We were recommended to visit Platea Madrid by some friends. If you enjoy good food, you need to go too!

Think for a moment about those food halls large shopping centres sometimes have – the ones where you sit at tables in the centre, and then order your food from different restaurants around the outside. That’s exactly how Platea is, but the difference is instead of fried chicken, burgers and the like, you’re surrounded by top calls restaurants and bars.

Platea was once Madrid’s largest cinema, in the heyday of the movie era. Many of the original features have been preserved, including some stunning tiling, and the place is vast, at over 6000m2. There are 12 different restaurants, boasting a total of 6 Michelin stars, on several levels.

El Foso

This was originally the orchestra pit, and here you’ll find tapas style food and bars – Italian, sushi, Peruvian and Mexican styles were on offer when we were there.

El Patio

At street level you’ll find the largest area, and there’s a crab house, steak bars, excellent tapas offerings and a vegetarian option.

Going up from there, there is the Arribia high class restaurant, a cocktail bar and finally a club on the highest floor.

Most nights there is some kind of live music or entertainment – just looking at the agenda for this month, there are DJ’s, a dance act, a comedy show and several bands performing.

The good news is that it needn’t be expensive – we had plenty to eat and spent around €20 a head, but you can, of course, go for gourmet food and spend much more. We shared some sushi as a starter, then I went for mixed burritos and Julie elected to try the Peruvian crispy chicken salad. We washed it all down with Japanese beer. That’s the attraction of this type of place -. you can each enjoy exactly what you want, without a compromise.

The system is clever – you place your order at the relevant eatery, and they give you an electronic device to take back to the table, When that bleeps and flashes, it’s ready to collect!

If you’re visiting Madrid, give Platea a try – highly recommended!