EATING VEGAN IN... MADRID (PART ONE)
It was Friday 13thJuly. An unlucky day for some, but not for me. It was around 4pm and I had just received a text from my sister explaining that her friend, who she was going on holiday with on Wednesday, had dropped out. Therefore, she needed someone to fill in for her. Me, being the unemployed waste I am, seemed to be the only one that could spontaneously drop everything and get on a plane in five days. Right, I better pack.
Day One: Flying to Madrid
We were both up at 3am ready to fly at 6.20 from Liverpool Airport. For breakfast, I had a bowl of Weetabix chocolate minis, (which I still cannot believe are vegan), and some soy milk to keep me going for the plane journey. We left her flat at just gone 4am and we were ready to drive to the airport. (Actually, we weren’t, my sister left her bag in her room with her keys, passport and wallet in, so she frantically called her flat mate to let her in and fetch her belongings). Okay, round two, NOW we were ready to leave for the airport.
The journey on the way to Madrid was easy, but no doubt we were exhausted. The flight time was around two hours long and we arrived in Madrid at 9.30am PST. Our first mission was to get to our hotel, so we made our way to the metro. The journey from the plane to the airport and the airport to the metro station was all inside. So, before committing to finding the metro, we needed to step outside and get that first feeling of when the heat of the holiday air hits you. It was worth it.
After buying metro cards and working out what line we needed to be on, we began the journey to the hotel. We were staying at the Hotel Intur San Palacio Martin in the centre of Madrid, so our hotel was incredibly easy to find. We got off at Gran Via and walked the 6 minutes to our hotel doorstep.
 |
| Walk from Gran Via metro station to the hotel Image taken from Google Maps. |
Our room was lovely and on the ground floor, which after being up for 7 hours, we really appreciated. It was around 11am when we checked in and as soon as we saw our beds, we decided we needed to have a quick nap. No one wants their first experience of a new city to be clouded by tiredness.
 |
| Hotel Intur San Palacio Matin Image taken from Google. |
A quick nap turned into a three-hour sleep, as we woke up at around 2pm. We weren’t too bothered about this, as we planned our first day to be really chilled and just about getting to grips with the city.
We got ready and sat on our beds looking for a restaurant to eat at for dinner. It had just occurred to us that we had not eaten since 3am in England. The bowl of Weetabix chocolate minis was beginning to wear off.
 |
| Ready to go! |
Now, I am a vegan and my sister has recently turned pescatarian, meaning she only eats fish. My sister is also pretty fussy, as she only started eating vegetables in the last couple of years, (she’s 22). So, finding a restaurant that suited both of us was going to be pretty difficult.
I found a few vegan places I wanted to check out including Vega and Viva Burger. We were both so hungry, I thought that this would be the perfect opportunity to try out a vegan restaurant, as I’m sure she would eat anything at this point. We settled on Viva Burger, as it seemed to be a 10-minute walk from our hotel, so off we went on a hunt for our first meal in Madrid.
 |
| Our hotel to Viva Burger Image taken from Google maps. |
On walk to the restaurant, we stopped off at a supermarket to find some sun cream, (factor 50 for my ginger skin). However, we were unsuccessful. Whilst I was in this supermarket I did spot a whole shelf of plant-based milk, that I was sure to be purchasing later for my tea in the mornings. We left the supermarket empty handed with no sun cream and riskily walked the remaining five minutes to Viva Burger unprotected.
 |
| Plant based milk Instagram: emeatsvegan |
We found Viva Burger pretty easily. It’s location, Costanilla de San Andrés, 16, 28005 Madrid, Spain, was in a remote square with a few other restaurants surrounding it. We decided to sit outside as it was a beautiful evening and we eventually looked at the menu at around 5pm.
 |
| Viva Burger |
 |
| Viva Burger Menu |
 |
| Katie outside Viva Burger |
To start, we ordered two sangrias, which came with biodegradable straws, and decided what we wanted to eat. The menu was in English, which of course helped a lot, and there was a sign that said “100% animal free”, which made it easy to order, as everything was vegan.
 |
| Sangrias! |
 |
| 100% Biodegradable Straws |
 |
As I was at Viva BURGER, of course, I wanted to order a burger. There were many options to choose from, but I went for the Burger Chingona, which also came with wedges. My sister opted for the Kids Soy Spaghetti Bolognese and our meals arrived within ten minutes of ordering.
As I watched the server come towards me with our food, the first thing I noticed was how GIANT my meal was. The burger was huge, and I honestly didn’t even know where to start.
It came with avocado, lettuce, gherkins and tomatoes. It was absolutely delicious and genuinely one of the best burgers I have ever had in my life. Even my sister enjoyed it. It tasted realistic but without that meaty, fatty texture, which I hate. Of course, the wedges were just as good.
My sister’s “kids” pasta was also crazy. The portion size was insane. I do not know any child that could eat that much food. She also ordered a side of wedges, which she later regretted as we were both really full.
Our bill came to around 35€, for 2 drinks and 2 mains, (they didn’t charge for my sister’s side wedges!)
 |
| Burger Chingona and Wedges Instagram: emeatsvegan |
It came with avocado, lettuce, gherkins and tomatoes. It was absolutely delicious and genuinely one of the best burgers I have ever had in my life. Even my sister enjoyed it. It tasted realistic but without that meaty, fatty texture, which I hate. Of course, the wedges were just as good.
 |
| Burger Chingona Instagram: emeatsvegan |
My sister’s “kids” pasta was also crazy. The portion size was insane. I do not know any child that could eat that much food. She also ordered a side of wedges, which she later regretted as we were both really full.
 |
| Katie's Kids Pasta and Wedges Instagram: emeatsvegan |
Overall
Food: 10/10
Service: 8/10 (a little slow in bringing us menus)
Atmosphere: 8/10
Overall, a really good first meal in Madrid.
As the night when on, it only seemed to be getting hotter in Madrid. We finished up our sangrias at Viva Burger and headed to a pharmacy in another attempt to find some sun cream. Luckily, it seemed as though there was a pharmacy on every corner in Madrid, so it didn’t take long for us to hunt one down.
We walked into the pharmacy and found some sun cream for 23€. We expected it to be expensive and considering the fact I was burning by the second, we had no choice but to fork out a loan and buy the cream.
After heavily applying the sun cream, we found a bar and stopped for a couple of cocktails.
 |
| My Mojito and Katie's Pina Colada |
Whilst drinking, we began to think about what we were going to do for breakfast tomorrow, (is anyone else just constantly thinking about the next meal?) I find breakfast to be such an awkward meal on holiday, we both just wanted to grab something and go so we could get on with the day. So, we mapped a supermarket near us in order to get some supplies. We found a Lidl that was 6-minute walk from the bar we were sat at and a 13-minute walk from our hotel, meaning it was easily accessible to us and we predicted it was going to be very cheap.
 |
| The bar (Plaza de Santa Ana) to Lidl Image taken from Google Maps. |
We finished our cocktails and off to Lidl we went. Our predictions were correct, Lidl was SO CHEAP. A baguette was 37 cents, crisps were around 50, juice was about the same and water was 19 cents for a 1.5 litre bottle. Crazy.
We headed to the checkout with some juice, water, a baguette, crisps and two cans of Fanta lemon, (if you don’t have a Fanta lemon, did you even go on holiday?)
As we were approaching checkout, we found some sun cream for just 4€ after spending over 20€ on some in the pharmacy. Devastating.
Carrying our supplies, we headed back to our hotel for an early night and some much needed sleep, and that was the end of day one. My first impressions were that it seemed extremely easy to eat vegan in Madrid. I was aware I had only been for one meal so far, but I seemed to pass vegan restaurants constantly, and found supermarkets stocked a wide variety of plant-based milk and faux meats. I was very excited for the rest of my stay.
Day Two: Madrid City Tour, Italians and Sore Feet
After a long sleep, Katie and I got up at around 9am. We showered, got ready, had a crisp sandwich and some orange juice, (health), filled up our water bottles and set off for the day. As neither of us had ever been to Madrid before, we were both keen to go on a city tour bus in order to get dropped off at the tourist attractions and learn a little more about the city. We both purchased a two-day tour ticket for 25€ and hopped on the city tour bus at Gran Via.
We decided to stay on the bus, completing the full tour first and then getting off at the stops we wanted. The whole tour took around an hour and a half and after being on a bus for ninety minutes in the scorching heat, it was time to get off.
Our first stop was the Royal Palace. We got there at around 12pm and took a walk around the palace gardens.
It was beautiful and seeing as there was a lot of greenery, it was very easy to find shade.
We spent around an hour looking at the outside of the palace and walking around the gardens. Before we knew it, it was gone 1pm and we were starting to get a little hungry.
We didn’t want to spend too much on lunch, so we were trying to find a deli that would do a cheap sandwich for a vegan and a pescatarian. We saw lots of Subways and McDonalds lying around, but we were determined to try the local food as oppose to food we could have back home.
We finally settled on a bar that did little tapas dishes. We ordered two portions of chips, some olives, bread and two local beers. Once our food arrived we soon realised we ordered way too much food. Madrid seemed to be very generous with their portion sizes.
 |
| 2 Beers, Bread, and Olives Instagram: emeatsvegan |
 |
| Chips Instagram: emeatsvegan |
We spent up to an hour here trying but failing to finish the food. My sister was mortified when I wrapped the olives up and took them away for a snack as I couldn’t finish them (olives are my favourite food).
Overall
· Food – 7/10
· Service – 10/10
· Atmosphere – 9/10
Prior to our holiday, my Dad contacted a few of his friends, who have offices in Madrid, to get some recommendations for places we need to visit. On the list of recommendations was Mercado San Miguel market. As my sister and I were leaving the bar, we turned to our right and saw the market. The one thing we noticed about the city was that everything was very close to one another and things that we thought were far away such as the market and our hotel would pop up randomly as we were walking around.
 |
| San Miguel Market Image taken from Google Maps. |
We went into the market and I have to say it was a meat lover’s heaven. It carried lots of meat stands, some cakes, olives and little tapas bits. Maybe the market was not the best for vegans, but it was still a good experience.
 |
| San Miguel Market Image taken from Google. |
After the market, we hopped onto the bus again and got off at the Royal Botanical Gardens, located next to the Prado Museum. We hoped to go inside the gardens, however it was gated off and had a sign with the list of prices in order to gain entry. For an adult, I think it was 6€ and for someone aged between 18-25 it was 4€.
Me and Katie weren’t all that bothered about walking through the gardens and our Dad’s friend had recommended a park to walk around which was not too far from the gardens, so we decided to head towards there instead.
The park we were heading to was called Retiro Park. We were walking around this park in the scorching heat when we noticed on the map there appeared to be a lake somewhere. We were hoping this meant we could dip our feet into some water for a bit, so we decided to head for towards the lake.
 |
| El Retiro Park Image taken from Google Maps. |
The park was huge. We kept bumping in to random buildings including two art galleries that we looked around. One of them was made completely of glass, including the art work inside them. It was beautiful but stepping into the glass art gallery was like stepping into a sauna. We quickly fled the scene.
When we stepped outside the gallery, we finally spotted some water. It was definitely not water that you could dip your feet in to, but we sat on the edge of the lake, feet to ourselves anyway.
In the lake we spotted some ducks, fish and oddly a swarm of turtles. They were so cute, but it seemed so random that they were in this lake in the middle of the park. I could only hope they were looked after and were in the right environment.
After we saw the turtles, we walked around the park for a little before deciding we needed a beer. We exited the park and found a bar about a five-minute walk away. We sat outside and after waiting around half an hour to be served, we finally got our beer and left. We spent around an hour here, purely due to the slow service.
After our beers were drunk, we hopped on the bus at around 6pm and got off at Gran Via again. We looked around a few shops on the main street before heading home to get ready for dinner that evening.
We consulted our list of recommendations to see if we could find anything for dinner. Our dad’s friend recommended going to Malasana for drinks, as it was where most of the students of Madrid hung out due to it being so cheap. We decided we would find something to eat around there and then potentially go for some drinks after.
Malasana was about a 15-minute walk from our hotel and when we arrived the area was heaving with young people. All of the bars looked completely full and there did not appear to be much seating outside. It was around 9pm by the time we walked there, so we figured perhaps we had got here too late. Anyway, we decided to search for some food in the area and see if we could find somewhere for drinks after.
 |
| Malansana (highlighted red) Image taken from Google Maps. |
We hopped on Trip Advisor and to my surprise, my sister actually recommended going to a vegetarian place in the area. We chose a restaurant called Pizzi & Dixie, which we had to walk back on ourselves to get to, but we headed there anyway.
Katie, as I have mentioned, is a little fussy with food. We saw the menu outside and it was all in Spanish, so we went inside the restaurant and asked if they had an English menu on hand. The server replied with a simple “No”, and so we left. Of course, I understand we were in Spain and we should not expect Spanish restaurants to provide an English menu and we definitely should not expect servers to speak English. However, we felt a little uncomfortable, as if the server didn’t want to help us with the menu, as it was so clear that she could speak good English.
We went back on Trip advisor and found an Italian around 9-minutes away, even further from our hotel. Italian food is relatively easy to veganise and the worst-case scenario would be to order a cheeseless pizza, which isn’t even a bad option for me!
The restaurant was called Jack Pecoca and with the help of google maps, it was easy enough to find. We looked at the menu outside and a man came out to ask if we would like a table. Again, the menu was in Spanish, we asked for help and he said he would be able to translate the whole menu for us if we needed. This was so lovely of him and we felt very welcome here.
It was about 10pm and after ordering 2 aperol spritz, we finally sat down ready to order. Our server brought us our drinks along with some olives and went through any questions we had about the menu. We explained that I was a vegan and couldn’t have meat or dairy and he said that was absolutely fine. He didn’t make me feel like a burden at all.
He went through every option I could have including a couple of starts, some pastas and all the veggie pizzas with no cheese. I decided to go for the stuffed tortellini, which he explained without the cheese was vegan, as the pasta was not made from egg. The tortellini were stuffed with pumpkin and pepper, (minus the pesto and the cheese). I had tried stuffed tortellini once in Gusto’s around a year ago and I loved it, so I was super excited to have it again, as not many Italian restaurants offer to veganise this dish. My sister ordered the spaghetti and I ate the olives whilst waiting for my main.
 |
| Stanfelli's Pasta Made Vegan Instagram: emeatsvegan |
I was starving, and when the pasta arrived I looked at the portion size and was a little sceptical as it did look a little small. However, once I tucked in it was so rich and delicious, you really could not eat much of this. The pasta lived up to all my expectations and I was extremely happy with my choice.
Our bill came to around 35€, which seemed pretty standard for two meals and two drinks in Madrid. It was really reasonably priced for some delicious food.
Overall
· Food – 10/10
· Service – 10/10
· Atmosphere 8/10 (it was a really cosy, intimate place, however, on holiday I love sitting outside at any given opportunity and there was not any outdoor seating here).
We paid and made our way back towards the student bars. We soon realised we would never find a seat anywhere as it was jam packed full of people. We decided to walk towards our hotel and stop off at a bar for a beer outside. It was around midnight when we were finally walking home., shoeless may I add as my heels were destroying me after walking around trying to find a restaurant.
That concluded our first full day in Madrid. I soon realised I had fallen in love with this city. I had not had a bad meal or experience, as of yet.
Day Three: Real Madrid Stadium, a Cheap Lunch and The Best Tapas I Have Ever Had
We woke up around 9am again. We showered, ate our crisp sandwich and juice and headed out. We still had one day left of our city tour bus and seeing as we had already been around route 1 twice already, we thought we would have a look what was on route 2. We saw that a route 2 bus could drop us off at the Real Madrid football stadium, which was stop number 7. We had a look online and a general admission with no audio guide was 18€, which we thought was decent.
We left our hotel and walked to where we thought the bus stop for route 2 was. We were walking up and down this road looking for the stop when suddenly we saw two Madrid city tour buses go past this road. We decided to follow the buses until one of them stopped in order for us to hop on. Now, I didn’t bring my glasses to Madrid and I truly believed that from the other side of the street, this bus said route 2. I was sure of it.
The bus eventually stopped, and we ran to catch it. My sister asked me to look at the front of the bus again to double check this was a route 2 bus. I gave it a quick glance, confirmed it was route 2 and we both got on.
We sat down on the top of the bus and looked around. The area looked really familiar as if we had been here before. The bus started moving and we put our headphones in only to realise that we were back on Gran Via. This led to even more confusion; the route 2 bus does not go through Gran Via. It turns out that actually, we were on the route 1 bus again. It was 10.30am at this point and we realised we were going to have to go around all the stops again until we got to stop 17 in Puerta del sol square to make the connection route 2 bus. This journey, that we had been on many times before, took an hour. Looking back, we should have got off at Gran Via and walked to Puerta del sol square, however we didn’t know where the bus stop was and wanted to triple check that we were getting on the right bus the next time.
We eventually got on the route 2 bus and plugged our earphones in to listen to the new tour. 5 stops later and we arrived at the stadium. It was now 12.30.
The stadium looked huge from the outside, so we took a few photos and made our way to the front desk.
The woman told us that only the stadium and the museum was open this early and that none of the other facilities, such as the changing rooms were open until 3pm. My sister and I only really wanted to view the stadium, as we weren’t huge football fans to begin with, we just thought walking on the pitch and seeing the stadium would be a fun day out. We said we would like to do the tour now, partly because we didn’t want to waste any more time. We bought our tickets and headed up the stairs to the top where they were checking tickets.
When we reached the top, the man checking the tickets said that actually, the whole stadium is shut until 4pm and only the museum was open at this time. This meant that we had three and a half hours to spare walking around the area, which was pretty far from the centre of Madrid.
We thought fuck it, in the meantime, let’s just get drunk. So, we walked around and spotted a few bars and restaurants that all seemed really cheap. We walked past a fast food place called Pomodoro that sold burgers, burritos, pizzas and pastas, each item costing 3.90€! we kept this place in mind as this could be a potential option to grab some lunch.
We found a nice bar and sat outside and chilled for around an hour and a half. We bought four drinks, (free olives and crisps), for 12€ in total. It was around 230pm at this point and we were getting a little hungry.
We left the bar and looked around for some more lunch options. There didn’t seem to be many delis or cheap food places, as most appeared to be sit down restaurants, and we only wanted something quick. We headed back to Pomodoro and ate there.
The whole menu was in Spanish. As this was a fast food place and the workers were behind a till and looked really busy, we did not want to annoy them by asking them to go through the menu, as clearly, they wouldn’t want to do that. So, we grabbed a menu and tried to translate it ourselves using Google.
There didn’t appear to be a bean burrito and I was unsure if the pasta was made of egg or not. It seemed like the easiest option was to go for a cheeseless mushroom pizza. It was extremely cheap, and I was very happy to pay less than 4€ for my lunch.
We ordered, and I explained I was a vegan so I couldn’t have meat or cheese. I just wanted a pizza with mushrooms on. However, I don’t think he heard me say no meat as my pizza arrived cheeseless, with mushrooms and pancetta. I hate waste but I really couldn’t bring myself to pick of the meat, just the thought of meat touching my pizza made me feel so weird, so I took it back and they made me a fresh one. I did see that the server didn’t bin the pizza when she took it off me, so I hoped that the team got a nice snack from my wrong order.
My new pizza came within five minutes of the old one leaving. The base was very thin and crispy, and it definitely tasted as if I spent 3.90€ on a pizza, however it was fast food, and I was not complaining.
 |
| Cheeseless Mushroom Pizza Instagram: emeatsvegan |
Overall
· Food – 6/10, considering it was so cheap though, I was very happy
· Service – 7/10 – wasn’t much interaction, quickly rectified their mistake
· Atmosphere 5/10 – a fast food restaurant, not much to be expected
It was coming up to 4pm, so we finished our meals and headed to the stadium. The queue was very long, suggesting to us that the stadium did in fact re open at 3pm, not 4.
The queue went down very fast and finally, we got in. the tour was really fun. First we had a panoramic view of the stadium and then we moved on to the museum where they held the trophies that the club had won.
We also got to take pictures in front of a green screen as if we were with the players. As you can probably guess, we didn’t buy any of these.
We had a walk through the changing rooms and even got to walk on the pitch. We also had a tour bus simulation, where they acting as if we were the team inside. It was all very exciting.
We finished up the tour at around 6pm and made our way back to the bus stop. The good thing about the buses is that we never seemed to wait longer than 5 minutes for one. Perhaps they were really regular, or maybe we just got lucky.
We completed the route 2 tour, (making sure we actually got on the right bus), and we got off at Puerto del sol square. On the bus, we passed a Brandy Melville that seemed relatively close to the square and to where we were staying. When we got off, we decided to pay a visit.
We got a little carried away and spent way more than we should have, but we had fun and that’s the most important thing!
After Brandy, we headed back it our hotel. It was about 7pm at this point, so we decided to shower, chill and get ready for dinner.
For the whole trip, we kept saying we need to go to a tapas bar for dinner one night. So, whilst I was in the shower, my sister found a tapas bar five minutes away from our hotel and the reviews were all extremely positive.
My sister made a note of where the tapas place was, and we began to head there. When we reached the area, Katie re revealed that she only wrote down the area not the name of the restaurant. We got to the street it was on, only to find this street had five other tapas restaurants on it. We had no idea which was the one with the raving reviews.
 |
| Taberna Malaspina Image taken from Google Maps. |
We went back on trip advisor and my sister managed to recognise the photos of this one tapas bar called Taberna Malaspina. For some reason we really struggled to find it. Just as we were about to give up, we realised we were standing right in front of it.
This place was booming. It was dimly lit, full of people and looked really good. They managed to squeeze us in and we sat down at around 9.30pm. We ordered two sangrias, which arrived in pint glasses, costing just 2.50€ each!
My sister knew she wanted calamari and I spotted some roasted vegetables that sounded nice, (ordered it without the egg), and of course I wanted my favourite food – olives. Katie had been talking about eating patatas bravas ever since we arrived in Madrid, so we wanted to get that too.
We put in our order and the waitress said it was way too much food and advised us to order the veg and the calamari. We were a little disappointed, as we did want the potatoes, but we trusted that she obviously knew the menu better than us and appreciated that she warned us about the huge portions.
Our food arrived within minutes. As soon as it got there, we were so grateful that she warned us about the portions, as they were indeed humungous. My roasted vegetables were in this deep bowl that seemed never ending and was probably the size of my own face. My sister’s calamari were piled high on this plate and she couldn’t get to the bottom of it. There was SO MUCH FOOD. The waitress also gave us unlimited bread and olives for free which was amazing, (not that we needed either).
 |
| Katie's Calamari Instagram: emeatsvegan |
 |
| Free Bread Instagram: emeatsvegan |
 |
| Roasted Vegetables Instagram: emeatsvegan |
We ate as much as we could, and our bill arrived leaving us completely speechless. 2 drinks, 2 mains, unlimited bread and olives came to 20€! This was our cheapest and best meal yet.
We tipped the waitress 5€, (I believe her name was Yany, she was lovely), and we left feeling incredibly full and satisfied.
Overall
· Food – 10/10
· Service – 10/10
· Atmosphere – 10/10
Another brilliant day in Madrid.
Stay tuned,
Emma xxx
Hotels near Wynn Casino, Las Vegas (Mapyro
ReplyDeleteHotels 1 - 12 of 63 원주 출장샵 — 목포 출장샵 Hotels 1 - 12 of 부산광역 출장샵 62 Looking for hotels near Wynn Casino? Choose from 2311 hotels within 삼척 출장샵 a 평택 출장안마 15 minute walk.