Prrimital — A shift in meat eating
etimes, there are restuarants and eating experiences that make you think about far more than the place itself. Prrimital served me some of the most superb meat dishes I’ve ever had; from steak tartare served on bone marrow to ‘Spain’s best cheeseburger’, it was all genuinely superb. But after all that it was a chef’s comment that really stood out: “If you’re going to eat meat then it better be (insert expletive of choice) good”. In the world of climate change and in a country where veganism is often laughed at, it’s a salient point.
You can find Prrimital in Madrid’s Mercado San Miguel, the street-food market that was refurbished and reopened in 2009. After the COVID-19 pandemic, this particular lease came free and the family spotted a gap in the market for their high-end meat street-food concept.
Everything in Mercado San Miguel is expensive, sometimes insultingly so. You’ll find individual pintxos for €5, the most simple of sandwiches for €10, and small cones of calamari for €16. In that context, the seemingly high prices of Prrimital aren’t actually that extortionate but it is worth bearing in mind the focus here. The team explain to me that they aren’t in the business of compromise: every cut of meat is the very highest quality that they can find, using long-aged Galician cows that are widely regarded as the best and butchered in the most sustainable and rights-friendly way possible. You can buy their cuts of meat as you might at a butcher and each one is traceable back to the exact field where the cow spent its time. A cheap eat this is not but that isn’t the same as value: something that the rest of Mercado San Miguel could probably do with learning…
All of this sounds like a lot of spiel and make no mistake, I was as sceptical as ever. Despite being a fan of red meat, I have always maintained that I could probably go without ever eating it out. Far too often it seems like restaurants use poor cuts and cook them in ways that I don’t agree with. The simplicity of Prrimital is what makes it different and what makes it worth visiting. The only additions to the raw ingredients are oil and salt: the meat simply doesn’t need anything else.
The first thing I tried was the most simple: a finely sliced and perfectly rare chuletón steak. Another belief of the team here is that portion sizes shouldn’t be big: if the quality is high enough than that simply isn’t necessary. Again, my scepticism had me smrking given the high prices but the steak is perfect example of this. There’s no deep butter sauce or anything like that and as a result you do feel over-indulged: you feel satisfied.
Steak tartare was next and I won’t lie to you, I was extremely excited. Steak tartare is one of my favourite things and I love nothing more than sitting at a table in a French brasserie with a delightful waiter making it for me table side. Here, that’s not the case and the tartare itself is seasoned only with some simple onions, capers, and a dash of tabasco. The gamechanger comes in the serving.
The dish is presented in a meat bone which, under normal circumstance, might be considered a gimmic. However, the key here is that the bone marrow is still very much present in that bone and the idea is that you eat both it and the tartare at once.
Normally, I’m really not one for marrow: I think that the flaovur is too intense and the texture underwhelming but here all of that is balanced out by the contrasts of the tartare. The capers and onions bring out the meatiness of the marrow and the melt in the mouth texture is combined with the tartare for the perfect bite. Tartare is also probably the dish where the quality of meat is most apparent and that’s no different here: all of that pre-discussed quality and sourcing is worth it’s weight in gold.
Finally, the burger. Call me a skeptic but I can’t remember the last time I ordered a burger at a restaurant, nevermind a beef burger. Given that this one has one the award for ‘The Best Cheeseburger in Spain’, I thought this really was the moment. And my word was it something.
Firstly, the bun. It’s brioche, another thing that would usually be a turn off for me but here, lightly toasted on the meat grill, it is exactly what you need to soak up the juiciness of the meat. The hint of sweetness actually bringing something pleasing to the table too when I usually find it an unwelcome distraction. Otherwise, a simple slice of cheddar cheese, some crispy bacon, and the house sauce, are the only additions to the 150g of aged Buey burger meat. That burger meat is joyous and somehow the whole thing leaves you feeling indulged but not sick. At €16.50 without any sides it’s expensive for sure but it’s also one of the very few beef burgers I’ve ever had at a restaurant that I’d order again.
That’s probably the perfect summation of how I feel about Prrimital overall -it really did reframe how I feel about meat eating. I am absolutely not on the road to veganism (even if I am in awe of those who are) but have definetly been eating less red meat in recent years for a variety of reasons. The team at Prrimital are framing that argument in a way that is much more palpable for a Spanish market yet to be convinced by veganism, something that here is often laughed off and very seldom catered for. Clearly, the answer isn’t no meat but less meat and I want it all of it to be as high quality as this.
