When you are in Spain, you just have to eat churros even though it means throwing your dieting plan out of the window. Serving churros for more than 100 years since 1894, there is no other shop that knows their churros more than San Gines.
San Gines is in one of the oldest alleys in the city, between Calle Arenal and Calle Mayor, and used to be the inn and eating house of Lázaro López. Its location by the Eslava Theatre and the church of San Ginés has served many customers wanting to savour their traditional chocolate con churros after seeing a play or going to mass
This 100 year old shop is one of the favourite among many celebrities and famous people and you can see their pictures hanging from their walls.
The café is extremely popular and crowded so it might take a while to get a table. The interior is decorated with mirrors and green wood panels, with green velvet seats and marble tables. The atmosphere totally brings you back to the past.
The hot chocolate is served in Spanish style; thick, dark and strong and the churros which is deep fried batter lovingly cut to length by the staff, are served hot and freshly cooked after the order is placed. Coffee, tea and other cakes are also available.
The churros are slim and crispy and tastes extremely light and savoury on it’s own.
Something which is unique to Madrid is the porras which are a thicker, more doughy version of the churros. This reminds me of the fried dough fritters in Singapore.
The consistency of the chocolate is perfect for dipping the churros and porras and every part of the dough is covered evenly with the ultimate amount of chocolate. The chocolate itself is bitter sweet and taste heavenly when paired with the churros. On it’s own, the chocolate is too sweet. The ice chocolate drink is a diluted version of the hot chocolate with cold milk and is equally chocolatey.
San Gines is 100% worth your calories and patience to visit as it was so good we wanted to visit it again on the 2nd day.
Address: Pasadizo de San Ginés, 5, 28013 Madrid, Spain
Operating hours: 24 hours
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