Los 33

Where the Grill Meets the Salesas

The Salesas district occupies a specific register in Madrid's restaurant geography: residential enough to feel local, well-heeled enough to sustain serious cooking, and far enough from the tourist axis of Sol and Gran Vía to reward anyone who seeks it out deliberately. Plaza de las Salesas, where Los 33 sits at number 9, is a square that functions more as a neighbourhood crossroads than a destination in its own right. Arrive in the evening and the smell of wood smoke reaches you before the entrance does. The room divides into two distinct zones: a bar area with tables where no bookings are taken, suited to a glass of wine and a tapa or two, and a formal dining room behind it, anchored by sturdy oak pillars and an open grill visible behind the long counter. The architecture makes the grill the room's focal point, which is an editorial statement about what the kitchen considers primary.

The Provenance Question: Where the Beef Comes From

Madrid's grill scene has expanded considerably over the past decade, and one of the clearest dividing lines within it runs along sourcing philosophy. At one end sit the steakhouses that trade primarily on imported cuts, American grain-finished, Argentine grain-fed, where the production method is the pitch. At the other end, a smaller cohort of restaurants have built programs around European dry-aged beef, with a particular focus on Galician Rubia Gallega cattle, a breed whose combination of older slaughter age, high intramuscular fat, and grass-based diet in Galicia's Atlantic climate produces beef that behaves differently on the grill than commodity cuts do. Los 33 works within this latter tradition. The kitchen sources mainly dry-aged beef, drawing on cuts from Spain and beyond, with the emphasis on ageing as the mechanism that concentrates flavour and alters texture before fire is applied.

The parrilla tradition that informs the kitchen here is Uruguayan in lineage rather than Argentinian, a distinction worth noting. Uruguayan grill culture tends toward longer, slower cooking over lower heat, with hardwood embers rather than direct flame, and a preference for letting the quality of the raw material assert itself rather than layering on heavy seasoning. That approach aligns naturally with high-quality dry-aged European beef, where excessive heat would counteract what the ageing process has built. Chef Oswaldo Gonzalez Herce runs the kitchen inside this framework, and the open grill in the dining room is not decorative: it is the central piece of equipment around which the menu is organised.

For context on how Madrid's grill category compares to other formats in the city, Leña Madrid and Rubaiyat Madrid occupy the same broad tier, while Rural and Sua represent the category at different price points. The city's progressive end, restaurants like DiverXO, operates in a different register entirely, where technique is the subject rather than the means.

The Menu's Architecture

The à la carte at Los 33 runs in two directions simultaneously: contemporary dishes that reflect current Madrid cooking, and more traditional preparations rooted in Uruguayan culinary heritage. The menu's structure is sensible for a grill room, it does not attempt to compete with the city's creative tasting menus, but neither does it reduce itself to a simple churrascaria format. Starters include preparations like ham croquettes and a grilled bikini sandwich, which the Michelin commentary specifically singles out. The bikini, traditionally a pressed ham-and-cheese sandwich in Spanish bar culture, gets grilled treatment here, which positions it closer to the grill philosophy than to the tapas tradition it nominally belongs to.

The main cuts are the kitchen's central argument. Galician Rubia beef, dry-aged for sixty days, sits at the top of the meat program. Sixty-day dry ageing is at the longer end of what most restaurant programs offer, most European grill restaurants work in the 30-to-45-day range, and at that duration the flavour profile intensifies considerably, with the enzymatic breakdown of muscle fibre producing a tenderness that is qualitatively different from wet-aged or shorter dry-aged beef. The open fire, fuelled by wood rather than charcoal or gas, adds a layering of smoke that complements rather than masks what the ageing has produced. The kitchen also includes veal sweetbreads among its preparations, cooked to contrast textures.

For other meat-focused restaurants outside Spain worth comparing, Carcasse in Sint-Idesbald and Damini Macelleria & Affini in Arzignano represent the European grill tradition from different national angles.

Recognition and Standing

Los 33 holds a Michelin Plate for 2025, which in Michelin's current classification signals a restaurant the guide considers worth knowing about, positioned below the star tiers but above generic listing. The combination of professional recognition and sustained popular approval is not automatic in Madrid's grill category, where several well-funded operations receive strong press attention on opening and quieter reviews thereafter. Los 33 appears to have maintained its standing rather than peaked early.

Spain's broader fine dining context, for readers who want to map the country's restaurant geography, includes Aponiente in El Puerto de Santa María, Arzak in San Sebastián, El Celler de Can Roca in Girona, Quique Dacosta in Dénia, Azurmendi in Larrabetzu, and Disfrutar in Barcelona. These operate at price points and ambition levels above Los 33, but they frame the national context within which the Salesas kitchen finds its position.

The Wine Program

The wine list at Los 33 is structured around Spanish production, with Ribera del Duero as the natural centre of gravity given the grill format. The list extends into Latin American and Old World territories, which reflects the kitchen's dual identity. A Tannat from Uruguay would be the logical pairing for anyone wanting to track the Uruguayan thread through the full meal: Tannat is Uruguay's most prominent red variety, with tannin structure and fruit density that holds up to heavy smoke and fat. The service team is reported to offer pairing guidance with a working knowledge of the list.

Know Before You Go