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Superficially at least, this rather plush restaurant just next to the Casón del Buen Retiro (until recently the home of Picasso's Guernica) looks similar to certain other grand establishments in
the vicinity. But whereas Viridiana and Horcher are old wave, Balzac is decidedly new. Young chef Andrés Madrigal is one of the key figures in the current shake-up of Madrid's restaurant scene. As he works the room in his grubby chef's whites, mop hair awry, he looks like a cross between Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and a minor character in a Caravaggio painting. The name of his restaurant, and something in the look of the place, hark back to the 19th-century Parisian roots of the posh urban restaurant. A series of rooms are grouped around a central well, furnished with elegant modern furniture and studded leather dining chairs and decorated in conventional colours of lemon yellow and apricot, which makes for an atmosphere that's smart but not forbidding. A sense of relaxed luxury emanates from the food, too.
Madrigal specialises in an original fusion of the new Spanish modernism with the flavours of rural Provence. It's a peculiar conceit, but no weirder than any of the other freaky fusions currently doing the rounds. There are sly allusions to the bouillabaisse, the parmentier, the brandade of salt cod,
and ingredients as unlikely in the Spanish context as tabouleh, cardamom and mango. When Madrigal strays onto wilder shores, he can be as way-out as the next man - witness the wasabi ice cream, anchovy juice, and nettle infusion. These oddities are rare, however, and there is a reassuring coherence to dishes such as couscous of scallops, clams and baby squid on a velvety chickpea puree, or roasted vegetables with red prawns, paprika and black olive oil.
CONTACT
The menu degustación at €58 per person is a useful primer in the works of Balzac.
Balzac, Calle de Moreto 7 (00 34 91 420 0613). Open 1.30pm-4pm, 9pm-12.30pm. Closed Sat lunch, Sun, and second fortnight in August
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