Restaurant of the month: Chuck’s, Madrid

The Spanish seaside town where I live has maybe 35 restaurants. To all extents and purposes, 33 of them have the exact same menu. There is, I suppose, some virtue in doing things as they have always been done but there is also, really, only so much patatas bravas that a man can eat. A joy, then, to be able to jump on one of the country’s glorious high-speed trains to Madrid with its abundant riches.

The latest addition to the city’s humming restaurant scene is Chuck’s, the debut standalone flagship from American chef Chuck George, who has been on tour with kitchens in Milan, Paris and Rome, as well as a sold-out residency at Carousel in London.

Located in the north of Madrid’s central neighbourhoods in Chamberí, the restaurant is a classic European bistro with a black and white check floor and bentwood chairs. Natural wines line the shelves. Handsome globe pendants hang from the ceiling. It’s all beautifully done but hardly a departure from the norm. Fear not, though, as what sets this place apart becomes apparent on the plate.

George made his name with his signature smashed-flat griddle burger stack but here, he’s stretched his wings, calling on his Filipino American heritage to create a menu that criss-crosses continents to great effect. Standout dishes include radishes with miso butter and kinilaw, a kind of Filipino take on ceviche that has fat strips of blow-torched jack mackerel marinated in suka, a fermented coconut vinegar. The burger is here, too, and it’s a doozy. And whatever else you order, be sure to get at least one portion of the laab fries, which come topped with nam pla and herbs and, in our case, disappeared at an undignified rate of knots.

We rounded things off with a chocolate tart with ganache topped with a soy miso glaze, a suitably salty sticky treat that is basically Chuck’s in miniature: intercontinental, imaginative and defiantly finding joy in that which hasn’t been done before.