Have you ever heard of or seen the oldest building in the world? Probably, right? But how about the oldest restaurant in the world? Yes, there is such a restaurant! It’s not in Indonesia, but in Madrid, Spain. The world’s oldest restaurant is called Botín Restaurant, or Restaurante Sobrino de Botín in Spanish.
I only learned about this oldest restaurant in the world after visiting Madrid, by chance. I was on a free walking tour, and one of the stops was Botín Restaurant. Sobrino de Botín is located at Calle de los Cuchilleros 17, Madrid, Spain, not far from Plaza Mayor.
From the outside, the restaurant’s facade already shows a classic appearance. The lower walls are made of wood, while the upper part is constructed of exposed bricks without plaster. The brick arrangement gives it a timeless, classic feel. Botín Restaurant was founded in 1725 and is recognized by the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest operating restaurant in the world.
Before we entered, our guide shared an interesting fact, world-renowned artist Francisco de Goya once worked here as a waiter while waiting to be accepted into the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. The restaurant was also mentioned in the book Fortunata y Jacinta by Benito Pérez Galdós, published between 1886-1887.
The guide’s stories made me even more curious to step inside Botín Restaurant. By the time we arrived, it was already 11 a.m. in Spain, but no customers had arrived yet. The only sounds were from the kitchen, so we had the place to ourselves to explore. It turns out the restaurant isn’t just two floors; there’s also a basement used for dining and wine storage.
On the first floor, the dining area is quite simple, with wooden walls and classic decor. Bottles of wine are arranged on a buffet shelf. Before heading down to the basement, I wandered into the kitchen alone. As I peeked into the kitchen, right in front of me was a whole roasted pig’s head. It was a bit odd, but I kept my composure and watched as the chef roasted the pig.
I snapped a photo of the chef and then headed down to the basement. There, I found several dining rooms separated by brick walls. The ceilings were also vaulted, creating the feeling of walking through a cave. The dim lighting gave the space a romantic atmosphere.
The deeper I went, the more classic the atmosphere became. The final basement area contained several rooms, and in these rooms, there were bottles of wine stored for aging. The wine gets better with time, so some bottles were decades old, with dusty labels.
According to our guide, the restaurant was founded by a French man named Jean Botín and his partner. Initially, it was called Casa Botín, with “Casa” meaning “house.” Later, it was inherited by their nephew, Candido Remis, and the name changed to Sobrino de Botín.
“Sobrino” is the Spanish word for “nephew,” which explains the change in the restaurant’s name to Sobrino de Botín, a name it retains to this day. Now, the restaurant is run by the third generation of the González family—Antonio, José, and Carlos.
The menu at Botín Restaurant is typical of Spanish cuisine, with a focus on pork. Botín specializes in Castilian cuisine, particularly roast lamb and suckling pig. Three or four times a week, the restaurant receives pigs directly from Segovia and lamb from the famous Spanish “magic triangle” of Sepúlveda-Aranda-Riaza.
Sobrino’s restaurant and its signature dish, cochinillo asado (roast suckling pig), were mentioned in the closing pages of Ernest Hemingway’s novel The Sun Also Rises. Another popular dish is sopa de ajo (garlic soup), made with an egg boiled in chicken broth, mixed with sherry and garlic. This dish is often taken home and is a favorite among the party-loving people of Madrid.
Given the pork-heavy menu, I only visited the restaurant to soak in the atmosphere of the world’s oldest restaurant and to learn a bit more. Half an hour into our visit, there still hadn’t been any customers. It turns out, lunch in Spain is typically around 2 p.m.