(Please find below the second in a new series of Adventurous Appetites’ Bite-sized blogs, designed to provide information and opinions that may be useful for visitors to Madrid.)
Breakfast (desayuno) is NOT the most important meal of the day in Madrid! Spanish people do not tend to have a huge breakfast to set them up for the day. One of the reasons for this is they often have two breakfasts! – one before work, and then any excuse to stop work for half an hour is a good one, so they tend to have a second breakfast around 11am or 1130am (desayuno de media mañana)!!!
Hotel breakfast or not?
Hotel breakfasts are usually all-you-can-eat buffets and therefore can be a good way of filling up so you can skip lunch. HOWEVER, as a general rule we advise avoiding hotel breakfasts and certainly, if it is not already included in the price of your room, we would say NEVER have a hotel breakfast. They tend to be really pretty expensive, normally always the same, and there is nothing worse than stuffing yourself with unexciting dishes at breakfast and being so full you have no room to taste some of the great dishes on offer in Madrid’s bars/restaurants at lunchtime.
Some common breakfast fare:
Café con leche (a milky coffee) Café americano (a black coffee, more water) Café solo (an espresso coffee) Zumo de naranja natural (freshly squeezed orange juice) Pincho de tortilla (a triangle of Spanish omelette, usually served with a hunk of bread) Pan con tomate (a toasted bit of baguette which you top with puréed fresh tomato, olive oil and salt) Sándwich mixto (a toasted ham and cheese sandwich) Chocolate con churros (gloopy melted hot chocolate with deep-fried doughnut sticks)
You should find a breakfast consisting of a coffee, orange juice and pan con tomate for around 5-7 euros in most cafés in Madrid.
Do not expect to find places open for breakfast before 8am (and it`s better to aim for 9am!)
For hot chocolate and churros try the famous Chocolateria San Ginés.
For great pastries try La Mallorquina in Puerta del Sol.
For a cheap and cheerful, standing breakfast menu try el Museo de Jamon.
The opinions expressed in Adventurous Appetites’ bite-sized blogs are the subjective opinions of the author and are designed in all good faith to be helpful to the reader. The accuracy of any information shared cannot be guaranteed and neither the writer nor Adventurous Appetites Ltd accepts any responsibility for the veracity of such information, nor for any actions taken by the reader based on said information.
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