Restaurant in Madrid, Spain
Seasonal Spanish cooking, flexible format, fair price.
Alabaster is one of Retiro's most reliable €€€ options: a Michelin Plate kitchen under chef Óscar Marcos, a glass-fronted wine cellar, and a format that works for both a quick bar dinner and a full dining room occasion. With a 4.6 Google rating across 1,703 reviews and easy booking, it's the right call when you want serious seasonal Spanish cooking without the €€€€ commitment.
At the €€€ price tier, Alabaster positions itself as one of Retiro's more considered dining choices: a Michelin Plate holder in both 2024 and 2025, ranked #626 in the Opinionated About Dining Casual Europe list for 2025, with a menu structure that gives you genuine options. The question isn't whether it's good — it clearly is. The question is whether it matches what you're actually looking for on this trip.
The room matters here. Alabaster occupies a handsome space on Calle de Montalbán, a short walk from the Retiro park, and the interior divides into distinct zones: a gastro-bar with high tables for informal eating, a main dining room with real scale, two private spaces for groups, and an impressive glass-fronted wine cellar that reads as the room's centrepiece. For food-focused travellers, the cellar alone signals that this is a place that takes its list seriously. The visual tone is polished without being stiff , a combination that works well for the €€€ tier, where the room needs to justify the spend without making you feel like you're at a business dinner.
Chef Óscar Marcos structures the à la carte around two categories: Comparte (sharing plates) and Disfruta (fuller individual dishes). There's also a tasting menu named after the restaurant itself. Documented dishes include grilled scallops with bone marrow emulsion and breadcrumbs, Galician stew ravioli with ajada sauce and fried cabbage, and hake with lemon pil-pil sauce and spinach. These are Spanish foundations treated with modern technique , not fusion, not nostalgia, but updated seasonal cooking with a clear point of view. If you want to eat well through Spanish product without committing to an avant-garde format, this is the right register.
At the €€€ level in Madrid, service is where restaurants either justify the price point or quietly undermine it. Alabaster's dual-format structure , gastro-bar and formal dining room , gives it a practical advantage here. The bar format lets the kitchen and floor operate at a slightly relaxed pace without it feeling like a mismatch with the price; the dining room, by contrast, carries the expectation of more attentive pacing and fuller plate descriptions. The private rooms add a third register for corporate or celebratory groups who need a contained experience. For a solo visitor or a couple, this means you can calibrate formality to what you actually want: sit at the bar for a faster, lower-pressure evening; take the dining room when you want the full experience. That flexibility is less common at this price point than it should be, and it's worth factoring into your decision.
The 1,703 Google reviews averaging 4.6 suggest consistency that holds across different visit types and times , not just the peak-night, full-table experience. For food-focused travellers who have been burned by inconsistent kitchens at similar price points, that consistency signal is more useful than any single critic's score.
Timing your visit makes a practical difference. Lunch on weekdays is the optimal window if you want the dining room at its least pressured and the kitchen at its most focused , a pattern that holds across most Madrid restaurants at this tier. Retiro's location also plays a seasonal role: late spring and early autumn, when the park is at its leading, make the walk from the restaurant a natural extension of the evening. Avoid peak tourist months if you want the room to feel more like a local restaurant than a destination tick. Midweek dinner reservations are typically easier to secure than weekend slots, though booking difficulty overall is rated easy, so this is not a venue where you need to plan six weeks ahead.
Reservations: Easy to book; advance planning of a week or two is sufficient for most visits, longer for weekend prime-time slots or the private rooms. Address: C. de Montalbán, 9, Retiro, 28014 Madrid. Price tier: €€€ , expect a mid-to-upper spend for Madrid's modern cuisine category, with the tasting menu sitting above à la carte. Dress: Smart casual fits the room; the gastro-bar is more relaxed. Groups: Two private dining rooms available; contact the venue directly to arrange. Solo dining: High-table gastro-bar format is well-suited to solo visits.
Alabaster sits in a different tier from Madrid's high-end creative restaurants. DiverXO, Coque, Deessa, Paco Roncero, and Smoked Room all operate at €€€€ and demand more from both your wallet and your schedule. Alabaster is the right choice when you want a serious kitchen, a room with genuine character, and a Spanish-grounded menu , without the commitment of a three-hour tasting menu or a two-month booking wait. Within Madrid's modern cuisine scene, it competes more directly with venues like Chispa Bistró, Clos Madrid, and Gaytán , though Alabaster's room size and private dining options give it an edge for groups and occasions. If offal-forward cooking interests you, La Tasquería is a sharper specialist pick at a lower price point. For a bar-first format with serious food, Barra Alta Madrid is worth considering.
Beyond Madrid, Spain's most celebrated kitchens , Arzak in San Sebastián, El Celler de Can Roca in Girona, Azurmendi in Larrabetzu, Martin Berasategui in Lasarte-Oria, Cocina Hermanos Torres in Barcelona, and Aponiente in El Puerto de Santa María , operate at a different scale of ambition and price. Alabaster is not in conversation with those rooms, nor does it need to be. It earns its Michelin Plate and OAD ranking by doing what it sets out to do with consistency. For international visitors planning a wider Spain trip, explore our full Madrid restaurants guide, our full Madrid hotels guide, our full Madrid bars guide, our full Madrid wineries guide, and our full Madrid experiences guide. For comparable modern cuisine benchmarks further afield, Frantzén in Stockholm and FZN by Björn Frantzén in Dubai give a sense of how the €€€€ tier performs internationally.
Book Alabaster if you want a Retiro-adjacent dinner that takes Spanish seasonal cooking seriously, gives you format flexibility between bar and dining room, and doesn't require heroic planning or a top-tier budget. Skip it if you're specifically chasing avant-garde creativity or a landmark tasting menu , Madrid has better options for those goals at higher prices. For a food-focused traveller who wants a reliable, well-executed dinner with a strong room and a genuine wine focus, this is one of the more consistently satisfying choices in the neighbourhood.
Booking difficulty is rated easy. A week to ten days ahead covers most midweek visits; for prime weekend slots or the private dining rooms, two to three weeks is safer. This is not a venue where you'll be waiting months.
Yes, with caveats. The two private rooms make it a functional choice for birthdays or business dinners where a contained space matters. The dining room is polished enough for a celebration without the ceremony of a full tasting-menu restaurant. If the occasion demands something more theatrical, DiverXO or Coque operate at a higher register.
The gastro-bar with high tables is a practical and comfortable option for solo visitors , more so than the formal dining room. The Comparte sharing format also works well when ordering for one, letting you try more of the menu without over-ordering.
Yes. Two private dining rooms are available, making it one of the more practical choices for group dinners in the Retiro area. Contact the venue directly to arrange. The main dining room also has capacity for larger parties.
If you want to cover the full range of Óscar Marcos's cooking in one sitting, the tasting menu is the clearest way to do that. At the €€€ tier it represents solid value compared to Madrid's €€€€ tasting menus. If you prefer to control pace and portion, the à la carte Comparte and Disfruta structure gives you enough range to build an equivalent meal.
For a similar price tier and modern Spanish approach, Clos Madrid and Chispa Bistró are the closest comparisons. For offal and product-driven cooking at a lower price, La Tasquería is sharper. For a step up in ambition and spend, Deessa or Smoked Room are the natural next moves.
At €€€ in Madrid, yes. You get a Michelin Plate kitchen, a room with genuine character, a glass-fronted wine cellar that signals a serious list, and format flexibility between bar and dining room. It doesn't compete with Madrid's leading creative restaurants on ambition, but it doesn't try to , and that honesty is part of what makes it reliable value at this tier.
| Venue | Cuisine | Awards | Booking Difficulty | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabaster | Modern Cuisine | In an excellent location next to the Retiro park, Alabaster is home to a gastro-bar with high tables for an informal supper, an impressive glass-fronted wine cellar, and a spacious dining room complemented by two private spaces. Here, the emphasis is on updated seasonal and traditional cuisine, with the à la carte divided into two parts (Comparte and Disfruta). There’s also a tasting menu option named after the restaurant. Dishes include grilled scallops with a bone marrow emulsion and breadcrumbs; Galician stew ravioli with an “ajada” sauce and fried cabbage; and hake with a lemon pil-pil sauce and spinach.; Opinionated About Dining Casual in Europe Ranked #626 (2025); Michelin Plate (2025); Michelin Plate (2024) | Easy | — |
| DiverXO | Progressive - Asian, Creative | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Coque | Spanish, Creative | Michelin 2 Star | Unknown | — |
| Deessa | Modern Spanish, Creative | Michelin 2 Star | Unknown | — |
| Paco Roncero | Creative | Michelin 2 Star | Unknown | — |
| Smoked Room | Progressive Asador, Contemporary | Michelin 2 Star | Unknown | — |
What to weigh when choosing between Alabaster and alternatives.
A week or two in advance is enough for most weekday visits. Weekend prime-time slots and the private dining rooms book up faster, so aim for two to three weeks out if your dates are fixed. Walk-ins at the gastro-bar counter are a realistic option for flexible diners.
Yes, with the right expectations. Alabaster holds a Michelin Plate (2025) and offers private dining spaces, which gives it the structure for a celebration dinner without the formality or price pressure of a full tasting-menu-only room. At €€€, it works well for birthdays or anniversaries where you want considered food but not a four-hour commitment.
The gastro-bar with high tables is the practical choice for solo diners: less commitment than the main dining room and a more natural format for eating alone. The à la carte Comparte section is structured around sharing, so solo visitors who want the dining room should lean toward the Disfruta section or the tasting menu instead.
Yes. Alabaster has two private dining spaces alongside its main room, which makes it one of the more group-friendly options at this price tier in Retiro. For parties booking a private room, lead time of three or more weeks is advisable, especially on weekends.
If you want a structured read of what chef Óscar Marcos is doing with updated Spanish seasonal cooking, the tasting menu (named after the restaurant) is the cleaner choice over piecing together the à la carte. The à la carte splits into Comparte and Disfruta formats, which suits groups well but can feel fragmented for two diners trying to cover the menu. At €€€, the tasting menu is priced in line with comparable Michelin Plate holders in Madrid.
For creative modern Spanish cooking at a higher price and ambition level, DiverXO (three Michelin stars) and Smoked Room (two stars) are the benchmark. Paco Roncero and Deessa both operate at €€€€ with more formal tasting-menu formats. If Alabaster's Retiro location and seasonal à la carte format suit your brief, there is no direct like-for-like swap at the same price tier in the immediate neighbourhood.
At €€€ in Madrid, Alabaster earns its price through format flexibility, a Michelin Plate for two consecutive years, and a 4.6-star Google rating across over 1,700 reviews — a combination that is harder to find in Retiro than it looks. It is not trying to compete with DiverXO or Coque on creativity, but for updated traditional Spanish cooking in a well-run room near the park, the value case is solid.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
