El Caldero is situated in a central, pedestrian-only touristy area of Madrid. It was only one block from Plaza de Santa Ana where we were staying.

It was founded in 1973 and specializes in Spanish rice dishes – paella.

Their signature dish is rice cooked in a cauldron (more like a bucket) as illustrated by this painting – which is much deeper than the pan typically used in cooking paella.

We ordered the paella and the “bucket” of seafood-flavored rice.

The waiters distributed the food on our plates – so we did not have to scoop the rice out of the bucket.

We came here towards the end of our trip and at that time during the trip, we have not even touched rice once, having been focusing our attention on tapas/pintxos.

According to their website (click here), which is quite colorful, they follow the cooking traditions of Murcia – which might explain the sauces, not sure if this is true.

They claim to combine the ingredients from the Mediterranean and the Spanish interior to make the dishes –  Murcia as a province, has a coast and a vast interior land mass.

Dessert drinks on the house !

We enjoyed our meal there. Recommendable.