Casa Briscas

On the square since 1900

Casa Briscas is on the plaza de España, in the centre of Rascafría, and boasts more than a century of history: its website advertises it "since 1900". It is a casa de comidas (traditional eatery) of the old kind, with three ways to eat: at the bar, at a small table or in the dining room. It also has a room for private parties, which it offers for birthdays, pre-wedding gatherings and finger-food celebrations.

It specialises in meat from the Sierra de Guadarrama and in suckling pig, with daily menus of local cooking.

What to order

The restaurant menu has a section devoted to Sierra de Guadarrama meats: veal entrecôte (€25), suckling lamb chops (€22), Iberian secreto (€18), fried suckling pig (€20), the house cachopo (€29) and a veal chuletón of over a kilo (€32). To start, salads, fried aubergine with cane honey, lamb sweetbreads, grilled pig's ears, Madrid-style tripe, rice black pudding and homemade croquettes of ham, oxtail or boletus. For a first course there is the house fabada, pasta of the day and green beans with ham; for fish, sea bass butterflied or hake grilled or in batter.

The paella is prepared only to order.

At the bar you can have something quicker: the same raciones, bocadillos (ham, omelette, chorizo, pork loin or veal pepito), Angus, chicken or suckling-pig burgers, and tostas. From 20:00 they serve combined plates, such as broken eggs with ham or marinated pork loin with eggs and chips. They have gluten-free bread.

Prices are those of the menus published on its website and may change.

Before you go

It does not publish its opening hours: phone 91 869 12 26 or write to [email protected] to book and confirm it is open. If you go at the weekend, book a table in the dining room.

It fits at the end of a walk through the valley: the El Paular Monastery, the Perdón Bridge and arboretum or the route to the Purgatorio Waterfall, which leaves from the village. If you stay overnight, the Hotel El Rincón de Rascafría is a few steps away, on plaza Dos de Mayo. If you come by bus, see the lines from Madrid.