Quispe, Madrid: Dinner, Then Lunch the Next Day
Own visit. No commercial arrangement with the restaurant.
The Return
There is no clearer verdict on a restaurant than walking back through its door the following day. We had dinner at Quispe, and by the next afternoon we were sitting down for lunch again. Two meals, two different rhythms of the same kitchen, and the same conclusion: this is the most complete Peruvian cooking we have eaten anywhere.
The Story
Quispe has been in Madrid since 2018. Its founder, César Figari, started from a simple observation: Spain had plenty of Peruvian restaurants, but very few with real sophistication. His wife and partner, Constanza Rey, an architect and interior designer, is responsible for the rooms. The name is one of the most common surnames in Peru, and the restaurant is built around what it stands for: Peruvian cuisine as the product of mixing, with Spanish, Chinese and Japanese influences layered into it over centuries.
The Setting
Quispe sits on Calle del Conde de Aranda in the Salamanca district, a few minutes from the Retiro and the Puerta de Alcalá. The room is spread across several levels, and the atmosphere is warm and welcoming. It carried a long dinner and an easy lunch equally well.
The Food
The cebiche arrives as a trio, and it is where the kitchen shows its hand. A classic white-fish cebiche with toasted corn, red onion, spheres of sweet potato and a bright green herb oil. Tuna in a golden leche de tigre with edamame and crisp seaweed. A third under crisp plantain chips in a deep orange leche de tigre. Three different directions, each with precise acidity and fish treated with respect.
The scallops continued the same line: clean, sea-first and carefully balanced.
The secreto was the dish of the meal for us. Ibérico pork with a Peruvian accent, beautifully balanced and full of flavour, rich without ever feeling heavy. It is a good example of what Quispe does best: Spanish product, Peruvian thinking.
The sushi, from the Nikkei side of the menu, was outstanding. Nikkei, the meeting of Japanese technique and Peruvian flavour, is easy to get wrong and turn into fusion for its own sake. Here it tastes like it belongs.
Across both visits, every dish felt carefully thought through without losing the character of Peruvian cooking. Refined, but never polished into something generic.
The Service
José Luis took exceptional care of us, and at his tables the service matches the food. Across both visits the rest of the team was friendly and attentive, if not always at quite the same level. Still, this is genuinely welcoming service, the kind that makes coming back the next day feel natural.
What to Order
The cebiche trio to start. The scallops. The secreto, without question. And a round of the Nikkei sushi for the table.
