Two cities, one very short list.
Exceptional dining, VIP events, hidden addresses and the nights worth changing your plans for — reported from the room in Paris and Madrid.
The 4 newest addresses
2 in Paris · 2 in Madrid · published since October 12, 2026
Bar des Clos: push the right door by the restrooms
Michel Puech's first cocktail room hides behind his new Faubourg Saint-Honoré bistro — 40 square metres of cherry red in an old antique dealer's premises.
Photo: SEXTO Atelier Madrid · DiningSEXTO: twenty seats, one lunch, twelve courses
Calle de Atocha 125, 7ª planta, 28012
Photo: Bus Palladium Paris · HotelsBus Palladium: the bar runs through to breakfast
6 rue Pierre Fontaine, 75009
Photo: Esotérica Madrid · NightlifeEsotérica: say the password at the shop counter
Calle del Pez, 30, 28004
Hanada: ten seats, one menu, a door marked only 15
Masayoshi Hanada left the counter at Sushi B to open his own house on the quai Voltaire. Less than a year later, a first star, and still ten seats a sitting.
- Booking
- Website or +33 7 44 31 80 70
- Counter
- Hinoki, ten seats, two sittings a night
- Ask for
- Any of the ten hinoki counter seats — all face the chef
ŌME: six stools, one door, and corn ground on site
Roberto Ortiz Blanco cooked at elBulli and ran the kitchen at Punto MX. Behind a discreet door in Salamanca he now builds a Mexican omakase for six people at a time.
- Access
- Reservation by phone (916 21 03 73) or through the website
- Counter
- Six seats at the Barra ŌMEkase; a six-pass menu at 100 € per person, tables at the counter and in the dining room can be turned
- Ask for
- An end stool, facing the chef's hands
The Index
Vega: Lagasca 88, by committee and by sponsorship
Íñigo Onieva's private club opened on the Milla de Oro in March, in the old Elena Benarroch premises, with Mabel Hospitality and Cristiano Ronaldo behind it.
Calle de Lagasca 88, 28001
Members only, capped at 500 · Casa Vega, Vega and Totó
Utopic: Anne-Sophie Pic's first bar has its own street door
Twenty-two drinks inside the Fondation Cartier's new building, at the corner of rue de Marengo and rue de Rivoli. The exhibition ticket will not get you in.
1 rue de Marengo, 75001
Own entrance on rue de Marengo · daily from 17h
Amaterasu: sixteen seats in a basement behind Hotaru
A concealed omakase room inside a working restaurant on Calle de Alcalá — twelve courses at €85, two seatings, and a DJ on Thursday to Sunday nights, for sixteen people.
Calle de Alcalá, 99 (dentro de Hotaru), 28009
Reservations at amaterasumadrid.com, or by phone on 608 49 38 32
Éthanol: the Géosmine team's walk-in, from 5pm
Maxime Bouttier's second address sits a few metres from his one-star Géosmine, in a former cobbler's shop. No bookings, Spanish-style: you turn up from 17h30.
28 rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud, 75011
No reservations · come at 17h30, when the doors open
La Zarzuela: racing that ends in time for lunch
The autumn meeting opens on Thursday 10 September with an evening card, gates 18.00 and first race 19.00, before settling into Sunday mornings at 11.30. The Gran Premio de La Hispanidad, 11 October.
September 10 – November 29, 2026 · Hipódromo de la Zarzuela
€16 adults · under-14s free · first race 11.30 on Sunday mornings, 19.00 on the September Thursday cards
Pitchfork Paris: one pass, seven rooms around Bastille
The Avant-Garde nights turn Badaboum, Supersonic, Café de la Danse and four more into a single walkable circuit for €28.25 a night. Collect the wristband first.
November 2–8, 2026 · POPUP!
Wristbands at Place de la Bastille, 18:00–22:30, DICE
Bar De Vie: eleven seats in a cellar, and no ice in the house
Alex Francis and Barney O'Kane took the 2026 sustainable bar award and No.34 in Europe with a limestone basement where sub-zero drinks arrive without a cube.
22-24 rue Saint-Sauveur, 75002
Walk-in at the bar · reservations upstairs only
Bar Nouveau: the best bar in France is two flights of stairs
The Art Nouveau room co-founded by Rémy Savage, Sara and Hadrien Moudoulaud and Marc Puzzuoli took the French title and No.5 at Europe's 50 Best Bars. A diminutive space; no reservations upstairs, set menu on OpenTable.
5 rue des Haudriettes, 75003
Walk-in · busier from early evening, especially weekends
Belmondo at the Cinémathèque: 35 films and one ticket
Five years after his death, an exhibition and a parallel retrospective built as a career in 35 films — Godard to Verneuil, Becker to Melville.
October 7 – January 31, 2027 · La Cinémathèque française
Take the combined screening-plus-exhibition ticket
Club Metrópolis: a real door under Madrid's most famous dome
More than 6,000 m² inside the Edificio Metrópolis opened as a members' club on 21 January 2026, with a hotel, restaurants, a dress code, and no images taken or shared without prior authorisation.
Calle de Alcalá 39, 28014
Membership by application · calls only in the designated areas
Hôtel Particulier Montmartre: the gate off avenue Junot
Five suites, a garden billed as the largest of any Paris hotel, and Le Très Particulier, downstairs in the winter garden — still one of Time Out's hidden bars.
23 avenue Junot, Pavillon D, 75018
Le Très Particulier cocktail bar: Tuesday to Saturday, 6pm to 2am
Jack's Club: a piano bar in a vanished church
Under the Thompson on Plaza del Carmen, a British-minded speakeasy built into the remains of San Luis Obispo, where the cocktail list is written as chapters.
Plaza del Carmen s/n, 28013
In the hotel basement · from 7:00 PM · no photos or videos
Mercer Madrid: twelve seats in a 1905 sugar palace
Mercer's first house in Madrid — the group's ninth establishment — opened in April behind the Prado, in the former headquarters of the Sociedad General Azucarera: Eneko Atxa in the kitchen, Javier de las Muelas at the bar.
Calle de Ruiz de Alarcón, 5, 28014
Rooftop with pool, solarium and panoramic terrace open to the public · 24-hour gym for guests only
Nobu Madrid: eight seats on the third level
Nobu Hospitality's first Madrid house opened on 1 September, fifty keys above a restaurant spread over three levels. The counter seats eight. The rooftop looks down Alcalá.
Calle de Alcalá 26, 28014
Book direct · rooftop DJ sets Wednesday to Saturday
Saint James Paris: lunch is for members, dinner is for you
A château behind a gate in the 16th, run as hotel and private club. Bellefeuille holds a star in the 2026 guide and a Michelin green star for the restaurant.
43 avenue Bugeaud, 75116
Book dinner, not lunch, unless you are a member
The Palace: a circular bar under the 1912 dome
Twenty-two months of work and €90 million later, the Westin name is gone and the 27 Club pours cocktails inspired by notable historical figures, across from the Congreso.
Plaza de las Cortes 7, 28014
27 Club 6PM–2AM Mon–Thu, 5PM–2AM Fri–Sun · brunch Sun 13:30–4PM, not in summer
Silencio: the door only opens after midnight
David Lynch's members' club under the old presses of L'Aurore — gold-leaf walls, a 24-seat cinema, and one hour of the night when the public gets in.
142 rue Montmartre, 75002
Members before midnight · Tue–Sat until 6am
Caviar Kaspia
A first-floor dining room above the shop, where the baked potato with caviar has outlived every trend on the Madeleine.
17 place de la Madeleine, 75008
Late service · jacket advised
Le Clarence
Prince Robert of Luxembourg's hôtel particulier off the Champs-Élysées: two Michelin stars, and a cellar built around Château Haut-Brion.
31 avenue Franklin D. Roosevelt, 75008
Two Michelin stars · book weeks ahead
Amazónico, and the jazz club hidden beneath it
Sandro Silva's tropical room on Jorge Juan is the see-and-be-seen table of Barrio de Salamanca. The real move is downstairs: the Jungle Jazz Club plays live every night of the week.
Calle de Jorge Juan 20, 28001
Jungle Jazz Club live nightly
Hôtel Costes
The courtyard that trained a generation of Paris nightlife. Still the most watched terrace on rue Saint-Honoré.
239 rue Saint-Honoré, 75001
Bar open to non-residents
Salmon Guru
Diego Cabrera's green-ceilinged cocktail den behind Huertas — speakeasy back room, mezcal list, and Madrid's best-known bar crowd.
Calle de Echegaray 21, 28014
No reservations for the front bar
Ten con Ten
The Paraguas Group's Salamanca canteen: long lunches that drift into cocktails, and the room where deals get done at 3pm.
Calle de Ayala 6, 28001
Lunch from 2pm · terrace in season
DiverXO
Dabiz Muñoz's three-star theatre of a restaurant — the hardest table in Spain, released in monthly drops.
Calle de Padre Damián 23, 28036
Three Michelin stars · online release only
Nothing here yet — the first stories land in the next issue.
The Ranking
Five tables we would return to on a Tuesday · Paris & Madrid
Judged on the room, the welcome and whether we would go back on a Tuesday. No submissions, no sponsorship.
For curious minds with a taste for the exceptional
One dispatch a week from Paris and Madrid: where to go, when to be there, what not to miss.