Food: grilled, Basque (asador)
Address:  Calle Cava Baja 18, 28005, Madrid, Spain
Phone Number: +34 91 365 82 10
Website: http://juliandetolosa.com/
What I paid: 60 € (T-bone steak: per person, including water and wine)
Visited: September 23, 2016

Spain has a pronounced steak culture, commonly involving meat from older animals cooked slowly over wood fire. A chuleta (or “chuletón de buey”) in Spanish is a thick cut T-bone steak. Those steaks are often meant for two in the steak house restaurants (asadors).

Dining room

Julián de Tolosa Madrid is the sister restaurant of the more famous Casa Julian de Tolosa, located in the small Basque city Tolosa.

When I visited Tolosa a couple of years ago, I did just have time to visit one restaurant and I chose between Casa Julian de Tolosa and restaurant Frontón. Tolosa is famous for their beans and since restaurant Frontón is the mecca of beans in Tolosa, I opted for that alternative there. I was therefore happy to be able to schedule a lunch at Julian de Tolosa Madrid, located in the city center, in the historic quarter of Madrid de los Austrias, on a recent trip.

There are only four main dishes to choose from (two meat and two fish):

• Chuletón (T-bone steak)
• Entrecôte
• Monk fish
• Lightly breaded hake

The menu is neither big, nor has it changed in years. However, it is still bigger than the one in Casa Julian in Tolosa, which only serves chuletón. However, most people chose the T-bone steak (chuleta) and when I visited the restaurant I could not see any table ordering anything else.

There are in principal two side dishes:

• Grilled piquillo (red) peppers, which taste both smoky and sweet
• White asparagus

We (as most others) opted for the red peppers together with our steak (a “double” T-bone steak to be shared between two persons; Chuletón – dos personas):

One of two parts of the T-Bone steak

Second part of the T-Bone steak

Red peppers

In summary:

Forbes Magazine has considered Julián de Tolosa Madrid to serve the world’s best steak. Personally, I could not say this was the very best steak I have ever had, but it was definitely a very good one. Recommended!