SALA CERO DESERVES A STANDING OVATION
Sala Cero, located in Madrid’s upmarket Barrio de Salamanca, is not your typical Spanish restaurant, nor is it your typical gastronomic experience. Rather, the latest offering from Sala de Despiece is an exercise in no-frills, minimalist dining that centres taste and sensation.
Sala Cero opened in mid-2024 under the direction of Javier Bonet, the Mallorca-born chef and restaurateur behind Sala de Despiece and its many offspring. The son of a butcher, Bonet’s restaurants often draw inspiration from and subvert the elements and spaces of traditional butcher rooms. With Sala Cero this vision is taken to the next level, but here the meat hooks are clean and the surfaces sparkling; yyplusplus’ interior concept is meant to enhance, not distract or repulse.
From the very beginning there is an air of suspense, diners enter the space through a hallway that resembles a walk-in freezer, and the menu is a mystery until the food is served. Inside the main restaurant, the interiors are sparse, bar stools flank a gleaming streak of quicksilver—the metallic countertop where the gastronomic performance plays out.
The menu—referred to as the “sequence”—is grounded in local ingredients and contemporary cooking, and changes with the seasons. There’s meat from Ávila, Galician seafood, and fresh produce sourced from Navarra. The highlight was the lemon ice cream, featuring confit citrus from Granada, anchored by a hint of thyme.
To top it off, the personalised details of each “sequence” are formatted in the style of butcher shop labels, and attached to the napkins in front of you, an unconventional and creative approach to experiential dining. There’s also Subcero, the subterranean cocktail bar, the natural next place to visit if your night’s not over yet.
The Salamanca district has no shortage of fine-dining options, so for a restaurant to be buzzy, it must really stand-out. Sala Cero’s strength lies in its simplicity, but also in its ability to surprise. It is both experiential dining and theatre at their finest, every detail is uncomplicated, but undeniably a part of the performance.
