Casa Benigna (@casabenigna) is a restaurant in Madrid specialized in dry rice from Valencia and propably has the best paella in the city.
To make this paella, they use a very interesting utensil made of copper that the chef himself, Norberto, patented and named “Patella”.
Ambience
Ambience was magnificent and made you feel as if you were by the mediterranean. The elaborate decoration, the calm spanish guitar as the background music, patellas hang in the wall. I enjoyed the personal touch they gave to the restaurant.
Food
We start with some in house appeteizzer: a very delicious salmojero. The consistency was perfect, not too greasy and not dense. A great start to what was coming.
For starters, we ordered smoked salmon with some potatoes and confit duck with augbergine. I loved how the chef put norwegian touches into the entrees as he spent some time working and learning there. Everything was amazingly flavourful and tender. Indeed, one of my favourite dishes.
For the rice, we ordeded two different tkinds as we wanted to try many dishes as possible—as much our stomachs could fit. We ordered “arroz a banda” which is the most popular kind of paella outside Spain. It is maid of calamari and prawns already mixed into the rice,—this means that you won’t have to peel the prawns— very simple yet delicious.
We wanted to try something more elaborate and not common, so we ordered “Rice with Iberian pork ribs”. The rice is made for 40 hours and cooked with the ribs. Honestly, both were out of this world. Rice and product quality were incredible.
If I were to choose one, I would choose the iberian pork rice because it was different a different approach, but both of them were exquisite.
Desserts & Wine Menu
This time we didn’t manage to try any desserts as we were so full at this point. But i’ve tried them before and I can say that they’re worth it. Wine menu is rather short. I’m not a wine person but a champagne kind of person. They have a small but nice selection of great champagnes.
Service
Service couldn’t be better, since you arrive to the restaurant they take good care of you, very welcoming. They explain every dish and the reason why they made it the way they made it.
If you want to try a good paella—or patella as they call it— you shouldn’t skip this place in Madrid. There are lots of paella restaurants in Spain and sometimes it’s difficult for the outsider to distinguish a high-quality paella. Personally, I hate when paellas are overfilled with ingredients, it should be a thin but tasteful layer. Casa Benigna is the place to go for sure if you want to try the best paella in Madrid.
8/10
