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Authentic Cantonese food and sherry. Don Lay Restaurant

January 25, 2021
Lacquered duck with a bottle of Don Zoilo

Authentic, genuine Cantonese food in a contemporary setting. That is perhaps the best way to describe Don Lay Restaurant, a space that captures the essence of traditional Chinese cooking in the heart of Madrid’s Salamanca district.

Don Lay restaurant chef preparing dim sum

After several years closed, Don Lay is back, renewed and better than ever

Don Lay chef in front of bamboo steamers
Table set for the sherry lunch at Don Lay

This emblematic restaurant was founded in 2002 by Nieves Ye, who, together with her father, decided to open a restaurant on Paseo de Extremadura serving authentic Chinese food. 

Williams & Humbert sherry bottles at Don Lay
Dim sum in a steamer beside a bottle of vintage fino

With two distinct spaces – the restaurant and the Chinese Bar – Don Lay offers in both a superb wine list with more than 100 Spanish and international labels. The Don Lay bar is the ideal place for a dim sum feast or excellent signature cocktails. The restaurant offers a varied menu of hot and cold starters, rice dishes, homemade fresh pasta, wok cooking and the classic lacquered duck, suckling pig and pork that made the first Don Lay famous. 

Diners toasting with sherry at Don Lay
Guests at the lunch raise a glass of sherry from Bodegas Williams & Humbert.
Guest tasting a sherry at the Don Lay lunch
Food journalist Federico Oldenburg.
Guest beside dim sum steamers and glasses of sherry
Rodrigo Varona of the Brandelicious agency.
Selection of dim sum with Don Zoilo Fino
Fino Don Zoilo and Vintage Fino 2012 to accompany Don Lay’s excellent selection of dim sum.
Cantonese-style aubergines with vintage Amontillado


Cantonese-style aubergines paired with Vintage Amontillado 2001.
Don Lay turbot with vintage Olorosos

Vintage Olorosos 2001 and 2009 to accompany Don Lay turbot.
Guest nosing a glass of sherry at Don Lay
Alberto Luchini, journalist at Metrópoli.
Crispy prawns with Don Zoilo Fino
Don Lay’s crispy prawns with Fino Don Zoilo.
Guest tasting an amontillado at the lunch
Journalist Pablo Ortega, of Tapas Magazine.
Char siu cannelloni with Amontillado 2001
Amontillado 2001 with char siu cannelloni.
House dessert with Canasta 20
Canasta 20 with the house dessert.
Guest tasting a sherry at Don Lay
Cristina Rodríguez Bareño, of Elle magazine.
Chefs plating in the Don Lay kitchen
Chef carving Don Lay’s lacquered duck
Lacquered duck with Don Zoilo Palo Cortado
Don Zoilo Palo Cortado, the sherry chosen to pair with Don Lay’s speciality: its famous lacquered duck.
Winemaker Paola Medina at the Don Lay lunch
Bodegas Williams & Humbert winemaker Paola Medina.
Bottle of Don Zoilo Fino
Fino Don Zoilo.

Asian food and sherry feed off each other, bringing dynamism, life, imagination and sensations. The result is a combination that awakens the senses.

PAOLA MEDINA