What a wonderful little organic shop of fresh produces in the heart of Madrid. After a few days of…read morenon-stop rich-food consuming events, I relished to take a bite of a fresh fruit and vegetable. This place certainly had it all, with a friendly staff and produces that look like it came straight from garden, I could not have found a better place to save my stomach from a week of constipation inducing meals.

We popped into Anton Martin Market and kicked things off with a handful of olives before diving…read moreinto Spain's take on fish and chips! Ha! Anchovies hanging out on a bed of potato chips. Salty and perfect! Unlike the polished chaos of San Miguel Market, Anton Martin feels lived-in. People actually come here prior to cooking dinner and not for the selfie. It's not curated for your Instagram story, it's just real. You'll find spice stalls, plenty of olives, unlimited cheese, little bars for a quick drink and there's always that one guy slicing ham somewhere in some corner. Walk around and taste it all. The vendors are fast so be ready.

Great time and great food stands…read more We wanted to try out another food stop on our adventure last November and we stopped here. There were plenty of bocadillos and tapas on at least three floors here. We had an opportunity to browse at most of the offerings through windows. We finally decided on this one place that served delicious ceviche and beer. This place does slow down after two o'clock but they were warming up to open after about 4pm. It is well within walking distance of the Puerta del Sol and Atocha Train Station. One of the many food markets that Central Madrid has to offer and great offerings for all types of tastes.

I was here on a Sunday early afternoon and it was hopping busy! There was a festival going on…read more-Tapapies, celebrating music and Tapas from many different cultures. There were special festival tapas offered in the food stalls and everything I tried was amazing!! Update: I excitedly went back on Monday for a repeat experience for lunch. The market is technically open from 9-3 but it was only the butchers and fish stalls open.

Fantastic mercado experience!…read more A stone's throw from where I was staying, this mercado fulfilled my expectations and then some. I was lucky enough to come on a Sunday during the Tapapies cultural festival. There were performers outside, and plenty of activity and great food inside. Each stall had a special "dish" for the festival in addition to their usual offerings. The prices were VERY attractive, almost "happy-hour-ish" where you could get a tapas/beer for 2-3 euro pp. Not bad at all. I think I spent 2 hours here and maybe spent 15 euro total? Came back the next day for a repeat lunch - around 11am - and nothing was open except for a butcher stall and two fishmongers. I think some places started opening up around 2pm, but then they were closing an hour later, so very easy to miss some of these places during the early part of the week - if they're even open at all. You'd have better luck for dinner if you came around 7-8pm. The downside to this is with fewer markets open, those that are open do tend to get crowded, and patrons tend to hang out and take it slow. TL;DR. Great food, great prices, larger and not as crowded as other Mercados, and not as touristy.

Really enjoyed Mercado de San Miguel, even if it's the more touristy food market in Madrid. Came…read morelater in the evening. Must gets include - jamón ibérico from Puesto Carrasco Ibéricos - olives and vermut from The Hour of the Vermouth - wine from Pinkleton & Wine - codfish from La Casa del Bacalao There's also a Spanish omelet vendor but it was okay. Great energy in the market. Can be difficult to find a seat at a table but there's plenty of standing counters along the perimeter.

So this was one of the places everyone recommended we had to stop at while we were in Madrid for a…read morecouple days on our way to Portugal, and one of the most disappointing. Don't get me wrong - they do indeed have a whole bunch of food vendors that all looked extremely good. Some of them were tourist-priced (ok, a majority of them were tourist-priced), but none of them looked *bad*, just not *necessarily* worth the price, when you could go any number of places nearby and get food as good, for cheaper. But there were definitely some hidden gems, including one absolutely wonderful tapas place that we ordered a bunch of little tostas from, of all different sorts, that we were absolutely impressed by and happy with all of. And of course, the vendor I had originally been most excited about, La Hora del Vermut, which does indeed offer both very inexpensive, great "house" vermouth, and very affordable fancy vermouths. I would've loved to hang out at a bar like that... if I could do so and also *move*. See, the thing is... this market is absolutely not big enough for all its accolades. As Yogi Berra may or may not have ever said, "No one goes there nowadays, it's too crowded." At least I probably wouldn't ever go back there... we could barely hear to order tapas at the tapas place, and good luck finding a place to eat if you're not taking it to go. Good luck actually making it to one of the vendors further away from the entrance, either. It was an absolute madhouse, so we ordered a bunch of tostas at once, I braved the insanity to get a couple glasses of vermouth and met my wife outside the actual market to eat them on the steps. And that was the *off* season - if it's like that in January, I could only imagine it in May! Great vendors, but as a market, they really need better crowd management / foot traffic control.