In Madrid’s ever-evolving dining landscape, TonTon has quickly established itself as one of the capital’s most compelling modern restaurants. Located in Chamberí — a neighbourhood known for its independent spirit and increasingly serious foodie scene — the produce-led restaurant approaches Mediterranean cooking through seasonality, collaboration and a deep respect for Spain’s rich natural larder.
Born in Hong Kong to a Spanish father and Filipina mother, and raised across the US, UK and Spain, Bosco Suarez de Puga, draws on his multicultural food-dominated upbringing and international hospitality career spanning IHG, Zuma New York, and Soho House here at TonTon, which continues to evolve with beverage manager and sommelier Hryhorii Soroka overseeing the drinks programme and newly appointed head chef Nico Garcia leading the kitchen into its next chapter.
Having opened in 2023, the restaurant builds on its foundations with a philosophy centred on connection to suppliers, to environment, and to the community gathered around its tables. Garcia arrives with experience shaped at Mexico City’s Meroma before moving to London’s Carousel; the multi-chef creative hub where collaboration across cuisines informs a cooking style that resists singular definition.
Behind an unmarked doorway on a quiet side street, the restaurant opens into a cavernous former carpentry workshop that has stood for more than a century. Designed by Estudio DIIR, TonTon starts in an informal wine bar (a concept within itself, for minimal intervention wine and aperitifs) before continuing past the kitchen where framed windows allow you a glimpse behind the curtain; creating a bridge between the two spaces before entering the expansive dining room which balances industrial heritage with contemporary warmth.
Original wooden beams frame banquettes and curved wooden chairs, while beeswax pendant lights by lighting designer Pablo Bolumar cast a glow across the space. Contemporary bricks delineate the dining room and sit alongside the original century old brick reflecting TonTon’s philosophy of cutting edge cuisine rooted in tradition. A large-scale abstract painting by Madrid-based artist Martina Rodriguez adds touches of colour, echoing TonTon’s “colourful, unpredictable, and something to submit to” approach to food.
Spanish at its core, with techniques and flavours shaped by global influence, food is conceived around conviviality, with dishes designed to be shared. Snacks such as ‘brioche matrimonio’ with sardine, anchovy and Espelette butter sit alongside vegetable-led plates where seasonality dictates the menu. Seafood sourced from O Percebeiro features as a changing crudo of the day, while Garcia’s affinity for cooking over fire emerges in larger dishes.
Arriving for dinner on a spirited Saturday night — and guided by charismatic Bosco himself — we begin with the ‘tarama de maruca’ which has a buttery texture and slight tang, as well as the afore-mentioned brioche which perfectly balances the sweetness of the bread with the saltiness of the sardine and anchovy. Other dishes include cabbage with hints of Thai curry, a prawn and leek bisque rich in flavour, and quail cooked over fire with grilled peas and beluga lentils. For dessert we share a mandarin sorbet with basil, which maintains the same sense of balance as the previous plates, and is served as an apt palate cleanser.
Soroka’s drinks programme complements the kitchen, championing low-intervention wines chosen for character and provenance. The list changes every three weeks and sits alongside house-made kombuchas, tepache crafted from pineapple skins, and cocktails that reinterpret classics through fermentation and global influence.
Relaxed and refined while possessing an air of cool, TonTon continues to shape its identity as a restaurant where thoughtful design, hyper seasonality, ingredient-led cooking, and progressive hospitality come together to forge a splendid experience that will have you coming back for more.
Bosco Suarez de Puga.
Hryhorii Soroka.
Nico Garcia.
Photography, courtesy TonTon Madrid / © We Heart.
