As seafood lovers, we are deprived of good fresh seafood living where we do in Switzerland. Filet du Perch just doesn’t do it for us coz most of the time, it’s not fresh enough or crispy enough for us.

APRIL 2022

One of our happy discoveries is Bar Pulpo to get delicious, fresh seafood in Madrid. Best of all is it’s walking distance from the MIL’s flat.

OUTDOOR TERRACE DINING – APRIL 2022

The weather was pleasant & we came just as the place was opening at 12nn, so there were barely any other people around and we could eat outside without worrying too much about people smoking. I wish they served big bottles of sparkling water here, coz it’s always the small bottles, which is pretty wasteful IMO. They gave some cheeses, olives & breadsticks while waiting for our food.

If you go at 2pm which is peak for lunch, it will be hard to get a table. But if you go at 12nn our normal lunch time, it’s so easy to grab a table.

Now this is what we’ve been looking forward to having in Madrid: CHUPITOS FRITOS. It’s crispy fried baby squid with a squeeze of lemon on top. Sooooo good!

We ordered pulpo or OCTOPUS ON GALICIAN POTATOES, extra virgin olive oil and paprika. Personally I would not order this again because though it was tender, it was missing the smokey grilled flavor that I look for when I have pulpo.

The GRILLED SCALLOPS were super fat, juicy & delicious. Perfectly smokey & buttery.

Another thing we look forward to having each time we are in Spain are the NAVAJAS or RAZOR CLAMS with a touch of lemon, garlic and parsley. It’s so sweet & fresh. I highly recommend you try it when you are there!

We love ordering una caña or cañita of beer with our food. It’s a small glass of beer which means your beer will always be ice cold.

We asked if they had rice & they recommended this typical Galician dish. We didn’t realize it would be super soupy. I wish we could just order plain white rice or garlic rice with our seafood in Spain, but it’s not common practice to have. So we ended up with soupy lobster rice instead.

SOUPY RICE WITH LOBSTER is super rustic. They bring a huge pan of it on a separate table & they remove the lobster so you can eat it. It’s very generous & if you love lobster then you should try it.

It’s a huge chunk of lobster.

BAR PULPO MADRID MENU

DINING INSIDE – FEBRUARY 2023

We were supposed to go to a bar and it turned out closed. I was secretly happy because I really wanted to have seafood in BAR PULPO again.

This time we dined inside to avoid smokers & because it’s winter and too cold for us to eat outside.

The interiors are a mix of greek blue & white and Spanish shabby chic. I like noticing the little details.

DiploBaby always loves the breadsticks here. We ordered cañitas (small glasses) of ice cold beer.

The BURRATA SALAD was so, so, so good! The vegetables are so sweet & flavorful in Spain.

The GRILLED SCALLOPS are visibly smaller this winter season vs last spring but they were equally delicious.

It’s DiploBaby’s first time to have GRILLED SCALLOPS & I’m happy to report that he loved it. We told him to dip the bread in the yummy smokey buttery sauce.

The PIMIENTOS DE PADRON were so good!

This time we ordered FRENCH FRIES for carbs coz they don’t have white rice.

Our favorite here is their CHUPITOS. It’s a big serving.

This time because we ordered just right, we had space to share dessert. This TARTA DE GALLETA is definitely a highlight. I recommend it. Be sure to put a little cream with each bite.

We needed a little ESPRESSO to wake us up after such a lovely meal.

Here is the receipt to give you an idea of the prices. We ate a lot & very good seafood for 90,80 Euros. That’s a splurge in Madrid. In Switzerland that would be a couple of pizzas without any alcoholic beverages.