It did not take me long enough to revisit two of my favourite tapas bars in Madrid and my initial thoughts still stand. Casa Toni and Juana La Loca might be two very different establishments but they both offer an excellent opportunity to experience the two ends of the tapas spectrum in Madrid.

Casa Toni, calle de la Cruz, 14, 280012

When you walk into Casa Toni, the ground floor space looks pretty tiny and cramped: there are locals (always!) congregating at the bar and a few visitors scattered around a few tables that have relative semblance of offering some seating. If this mostly standing space does not inspire you, you can choose to go upstairs which we elected to do on both occasions. Do not expect any frills at Casa Toni though, it is just a simple, unpretentious eatery serving honest food.

We have had their vermut de grifo (€2.50) before and I am still a fan. However, I am not not so much a fan of their tinto de verano (€2.50) as it reminds me too much of how sangria usually tastes (less refreshing and wine-forward). You couple that with a few marinated olives, on the other hand, and whatever you are having becomes fine. A tapa completes the experience. But, to be honest, I would stick to vermouth and beer/wines here. You will not get anything fancy but it will be decent enough. Remember, no frills and no bells and whistles!

Zarajo (€4.90) is a deep fried lamb intestine that has been on my radar for a while now and I was just looking for an opportunity to revisit Casa Toni and try it. Lamb intestines are wrappity wrapped tight around two sticks and deep fried for the first time at which point they are left to chill on the counter until someone orders them. At that point it is deep fried again and brought to your table. I will tell you what: this dish is not for everyone and maybe it is not even for me. I loved the very crispy outside (the loose bits on the outside that got the most contact with oil had become super super crispy) but once you bite through to the inside, it is still very inside-y (pun intended: it is an intestine after all!) and it is still grey-ish and maybe not mushy but it definitely had a bit of an animal-ly taste and the chew. Try it if you are brave enough or dare someone else to do it!

We ordered a half portion of callos a la Madrileña (€5.20) or local tripe stew as well. It is the specialty dish of Madrid, so you have to try it at least once! Having had this on two separate occasions (December and April) and at two different establishments, I can safely say this dish is not my thing either. I have no qualms with discard meats but I like the Asian version of tripe far too much to appreciate this. Tripe done the Madrid way is boiled for a long time over a low heat almost to the point of complete disintegration yet it still retains a lot of the fattiness and becomes super mushy during the process. In Chinese cooking, on the other hand, tripe is flash stir fried and usually comes in a spicy mix or spicy broth and has that springy, chewy consistency that I really enjoy. If you do not like springy tripe, this might be your thing.

Riñones a la plancha (€4.70) or grilled kidneys were the favourite of the night. The salty, crispy, burn edges provided so much delicious flavour and the texture remained firm and bouncy without any undesirable chew at all. This is such a perfect beer snack. Yes, the kidneys (like most organ meats) are not for everyone but I did love this dish. Couple this with the pig’s ear we had on our first night here and you are all set to have a good time.

Casa Toni truly remains one of my favourite places I have eaten in Madrid to date. Its unabashed unpretentiousness and actually good food at a great price can hardly be rivaled by any. A big stamp of Ieva’s seal of approval. If you are ever in Madrid, this will be one of a few places I will recommend you visit without any reservation.

Juana La Loca, plaza de Puerta de Moros, 4, 28005

In comparison to Casa Toni, Juana La Loca represents a complete 180 degrees turn. This is a classy establishment and reservations are required. We did have one for the night but an Easter procession had stalled us and we were 30 minutes late. The host was not exactly thrilled that we were late as he has already given our table to someone else, so he sat us at the bar and told us he will see what he can do. Well, he did enough because we had barely ordered a glass of wine and our table was ready for us.

For the few minutes we were at the bar, we had a good look at their pintxo selection and we were like “ooh this looks good, ooh that looks interesting”. We ended up getting the “this looks good” pintxo but chose to not have the “this looks interesting” one after we were told what it contained. Apparently, that particular pintxo contains baby eels and asparagus wrapped in the spinach crepe (and only now I realise this was the dish we did not get to try the first time we were here, so funny). I do not have any problems with baby eels per se but my DiverXO experience still haunts me for some reason and I am not ready to head to the baby eel island yet.

Guindilla de Ibarra or piparra pepper season has started up in the North (it is a Basque Country specialty), so we started our dinner with a plate of grilled piparras. I love a good grilled pepper be it a padrón, shishito or any other and this was no exception. Piparras are not spicy at all and when lightly grilled and sprinkled with sea salt it is a very tasty appetiser.

Since artichoke is quite an expensive ingredient, we hardly ever ordered it in Singapore (where its price quadruples and the quality decreases ten-fold), so we always order artichoke when we can in Madrid. This artichoke pintxo (€10.50) contained grilled artichoke, shaved parmesan and confit garlic and it was so good. Just try not to get the entire piece of confit garlic in one bite like I did. The whole process looked and sounded like this: *I take my last bite* “uff this one was very garlicky”, Matas then deadpans “did you just eat the entire garlic piece in one bite”, my cogs turning heavily trying to process what garlic are we talking about and where it came from “oh, yes, yes, I guess I did”. Anyway, keep track of your confit garlic so it does not end up buried in your last bite.

This salmon pintxo was new and has not been put on the menu yet, so we were curious to try it. The bread was very crusty and maybe a little too dry for my liking when I took a little piece to try on its own. However, coupled with the curry mayo, endives and that smoked salmon encased in a transparent jelly (could not for the life of me figure what sort and, most importantly, why?) it was actually a very balanced bite since the crustiness provided a good textural contrast. This ended up being very yummy!

For the drinks we have picked wines because that is what you do at Juana La Loca. They have a very nice wine list and many choices are available by the glass. The wines were truly lovely. I picked two white ones for myself and Matas took something he was recommended and these ended up doing very nicely.

We ended up getting a beef sweetbread bruschetta (€17.80) with melted havarti cheese and chimichurri and it was so good. The bread was toasty to the crisp perfection. The melted cheese providing richness to the tender tender sweetbreads and the pickles on top providing this whole superbly over the top dish some much needed acidity and balance.

An unrelated interlude: for some reason some food in Spain reminds me a lot of the tastes I had while growing up in Lithuania (am I getting sentimental?). I had completely forgotten about it but this particular dish reminded me of how I liked eating my fried eggs: sunny side up with a few slices of a cheap knockoff emmental cheese melted on top, topped with dried oregano and thyme. It has absolutely nothing to do with this dish but the memory of that taste came up instantly!

Everyone that knows me well enough are familiar with my aversion to desserts. Give me something savoury, salty and spicy and I will be good. This dessert, on the other hand, sounded too good to pass up on the opportunity to try it. Because of the way it is made, you have to order this dessert at the beginning of your meal. When it came out this dulce de leche lava cake (€10.90) was indeed very sweet and the coconut ice cream did nothing much to help balance the sweetness. Overall, I do not think this dessert was worth its calories. Ah, what a waste for me. Although I know plenty of people who would have been very pleased by this.

This was another delightful dinner at Juana La Loca. I checked for reservation availability in the next few weeks and it was abysmal. If I were not to manage a reservation for the day I wanted, I would come as the service starts and try my luck in getting a table then. It might just work for max two people.

Anyway, Juana La Loca serves a fantastic modern interpretation of pintxos and I am here for it and you should be too. Ieva’s seal of approval stands firmly at the front line waiting to make another reservation (oh, I already did! I took my mom here for lunch last week).