Triciclo

Las Letras and the Mid-Range Creative Scene

Madrid's creative restaurant scene splits cleanly between two tiers. At the leading, addresses like DiverXO (Progressive - Asian, Creative), Deessa, and Coque (Spanish, Creative) operate at the €€€€ level, with multi-course tasting menus, extended booking windows, and the formal choreography that comes with Michelin-starred ambition. Below that, a smaller and arguably more useful tier has emerged: Michelin-recognised restaurants that apply genuine technique and seasonal rigour without the prix-fixe formality or the price tag. Triciclo, on Calle de Santa María in Las Letras, sits in that lower tier and prices accordingly.

Las Letras is one of central Madrid's more coherent dining neighbourhoods, bookended by the Paseo del Prado to the east and the literary streets around Huertas to the west. The area draws a mix of locals and culturally-oriented visitors who tend to eat purposefully rather than on impulse. Restaurants here survive on repeat custom rather than foot-traffic, which tends to concentrate quality and filter out the transient. Triciclo fits that pattern: the Michelin Plate recognition it has held through both 2024 and 2025 is a signal of consistent cooking rather than a one-season burst of ambition.

The Booking Reality at This Price Point

One of the counterintuitive facts about Madrid dining is that the city's most approachable restaurants can be harder to book than its starred ones. High-profile tasting-menu counters like Paco Roncero (Creative) operate with structured reservation systems and clearly publicised booking windows. Mid-range Michelin-recognised addresses occupy a different position: local demand is high, tables are fewer than at casual trattorias, and the venue's profile falls into a zone where online visibility is strong but reservation infrastructure can lag behind. At Triciclo, the practical implication is that walking in without a reservation on a Thursday or Friday evening is unlikely to work. Booking ahead by several days at minimum, and a week or more for weekend lunch, is the practical standard.

The restaurant operates Tuesday through Saturday for both lunch (1–4 pm) and dinner (8–11 pm), and adds Monday service across the same hours. Sunday is a full closure. That Monday availability is worth knowing: it is a slot that rarely fills as fast as the mid-week or weekend sittings and offers the same menu with meaningfully easier access.

At this price point, that kind of score carries real information: diners are returning, recommending, and rating favourably over an extended period rather than reacting to novelty.

Format and Menu Architecture

The kitchen team of Javier Goya, Javier Mayor, and David Alfonso has structured the menu around flexibility rather than prescription. This is a meaningful design choice. In the upper tier of Madrid creative dining, restaurants set the terms: a single tasting menu, a fixed number of courses, occasionally a short supplementary option. Triciclo inverts this. The à la carte allows half portions and even one-third portions, which effectively turns the menu into a sharing format regardless of whether the table intends it that way. For a two-person dinner, this means the range of dishes accessible in a single sitting is considerably wider than at a restaurant where portions are fixed and covers are priced accordingly.

Alongside the à la carte, the kitchen runs several set menu formats: a Festival of Classics menu, a Seasonal Tasting menu, a Bar menu, and a Weekly menu. Each format targets a different dining intent. The Bar menu works for a shorter commitment; the Seasonal Tasting extends the experience into a more structured progression. Having both available on the same service means Triciclo functions differently for different visitors, which is a practical asset when booking for a group with mixed preferences.

The stated approach to cuisine draws on seasonal Spanish produce as the foundation, with deliberate cross-references to Peruvian and Japanese culinary traditions. This is not fusion in the blunt sense: the kitchen's framing is about flavour logic and technique borrowed with precision, not novelty layered onto a base. The addition of an artisanal cheese selection at the end of service places the meal within a French-influenced fine-dining grammar even as the core cooking moves between traditions.

Where Triciclo Sits in the Wider Spanish Context

Spain's restaurant conversation at the upper end runs through addresses like El Celler de Can Roca in Girona, Disfrutar in Barcelona, Arzak in San Sebastián, Quique Dacosta in Dénia, Azurmendi in Larrabetzu, and Aponiente in El Puerto de Santa María. These are multi-starred destinations that require significant planning, travel in some cases, and a correspondingly serious financial commitment. Within Madrid specifically, DSTAgE and Deessa represent the city's current starred ambitions. Triciclo does not operate at that level and does not position itself there. What it shares with those restaurants is a common commitment to ingredient quality and a willingness to articulate a culinary point of view. The difference is scale, formality, and access.

For context on the regional creative-modern Spanish tradition more broadly, Ricard Camarena in València and Casa Marcial in Arriondas both operate as destination-level addresses for modern Spanish cooking rooted in terroir and seasonal produce. Triciclo shares that orientation in its stated philosophy but operates in a neighbourhood context, at a fraction of the price, and without the destination-dining expectation those addresses carry.

Planning Your Visit

Triciclo's address is Calle de Santa María 28, in the Centro district at postcode 28014. The neighbourhood is well-served by public transport, and the Las Letras area is walkable from major hotels in the Sol and Prado corridors. For broader planning across the city, see our full Madrid restaurants guide, our full Madrid hotels guide, our full Madrid bars guide, our full Madrid wineries guide, and our full Madrid experiences guide.