The Allard Club has recovered its star! This was announced on November 28 at the presentation gala of the Michelin Guide 2024 held in Barcelona. For Martín Berasategui, who took over this iconic Madrid restaurant just eight months ago, it is a new recognition by the red bible, with which he breaks his own record, adding 12 florones this year in seven establishments spread throughout the country.
The Gipuzkoan chef had this pending issue since his previous attempt to conquer the capital, in the failed Etxeko of the Bless Hotel in the Salamanca neighborhood. It had been more than three decades since his first adventure in the Villa and Court; when, in the mid-90s, he agreed to become a gastronomic consultant for the El Amparo restaurant, bringing with him the now popular Íñigo Pérez, alias Urrechu, as executive chef. That stage lasted more than a decade, during which its Lasarte flagship obtained the long-awaited third macaron from the tire company.
In this triumphant return to the Forum, Berasategui has been accompanied by José Mari Goñi, a graduate of the Basque Culinary Center who has previously worked in illustrious houses on the peninsula such as Martín Berasategui (Lasarte), Lasarte (Barcelona) or Amelia (San Sebastián), where he ended up being head chef. A talented 33-year-old professional whose vision of cuisine, tasty and traveling, is equally influenced by his stay in Far Eastern establishments such as Locavore (Bali) and Gastromaquia (Jakarta).
The arrival of Martin and José Mari has been a breath of fresh air for this emblematic restaurant, whose kitchens have already had renowned chefs such as Diego Guerrero or José Carlos Fuentes. This dining room located on the main floor of the majestic Casa Gallardo, built in 1914 by the architect Federico Arias Rey on the corner of Ferraz Street and Plaza de España and considered one of the key works of the last stage of modernism, deserves no less. from Madrid.
When the Allard Management and Investment Club – as it was called then – was inaugurated in 1998, it was, as its name indicates, a social space intended exclusively for members that was accessed through the property's portal, going up some steps to the right. Starting in 2003, the restaurant opened its doors to the public, becoming a reference place for local and foreign gourmets.
Habanos, from the same property, occupies the third floor of the building, while the Dry Martini Madrid-The Bar by Javier de las Muelas has come to set up next door to the Allard, with all the savoir faire of the Barcelona master of the cocktail bar and a much more reasonable night schedule than when he was at the Fénix Gran Meliá Hotel. Go have a drink, during aperitif or after-dinner hours, and ask on our behalf for Diego, an exemplary bartender trained in the mother house on Aribau Street.
But back to our subject. The Allard Club in its 2023 version offers two tasting menus of 10 courses (€155) and 14 courses (€185), where classics from the Berasategui universe are mixed, reinterpreted by Goñi and his young team, along with some of the chef's own creations. The veteran head waiter Benito Durán is a guarantee of that excellent classic service that has always characterized this establishment – I still remember when the waiters wore white gloves! – while Gabriel Villacrés properly manages a very notable winery, with national cult references and international, which the very solvent Astorgano sommelier Álvaro Prieto (today in Zuara) has been building in recent years.
Once seated at the table, we order the long menu, which starts with a series of tapas that are as bold as they are fun. The zucchini roll, stuffed with citron and topped with trout roe, has a furikake dressing that gives it a cheerful bitter touch. We continue to enliven the taste buds with a slightly spicy lobster tartare wrapped in wakame and enhanced with wasabi and huacatay. The Donostiarra-style txangurro dim sum is a Basque-Asian fusion dish in which the Chinese dumpling floats in a soup with lemongrass, sea grapes and Thai chili jam. Then comes a sheet of marinated and smoked Iberian pork with oyster tartar, mustard ice cream, foie gras bonbon and miso sprouts that reminds us of Barcelona's Lasarte. A combination of impeccable execution that, in this case, would deserve an additional touch of spiciness... But you cannot ask that the entire menu take the flavor to the extreme – as we would like – since here the watchword is balance.
The bread chapter has transalpine nuances (focaccia, grissini, pane carasau...) highlighting a very good loaf of sourdough, which is accompanied by three colored butters and a good extra virgin arbequina olive oil from the nearby town of Villaconejos . The warm salad with seasonal sprouts, tomato water and seafood is a Berasategui hit that we already missed on the banks of the Manzanares. I will never get tired of eating it! Martin's shadow continues in the zamburiña with cauliflower and truffled quail egg, with that characteristic touch of black garlic. Another must. We continue with the festival with a ravioli stuffed with smoked eggplant that comes paired with an Iberian pig tail and jowl cannelloni; both washed down with a ham and basil broth. Two powerful bites that go well separately, but I don't know if I like them as much together. Of course everything is subjective.
The agape ends in a dish of fish and another of meat, as the canons dictate. The wild urta, with an almost radical cooking point, comes with beetroot and beurre blanc – how the beurre blanc matches the Allard! – and a curious zest of isinglass cured for three months that is reminiscent of a bottarga. As for the squab in two cookings with carrot sauce and Eryngii sandwich, we return to the millimetric cooking, but the Port reduction is somewhat intrusive. Nothing that the diner himself cannot manage, thus wetting the most noble bird less.
The shiso sorbet with rhubarb cream and matcha jelly that acts as a pre-dessert is accompanied by a shot of warm sake that doesn't add much. It is followed by an Ultzama sheep's milk curd with black sesame that combines with great finesse the Basque-Asian influences of Goñi. And, to finish, an impeccable almond coulant with heather honey ice cream that follows in the wake of those 21st century desserts with the fairly contained degree of sweetness that we like so much.
With this new metamorphosis, Club Allard regains its place among the greats and is once again attractive to Madrid gourmets. Pay attention to the prices, which are not for everyone. But we're in a palace, what the hell! The music, by the way, deserves a review to banish any trace of reggaeton from the playlists. Noblesse oblige.
