Tortilla de patatas is Spain's defining egg dish and Madrid's daily breakfast pincho: a thick, juicy potato-and-egg cake (with or without onion), sliced from the pan and eaten at the counter with a cana.

Tortilla de patatas may have originated in Navarra in 1817 with general Tomas de Zumalacarregui during the Carlist Wars, but Madrid adopted it as its working-day breakfast and tapa by the early 20th century. The two-camp debate (con cebolla vs sin cebolla, with or without onion) runs the country. The Madrid version is thick, very juicy in the centre (poco hecha), and the canonical Madrid eg slice is Casa Dani's tortilla at Mercado de la Paz, where the cake is cooked to order daily and a pincho still costs 2 euros. Sacha Hormaechea introduced the tortilla vaga (lazy tortilla, undercooked and topped with caviar) at his Chamartin bistro; it became a Madrid modernist signature.

5 editor picks for Tortilla de patatas in Madrid, ranked by editorial score. All Madrid signature dishes · Tortilla de patatas across every city.