Little Madrid Tapas-Café
Josh Wolfrum · 271 Google reviewsLittle Madrid Tapas-Café — the grilled octopus leads at this top-tier Andersonville bar & grill spot. Traditional preparation with honest flavors. Hospitality you can feel from the door. Josh Wolfrum: "The Euro Bacon was crispy on the outside and full of flavor and juicy on the inside" [$$]
What 847 diners keep saying
What 847 diners keep saying
verbatim, from Google
“I loved this place. The service was great , Joaquin, Manuel, Jennifer and the Host were amazing, welcoming and attentive. The food was very good as well and the portions were big. The Pintxo with Tumaca and jamon made me feel as if I were in Spain. The calamari Fritos transported me directly to Madrid , that was one of my favorite dishes, very crispy and delicious. My other favorite was the croqueta de Francisco ; texture, portion and flavor were perfect and the sauce it had inside made me remember my grandmas caneloni, so I loved this dish so much . Patatas Bravioli were huge I wasn’t expect that size, and the alioli and the bravas sauce were good. I’ll have to return to try the Paella as they looked delicious too but I had no more room than for dessert! for dessert we ordered the Churros con Chocolate, and they were the cherry in the top . I felt I was in Spain as it was a very authentic Spanish food but also because of the music. The details with the red flowers and the tiny lamp were very romantic and my experience was a 5 stars one. I would definitely return to this restaurant. Update: I came again to the restaurant to watch the final World Cup and had one of the best gastronomy experience I’ve ever had. Joaquin was extraordinarily helpful and attentive. This is the type of restaurant that will never disappoint. It’s always excellent and delicious”
“Little Madrid never disappoints. We tend to come here because the food, service and atmosphere is always on point. Today we were served by Jennifer and the service was amazing as usual. The food was even better! One of our favorite places in the city. We’ll definitely keep coming back”
“Joaquin was an amazing server! The food here is always fresh, as well as the drinks. I find myself here almost once a week!”
“Food and service excellent! Very attentive servers. Paced our meal well.”
“We loved everything about this place!!! Especially the paella. We tried the sangria and the Madrid on the Rocks drink, both were refreshing, and they truly made me feel like I was in Madrid.”
“Food was delicious, authentic, and the service was FABULOUS. We went for our anniversary and couldn’t have had a better time!”
“La comida está buenísima, todo tiene un sabor increíble. Me encanta que haya un sitio así en Chicago, donde puedes comer comida española tan auténtica y tan bien hecha.Little Madrid se siente como un pedacito de España, sin duda, un lugar al que dan ganas de volver.”
“Great food, drinks , atmosphere, the Spanish waiter and the location”
“One of the most authentic Spanish restaurants I’ve ever been to in the US. It was so good that it compelled me to make a TikTok and YouTube on it. Viva España”
“Food is absolutely amazing and their bathrooms were extremely clean. The ambience in the restaurant was spectacular and I would give them six stars if the service wasn’t so bad. They have two people running the entire restaurant. The gentleman hung out at the back table, I’m assuming with his friends as the woman randomly checked on tables and wiped the bar. We needed things several times it was no one to help us. Again, I would come back for the food, but not the service.”
“As a Spaniard, I never been more ashamed of the use of my own culture that what I felt coming to try this “restaurant”. And I have a handful of reasons to prove it: 1. The decoration. That text on the wall that says “Little Madrid” in BIG Times New Roman it’s just comedy. This is not a tapas bar (the first lie) this is a darkly lights tryhard “fancy” looking restaurant with not even a real piece of decoration from my country, not even any vibe of Spain with these awful money heist masks hanging on the wall and the repetitive “minimalistic” cheap decorations around that doesn’t remind to anything I’ve seen in my own country. The guitar sitting on a chair with a dime light in the back add more sense of absurdism to the yet no sense of decoration of the scene. The bathrooms are clean and nice, at least. 2. The food. Cheap ingredients sell like they are cuisine from my country made by people that doesn’t know anything about my country. This is a mantra that every Spanish restaurant in USA repeats: the frozen croquetas, the frozen shrimp al “pil pil” that is not even spicy, crusted patatas bravas that doesn’t melt in your mouth as they should… Im glad I don’t even try the paella. This is just a moniker of what Spanish food really is, and repeats all the cliches without any sense of what the food of my country is: putting entire rosemary in every plate doesn’t make it “spanish”. 3. The staff: As most of the many fake Mediterranean restaurants that are on this country this place is ruled by… nobody. I went out feeling real pity for an inexpert staff without a leadership or direction, they don’t have the fault of not having any authority or commanding voice in this place. They just can do what they do; being nice and trying to get by another day in this boat that obviously is in the process of sinking. 4. The prices. Well at this point any of this food is obviously worth the price. We had lucky to enter in a happy hour of “pintxos” (basque for tapas that they use without knowing of the real word) that put the tapas to 5$ dollar each, the only good about the experience it was a bit cheap… with a reason. 5. Why you sell this is a bar? It’s obviously a gentrified restaurant version of a bar with dark lights, not use of the bar at all. Never feel like in a real restaurant either: just a bunch of obviously amateur people trying to sell the food of my country when they have no idea of what it really is. A message to the owner: Please, go on another trip to Spain, but get out of the touristic fake places of downtown Madrid and find a real Spanish bar in the city and learn from it how to reform this restaurant ambience and decoration completely from the ground. Get a real Spanish chef if you want to do some honor to the culture you re trying to sell and stop trying to be as cheap as possible. Or another cheaper way to solve it: close this place and make us a bigger favor.”
Sounds like your kind of place?
Star it — your hit list is where dinner decisions get made.
One email a month — new openings, hidden gems, and where locals are actually eating.
More dining in Uptown & North Side
See the ranking →
In the same lane · mid-range
If it's packed, walk to…
More good rooms in Andersonville, minutes away.