Cachivache — Restaurant in Madrid

Cachivache Chamartín: A Local Gem Worth the Detour

The beauty of staying outside the city centre is that you escape the tourist menus, the laminated paellas, and the waiters shouting “Sangria?” at passing Brits like it’s a threat. Instead, you stumble upon places like Cachivache Chamartín—the kind of neighbourhood restaurant that reminds you why local is always better.

We ate here on our first night in Madrid, and it set the bar high. The atmosphere is warm, relaxed, full of people who know exactly what they’re here for—great food, good company, and a proper Spanish dinner that stretches long into the night.

The pulpo a la brasa arrived, perfectly charred, smoky and tender, resting on a bed of creamy potatoes that had soaked up just the right amount of paprika-spiked oil. The meatballs? Rich, comforting, and everything you want from a dish that essentially gives you permission to mop up every last drop of sauce with bread.

It’s not flashy, it’s not trying to reinvent the wheel—but it doesn’t need to. It’s just an excellent neighbourhood spot serving excellent food. And if you happen to be in this part of town, it’s well...

I've visited this place with 2 of my friends and we've ordered lots of food to share. The first thing I can say is, you can easily find decent food here. I suggest you to have dinner with friends and try several dishes. We've tried russian salad, Galician octopus, minced pork on millefeuille and topped with cheese, meatballs with potato, rice with mushrooms and oxtail and a local desert made of spongy dough, vanilla ice cream and lemon zest. All of them were quite delicious but the rice and pork were amazing. So balanced, rich and flavourful. Desert was also quite good, it was like a brioche but not exactly the same, the top was like a crema catalana crispy burned sugar, cake was soft and spongy, vanilla ice cream made of real beans and a touch of lemon zest to make it more vibrant. We've made a reservation even for the lunch so get prepared to book a...

Te envenenan con una sonrisa. (See English below. Allergen warning!!). GENTE ALÉRGICA NO VAYA!!! Soy Celiaco y en la reserva lo aclaré. Ningún camarero está entrenado para eso ademas de que LA CARTA NO TIENE MARCADOS LOS ALÉRGENOS. Me dijeron que había viarios platos aptos para celíacos y pedí una carne con patatas fritas. Cuando iba por la mitad sentí un sabor a una patata y se me ocurrió volver a preguntar e insistir sobre cómo estaban fritas. Resulta que el camarero vuelve de la cocina y me dice que las fríen en el mismo aceite y que no tenía otra opción. Resultado: pase una noche pésima sin casi poder dormir de la descompostura que me cogí y el camarero ni nadie se inmutó por el problema. Me cobraron precio regular y las patatas que (por suerte) aún no me.habia comido las dejé y ya. Ahora pienso que seguramente la burrata y el pulpo también estaban contaminados. Peligroso para gente con cualquier alergia. Eso sí siempre sonriendo y de buen rollo. Así da gusto ser envenenado. LUGAR MUY PELIGROSO.

DON'T GO THERE IF YOU'RE CELIAC OR HAVE ANY INTOLERANCE. VERY DANGEROUS PLACE) They have not a clue about allergens. I made my reservation clarifying that I'm Celiac. The waiter had no idea about how to deal with that. He was like yeah no worries there are A few things you can have, I'll tell you. The menu didn't have any allergens codification. Nothing. I ended up ordering meat with fried potatoes. While eating like half of it I tasted something weird in the potatoes and asked again about whether they were fried on a sperate oil. Result: the waiter (while smiling, of course) said "no, we fried everything using he same oil". I got burrata and octopus too so probably everything was contaminated as I spent a awful night afterwards feeling terrible without sleeping. Of course they are super friendly and have a huge smile. It was a nice experience to be poisoned in such a friendly way. Maybe they should stop asking to the employees to smile and invest some time in training them properly. It also applies to the...