barrieta, and the Moderno. Both of these boast what
the Spaniards term _Cocina Francesa_, which only means that if you make
a request, as the English always do, the cook will fry your food with
butter instead of oil.

At Portugalete, the port of Bilbao, there is a restaurant, good, as
Spanish restaurants go, attached to the hotel of the place, the
proprietor of which is Dn. Manuel Calvo. The cook and the staff of
waiters come from Lhardy's, the best restaurant in Madrid, and spend
their summer by the seaside. The prices at this restaurant are high.
Portugalete is only a summer resort.

Northern Towns

At Santander, a little further along the northern coast, the best food
to be obtained is found at the Hotel Europa; but the best is bad at
Santander. At Burgos and at Zaragoza the two largest hotels in each
place give the least indifferent food.

Madrid

The capital of Spain cries aloud for a Carlton, or a Ritz, or a Savoy,
and is, I believe, soon to have a really large hotel with a restaurant
managed on the lines which we are accustomed to in all the important
European capitals. The Hotel de Paris, one of the two noisy and
expensive hotels on the Puerta del Sol, has always had a reputation for
its cookery, always remembering that the standard in Spain is not high.
There is a _table-d'hote_ lunch and a _table-d'hote_ dinner, of the
latter of which I append a menu which is a fair specimen:--

Consomme Julienne.
Merlan Sauce aux Capres.
Filet de Boeuf Renaissance.
Galantine Truffee a l'Aspic.
Haricots Verts Sautes.
Cailles au Cresson.
Creme au Chocolat Glacee.
Desserts assortis.

The cookery of the house is French, but Spanish dishes can be obtained
by an order given in advance. There used to be a manager at the Paris
who was known as Constantino--what his other name was no one knew. He
was a universal provider, and the Englishmen who knew him and who used
to stay at the Madrid, never hesitated to ask him for anything
procurable in the capital, from a ticket for a bull-fight to a genuine
Murillo, quite sure that next morning they would find in the office what
they had asked for the previous evening.

Lhardy's, in the Curera de San Jeronimo, is the typical Madrid
restaurant not attached to an hotel. The appearance of the ground floor
is that of a _charcutier's_ and pastry-cook's combined. The restaurant
you will find on the first floor, where a _table-d'ho