Restaurant CEBO was in the very modern Hotel Urban and has had one Michelin star for the last  3 years.  Chefs Javier Sanz and Juan Sahuquillo have upped the game on this restaurant that has been here 9 years.  They offer diners two tasting menus, one Classics (160€), 11 courses, and in the evening, Season in Three Acts (220€) with 16 courses.  The menu starts in the lounge area where buying a cocktail is optional, but while in Madrid it’s a great time to taste fine Cava which we enjoyed a glass of with a few snacks.  Then there was a ‘tour’ of several boxes containing ingredients for the evening’s menu and a snack at the end.  Lastly you’re seated in the dining room where spacy music was in the background, the lights are lowered and the large tables are draped with floor length white cloths.  Glassed in wine cases separated parts of the room with a shiny black floor.   The room was geometric with all the shapes but warm with all the woods.  Service was quite nice, they spoke good English and the pacing was rapid but not rushed.   The food had a few misses but mostly was quite good.  Let me know what you think if you check it out.

Set-Up

Food

In the Lounge we were served 3 snacks with our cava.  Three versions of anchovy started with the fried bone on the right.  It was made of rice and tomatoes and had a light anchovy flavor.  The middle was a tartlet with spinach and anchovy pate and herbs.  It was salty on the top but creamy in the middle with light anchovy flavor and some texture.  On the left was a piece of marinated anchovy from Santoña in the north of Spain.  It had much stronger anchovy flavor.

 

A tour of ingredients to be in this evening’s meal and a snack – a chicken skin topped with a paste of Tuber Melanosporum or Périgord black truffle topped with a sliced truffle.  The chef at the counter also prepared an infusion of truffle which I did not get a photo of but both were deeply flavored and tasty.

 

At the table, the menu began with three versions of Salamanca cuts of acorn-fed pork. In the center was a potato crisp in the shape of a pig filled with sausage. On the upper right was a croquette combining sheep milk and butter with pork and topped with Copa. It was a very liquid-filled croquette, and the Copa was a bit tough. The piece on the upper left was a tendon seasoned with vinegar. They were all good.

 

The first bread service was a half roll topped with olive oil and salt.  It was lightly toasted and good.

 

Smoked tomatoes were caramelized and mixed with goat cheese and herbs and then a Salsa macha sauce was added to the top.  The salsa gave the dish a good punch to the tremendous tomato flavor.  A sherry like vinaigrette was added to the mix to enhance the sweet and chewy tomato juice in the dish.  Nice.

 

Buddha’s hand was grated on top of razor clams that were beside a creamy sauce.  The very tender clams were also topped with a frozen mix that was mild with a lovely texture.  I liked this one but not sure what all they said was in it.

 

Next bread service was a choice of slices, brown or corn.  The one on the left was the corn which I chose and it was thick, dense with a wonderful crust.

 

Smooth clams were topped with Galacian shrimp in a carrot broth.  Some baby carrot pieces were in the broth too which were tender and gave the dish some texture.  The clams were excellent with a good chew and the baby shrimp quite mild.

 

Smoked sturgeon slices were topped with Oscietra caviar in a shallot and sheep butter sauce with brandade cod (or whipped salt cod).  The cod became like a mashed potato layer that absorbed the smoke of the sturgeon.  When you could eat all the layers together, it was best.

 

We were lucky to be there during the very short season of tiny Maresme peas or the green caviar.  They are amazing tiny morsels with no starch in their sweet flavor with the pop of caviar.  These were topped with hake cheeks and then a parsley sauce.  The mild sauce was perfect with the barely cooked lovely cheeks.  This dish was exceptional and a treat to eat.

 

Line-caught squid was in a Iberian ham sauce with egg yolk.  The cooking process of the squid was detailed which involved boiling and icing before cooking but whatever it was it make the squid as tender as you’ve ever had.  It melted in your mouth.   This dish was creamy and delicious.

 

Angulas or baby eels are a Basque delicacy from the Sargasso Sea.  These were with a soup of hake head and chicken that was very creamy and rich. The delicate and tender eels made for a luscious combination.

 

King fish from the north of Spain was plated with a sauce of toasted butter and lime and a bulb of very fresh spinach.  The fish was cooked so perfectly that it was pearlescent with a crisp skin.  It was wonderful with the creamy rich sauce.  Young, fresh spinach finished the plate also with a bit of sauce.  It was all quite good.

 

Rice was mixed with Malague baby goat sweetbreads and covered with black truffles for the next dish.  The flavor was almost malty with hints of vanilla and the rice maintained a good bite of texture.  The small sweetbreads blended in beautifully with the flavor-loaded rice for a very savory dish.

 

Next was a trio of Basque beef, one matured 100 days (red) and another long cooked and served under potato (green) and the leaf bundle was a palate cleanser for after.  The bundle was quite aromatic as expected and the beef was fine.  They brought one of the expanding cloths, topped off with water to wipe up after you finished.

 

White strawberries and elderflower were the first dessert.  The bottom of the plate was a glaze of strawberry, same flavor as the ice cream.  The white strawberries were under the bit of elderflower cream.  It was mild but with a nice variety of textures and overall strawberry flavor.

 

Valencian tigernut was the flavoring of ice cream that was on a biscuit and covered in an 80% chocolate from Brazil that had CEBO written on it.   It was tasty.

 

Mignardises were the flavors of nuts.  Marcona almonds were with an orange cake that was macerated with wine then topped with almond cream.  It was super moist and very good but not too sweet.  Toasted pine nuts topped a tarlet that contained honey and pineapple cream.  It had tons of pine nut flavor. The mini Paris Brest was topped with crisp pistachio bits and was great.  It was my favorite of the three fantastic last treats.