La Mallorquina — Restaurant in Madrid

La Mallorquina is a historic pasteleria which has been operating at its location on Calle Mayor, just off Puerto del Sol since 1894. This is a busy but very enjoyable place to try if you enjoy local eateries and food.

We visited twice during our last trip to Madrid. It was busier first thing in the morning, just after 8am with virtually no standing space at the U shaped standing bar. Luckily there is a take-away order counter at the other side of the small shop with the same pastries so you can just order there, pay and take your food out to the square and eat there if you like.

During our afternoon visit on another day, we found La Mallorquina still crowded but it was easier to make our way to the bar where we were able to order coffees to have along with the chocolate Napolitana (€1.30), which is probably their most famous food. Yes, the Napolitana is sweet and tastes delicious, goes well with the bold coffees served up here.

Note: Places like these can seem intimating at first as it is crowded and people are moving fast in and out of the shop. Don't worry. Service staff are tourist friendly and will understand what you are asking for. You can also just point to what you want, that will do the trick.

In the end, we really enjoyed La Mallorquina, finding this a very enjoyable food experience in Madrid, one worth repeating if you enjoy bakeries and/or visiting historic venues during...

Hustle and Bustle here, introverts be aware. This place is BUSY!!! But also, amazing.

The lower level can be confusing for new visitors and tourists that don’t speak the language. You have a take away counter for grab and go, OR you can grab a ticket and wait for the Dining room (Salon) upstairs. People waiting for their numbers to be called wait in the same area as the take away counter so it gets a bit confusing and overwhelming if you’ve never been there. This was my first visit and we (party of 4) figured it out after about 10mins.

Once you get your number and it’s called to go upstairs you’re seated at a smallish table in a snug dining room. The servers are moving at light speed with crazy precision. We got 1 menu to use for 4 people. Because they’re moving at such a pace they can come off a bit abrupt, and the language seemed to be an issue for our 1 server. Zero time for any translating apps.

Food came out reasonably quickly for the volume of the dining room. One of the orders was incorrect but we never had another visit to the table until the bill came. (Was different server than the previous 2 other servers).

The food we did get was excellent, and even the incorrect item was eaten and delicious.

We are going to head up there 1 more time now that we know what we’re doing and what to expect to see if it was just a 1 time issue.

I will update this review with...

My wife told me about this bakery in Madrid she needed to go to. It’s got pretty modern asthetics along with very highly recommendations. Look no further and the fish morning we set foot to this establishment.

We arrived 10 minutes after it opened and you could already see both counters busy.

When waking in, there are two entrances - one from the side and one from the middle of the bakery.

Orders are taken at any one of the counters and paid for there as well.

My wife ordered a cafe con Leche & plain crossaint for herself. I ordered a pau de chocolat (chocolate) pastry.

My wife enjoyed sipping on her cafe con Leche as the pastries were getting selected.

There was an option to sit upstairs but we took ours to go and ate in our hotel.

Once we took pictures of the food, we then devoured and this was the best pau de chocolat I ever had. The powdered sugar & touch of salt on top made the difference. The attention to detail with their dough could be seen in both pastries.

My wife loved her croissant. The flaky layers & the slight crunch of every bite of the croissant her smile grew bigger. This was a delicacy of fine fashion when it comes to croissants.

We were pleased all the way around and happy to go back...