In NoDrama, the gastronomic proposal is equally risky and attractive. Since it opened 15 months ago in Madrid's Chamberí neighborhood, this restaurant has renewed its menu every three or four months. When we say renewed it means that it has changed them from top to bottom; From the concept to the type of kitchen through a good part of the crockery, which is made to measure. They have created it with vegetables and fish as protagonists, but they have also done it with hunting and for a few weeks they offer a journey through Nikkei cuisine, that which fuses Peruvian and Japanese snacks.
Behind all this tinglado is the chef Pablo Fernández, who sought a different concept marked by cultural miscegenation and a menu in permanent change according to seasonal products. Tanned in London for the last eight years and having worked with Dabiz Muñoz, Gastón Acurio -from him he learned to make ceviches- and Éric Fréchon, among others, landed in Madrid after the pandemic and, with the rents on the floor, decided to go solo with a capitalist partner. "I was scared; It was too much of a challenge, but it was time."
Nigiri of carabinero.
After the first year, the balance is positive. "We have customers who have tried all the menus." Work the surprise effect conscientiously. "When a person returns to your restaurant and you have not changed the gastronomic menu, they will not live the wow effect the same as the first time," he reflects aloud. He seeks that in each visit the diner finds a different "and unique" restaurant.
The quality of its gastronomic proposal is outstanding, in technique and creativity, but so much movement does not always play in favor, and that begins to weigh on the day to day. "To qualify for the Michelin star, changing the menus so much is penalizing us because we have very little time on the menu and that complicates being able to assess the proposal," explains the chef.
Tuna tartare.
Now that it has achieved mention in the red guide, it is proposed to reduce the menus per year to two. "I would make a radical change, but every six months" and during that time I would vary some dish according to seasonal products, which are the ones that mark 100% of the agenda. "When I launch a menu we focus three or four weeks with the adjustments and then I start thinking about the next one." Creative work remains at the center of everything. "We do everything in the kitchen between two people."
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Begoña Rodrigo (La Salita): "I gave birth on a Sunday and the following Wednesday I was working in the kitchen... It was a mistake."
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In the Nikkei menu that offers until the end of May there are dishes to frame (the aesthetics are also taken care of in detail), such as the tacoyaki with white shrimp from Huelva, which starts the feast along with a Nikkei taco and a steak tartart. Then comes the nigiri NoDrama, "the star", Pablo himself had warned us, of squid, gruyer cheese and yuzu; the wagyu A-5 with black truffle and the carabinero with anticucho complete the rice-based snacks, which looks somewhat darker because the chef uses brown sugar to make it.
Tacoyaki.
In front of the entrance, and before the huge windows of the premises, Pablo finishes and plates the passes in the marble bar next to the open kitchen. The dining room, with Nordic brushstrokes and Japanese air, is painted in shades of gray and earth, with murals of birds, comfortable chairs and armchairs. The menu continues with crab sushi roll and chilli mayo and lobster and hollandaise sauce maki. Bite by bite, the experience improves. "Five or six days pass between thinking a dish and executing it." It also has an excellent selection of wines that includes more than 100 references.
The hamachi tiradito deserves special mention, although it is with the ramen with Iberian broth accompanied by dumplin of guinea fowl and nori seaweed when the wow effect takes on another dimension. "It has 18 hours of cooking behind it," adds Pablo. Finally, the low-temperature cheeks with green curry close the salty part of the long menu. The chicha morada mochi stars in the sweet bite.
"I take the best of the world's cuisines that I have known," summarizes the chef, who acknowledges that he loves to listen and talk to diners between dishes. All in an informal way, without dramas -hence the name of the restaurant-, and away from formalisms. That said, a risky and attractive proposal in equal parts.
Ramen with dumplin of guinea fowl.
NoDrama Concept. Zurbano, 67. Long menu, 120 euros / 75, the short.
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