Restaurante Sagaretxe, Madrid

This splendid restaurant & pintxos bar is at Calle Eloy Gonzalo 26, just down from Iglesia metro. On a recce the previous Saturday, whereas the front room by the bar had been crowded with loudly socialising locals, the seated area at the rear was empty; so we went back on Friday. Same story in front, but now the back room was full of a birthday party singing Cumpleanos Feliz (does the whole world use the same tune?) - we squeezed in somehow. Some of us got terribly in the way of the serving staff, who were heroically polite.

For ten of us we had two large plates of mixed pintxos, the easiest option given the noise and our limited linguistic ability, and all the ones I ate were excellent. Even the blue-cheese-flavoured cream cheese ones, although I wish I'd known it was blue cheese first. The crab ones were especially yum. And the pork loin ones. This worked out at €3.50 per person for about 2-3 whole pintxos each (we cut them up into smaller bits). I shared a bottle of crisp lemony albarino with someone who 'forgot' to split the reasonable cost of €18.50.

The restaurant menu looked yum too but no chance of anything from there until Spanish dinner time. I would definitely return; a nice place, but next time I'll pick a quieter night or go with someone who speaks decent Spanish.