Restaurant in Madrid, Spain
Double Bib Gourmand. Book it now.
A double Michelin Bib Gourmand pick in Chamberí, Bacira delivers fusion cooking — Mediterranean, Japanese, and Nikkei — with genuine technical credibility at the €€ price tier. The sharing-format menu and informal vintage room make it one of Madrid's cleaner decisions for a date night or small celebration. Book a few days out; weekend slots fill faster than you might expect for a restaurant of this standing.
Getting a table at Bacira is easier than you might expect for a double Michelin Bib Gourmand recipient, and that gap between recognition and booking difficulty is exactly why you should move quickly. This Chamberí spot runs on genuine creative energy from three chefs — Carlos Langreo, Vicente de la Red, and Gabriel Zapata — each with a distinct culinary background in traditional Mediterranean, Japanese, and Nikkei cooking respectively. The result is a sharing-format menu where Pacific scallops with jalapeño aguachile sit alongside a pig's ear mollete with Korean salsa, toasted garlic, and herb alioli. That cross-cultural range is not a gimmick , it holds together because the three founders cook what they actually know, not what sounds fashionable.
Booking difficulty is currently low relative to what the accolades would normally command. For a Madrid dinner at the €€ price tier with back-to-back Bib Gourmand recognition in 2024 and 2025, Bacira should, by rights, require planning weeks out. In practice, booking a few days ahead is often workable, though popular Friday and Saturday evening slots fill faster. If you have a fixed date in mind , a birthday dinner, an anniversary, or an important work meal , book the moment your plans are confirmed rather than relying on flexibility. The risk of leaving it to the day before is real even if it has not consistently punished last-minute diners yet.
Bacira runs an à la carte built around sharing plates, complemented by a Short Menu and a Long Menu for those who prefer a set structure. The sharing format makes it well-suited to groups of two to four who want to cover a wide range of flavours without committing to a single fixed sequence. If you are coming as a pair, the Long Menu gives you the broadest read on what the kitchen does across all three culinary registers , Mediterranean, Japanese, Nikkei , and at the €€ price point, it is likely to represent strong value against what you would pay à la carte for equivalent coverage.
The flavour profile at Bacira leans toward brightness and acidity cut with heat. The jalapeño aguachile on the Pacific scallops and the Korean salsa on the pig's ear mollete both signal a kitchen that uses chilli and fermented elements for depth rather than shock. If you are sensitive to heat or acidity, that is worth flagging when you arrive , the fusion format here is wide enough that the kitchen can almost certainly accommodate you. If you enjoy food that moves across different intensities within a single meal, this is a format worth seeking out.
The room itself is informal and vintage in feel, with slender wrought-iron columns that give the space some architectural character without tipping into self-conscious design. The atmosphere is welcoming without being loud or chaotic, which makes Bacira a workable choice for a date or a small celebration where conversation matters. It is not a white-tablecloth setting, and it does not try to be. The informality is part of the value proposition: you are getting technically ambitious cooking in a room where you do not feel watched or under-dressed.
Michelin awards Bib Gourmand status to restaurants that deliver high-quality cooking at a price accessible to most diners. Bacira has held that recognition for two consecutive years , 2024 and 2025 , which tells you the kitchen is consistent, not just occasionally impressive. At the €€ tier, that consistency is not a given. Madrid has plenty of ambitious fusion concepts that deliver erratic results because the technical demands of cooking across multiple culinary traditions are genuinely high. Three chefs each owning their respective lane (Mediterranean, Japanese, Nikkei) is a more reliable structural solution than a single chef attempting to synthesise all three from the outside.
For context on where Bacira sits in the wider Madrid dining picture: this is not the same type of experience as DiverXO, Coque, or Deessa, all of which operate at the €€€€ tier with full tasting-menu formats and the booking friction that comes with serious Michelin star recognition. Bacira is the answer when you want creative, cross-cultural cooking executed with real skill, but you are not prepared to spend €€€€ or plan two months out. If you are exploring Madrid's fusion scene more broadly, ABYA, Asiakō, and Kuoco are worth comparing depending on your specific flavour preferences and group size.
Bacira holds a 4.5 Google rating from over 2,100 reviews, which is a meaningful sample size for a mid-range restaurant and suggests the quality is not limited to best-case visits. High review volumes at this score typically indicate a kitchen that handles volume without significant degradation , relevant if you are booking for a weekend evening when the room will be at capacity.
For a special occasion dinner at the €€ price point in Madrid, Bacira is one of the cleaner decisions available. The informal atmosphere means you are not paying for ceremony, but the cooking quality and Bib Gourmand standing mean you are not compromising on the food. A birthday dinner for two or a celebratory meal with close friends works well here , the sharing format encourages the table to engage with the menu together, which adds to the occasion rather than reducing it to individual plate choices.
For a formal business dinner where the room's tone matters as much as the food, the vintage-informal setting may not read correctly to all guests. In that case, the €€€€ tier options , Paco Roncero or Smoked Room , offer more conventionally impressive surroundings. But if the goal is a genuinely memorable meal at a price that does not require a second thought, Bacira delivers more per euro than most of its competition in this tier.
If you are travelling to Madrid specifically for the restaurant scene, it is worth knowing that Spain's most celebrated kitchens are spread across the country , from Arzak in San Sebastián to El Celler de Can Roca in Girona and Azurmendi in Larrabetzu. Bacira is not competing at that altitude, nor does it need to. Within Madrid and within its tier, it is one of the most consistent answers to the question of where to eat well without planning your trip around the booking.
If Bacira's fusion approach interests you, the concept has strong parallels with what Ajonegro in Logroño and Arkestra in Istanbul are doing in their respective cities , cross-cultural menus executed with technical seriousness at accessible price points. Within Madrid, I+T and Doppelgänger Bar are worth adding to your shortlist for an evening in Chamberí. For broader Spain trip planning, Aponiente in El Puerto de Santa María, Cocina Hermanos Torres in Barcelona, and Martin Berasategui in Lasarte-Oria represent the higher end of what Spain's restaurant scene can deliver. Also check our Madrid experiences guide and Madrid wineries guide for the full picture.
| Venue | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Bacira | €€ | — |
| DiverXO | €€€€ | — |
| Coque | €€€€ | — |
| Deessa | €€€€ | — |
| Paco Roncero | €€€€ | — |
| Smoked Room | €€€€ | — |
What to weigh when choosing between Bacira and alternatives.
The venue data does not include a formal dietary policy, so check the venue's official channels before booking. What is clear from the menu framing is that the sharing-plate format includes dishes across meat, seafood, and varied sauces, which gives some flexibility for selective eaters. Groups with strict dietary requirements should confirm in advance given the fusion-heavy, cross-cuisine approach from the three chef-owners.
Go in knowing this is a sharing-format restaurant built around fusion cooking that draws on Mediterranean, Japanese, and Nikkei influences from its three chef-owners. The atmosphere is informal with vintage decor, so there is no dress pressure. Bacira holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand for both 2024 and 2025, which means the kitchen is cooking at a level above what the €€ price point usually signals. Book ahead; the gap between its recognition and its booking difficulty is narrowing.
For higher-end ambition in Madrid, DiverXO is the ceiling for avant-garde cooking but at a significantly higher price and booking difficulty. Smoked Room offers a more focused, premium experience for those willing to spend more for a tasting-only format. For roughly comparable value at €€ to €€€, Paco Roncero and Coque both represent more formal, traditional fine-dining routes. Bacira sits in a clear gap: Michelin-recognised cooking at a price point none of those restaurants match.
The database lists Pacific scallops with jalapeño aguachile and pico de gallo salsa, and a pig's ear mollete sandwich with Korean salsa, toasted garlic, and herb alioli as representative dishes. Both are good indicators of what the kitchen does: punchy, technique-driven fusion that crosses Japanese and Latin American influences. The à la carte is designed for sharing, so ordering across several plates is the intended approach rather than single-dish mains.
Bacira offers both a Short Menu and a Long Menu alongside the full à la carte. At €€ pricing with two consecutive Michelin Bib Gourmand awards (2024, 2025), either set menu is a low-risk way to let the kitchen direct the experience. If you are a first visit and want to cover the range of Mediterranean, Japanese, and Nikkei influences across the three chef-owners, the Long Menu is the stronger argument. For a shorter meal or a second visit where you know what you want, the à la carte gives more control.
Yes, with the right expectations. The atmosphere is informal, not celebratory-formal, so this is not the room for a proposal dinner with white-tablecloth staging. What it is good for is a dinner that reliably delivers at a level well above its price, which in practice makes it one of the stronger €€ special-occasion options in Chamberí. For a milestone where setting and formality matter more than cooking quality per euro, Coque or Deessa would be a better fit.
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