisons , Leña is the Dani García group's fire-cooking project and skews slightly more theatrical; Rubaiyat brings a Brazilian-influenced grill perspective. Sua's Basque mythology framing and Triciclo group backing give it a different identity: more rooted in Spanish fire tradition, less focused on spectacle.
For broader meat-focused options in Madrid, Los 33 and Rural are worth considering if you want a lower price point. Neither carries Michelin recognition, but both serve as useful calibration points for what the €€ grill tier looks like in the city. Sua's Michelin Plate and Triciclo group backing justify the step up in price.
If your trip extends beyond Madrid, Spain's fire-cooking tradition continues at a higher level at Arzak in San Sebastián and Azurmendi in Larrabetzu, both of which sit within the broader Basque culinary world that Sua's name pays tribute to. For the full picture of where to eat, stay, and drink in the city, see our full Madrid restaurants guide, our full Madrid hotels guide, and our full Madrid bars guide.
Reservations: Easy to book , Sua does not require weeks of advance planning like Madrid's tasting-menu venues; a few days' notice is typically sufficient, though weekend evenings book faster. Price tier: €€€ , expect a meaningful spend per head, but well below the €€€€ tasting-menu circuit. Dress: Smart casual is appropriate for the price point; the Las Letras setting and Michelin recognition suggest you should dress up slightly from a neighbourhood dinner standard, but there is no formal code. Leading for: Special occasions, date nights, business dinners where conversation needs to be possible. Neighbourhood: Las Letras, Centro , well-connected and walkable from much of central Madrid. Google rating: 4.2 from 617 reviews, which is solid for a €€€ venue with Michelin recognition in a competitive city.
| Venue | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Sua | €€€ | — |
| DiverXO | €€€€ | — |
| DSTAgE | €€€€ | — |
| Smoked Room | €€€€ | — |
| Paco Roncero | €€€€ | — |
| Coque | €€€€ | — |
A quick look at how Sua measures up.
A few days' notice is usually enough — Sua does not operate on the weeks-long wait times of Madrid's tasting-menu venues. That said, weekend dinners in the winter garden fill faster, so midweek or lunch slots are the easiest entry point. It is part of the established Triciclo group, which means the booking system is reliable and straightforward.
Bar seating is not confirmed in available venue details, but Sua's format as a modern asador with a winter garden setting suggests the dining room is the main draw. If walk-in flexibility is a priority, calling ahead is advisable — the venue is at C. de Moratín, 22 in the Las Letras district.
Go straight to the open-grill section of the menu: the Galician T-bone, veal skirt, and Iberian pork are the centrepiece dishes. If fish is the preference, Sua sources directly from the auction, which puts the fish course on par with the meat. Grilled vegetables from Tudela in Northern Spain are worth adding as a starter rather than skipping.
Sua does not position itself as a tasting-menu venue — it is a modern asador where the grill is the point, not a multi-course progression. If a structured tasting format is what you want, DSTAgE or Smoked Room are better fits. At Sua, ordering à la carte around the grilled meats and fish gives you more control and is likely the better experience.
At €€€ in Madrid, Sua sits in a competitive tier, but it earns two consecutive Michelin Plates (2024, 2025) and offers a product-driven grill menu using Galician beef, Iberian pork, and direct-auction fish — not commodity cuts. For straight-up grilled meat quality, it outperforms most Madrid steakhouses at the same price. If you want a more theatrical or technically elaborate experience, Smoked Room or Coque justify their higher price points differently.
Sua is a €€€ Michelin Plate restaurant in a winter garden setting in Las Letras — smart casual is a reasonable baseline, but it is not a formal room. Jeans and a jacket work; trainers are fine if the rest of the outfit is put-together. It is not the kind of place where a tie is expected or where shorts would go unnoticed.
Sua is a fire-first restaurant: the open grill is the kitchen's reason for existing, and the menu is built around what that grill does best. Do not come expecting a long modernist tasting menu — come expecting excellent Galician beef, Iberian pork, and whatever fish came in from the auction. The winter garden setting in Las Letras makes it one of the more pleasant dining rooms in central Madrid, and the Triciclo group's track record means the execution is consistent.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
