Located in the center of Madrid, Hakunana Matata has a chill vibe that you will sense as soon as you walk into the restaurant. They serve typical Mediterranean food combining Spanish, Moroccan and Italian dishes, among others. This makes the venue more varied, which is great if you go with a large group of people. The establishment is quite small and it often fills up on weekends, so I recommend booking a spot ahead of time.
The name of the restaurant stems from the famous quote in Disney’s film- The Lion King. “Hakuna matata” in Spanish translates to “live and let others live” and that’s why the menu is 100% vegan.
The staff was really nice and they helped us decide what to order since it was our first time there. They also told us everything is home-made. However, that doesn’t affect the price, which is a really good price-quality ratio.
We ordered a lot of things so we could try as much as possible from the menu. For starters we had the grilled melazane, the cheese bites with piquillo pepper jam and the no-chicken Moroccan cake. Everything was amazing, especially the no-chicken Moroccan cake. Even my non-vegan family really liked it!
Cheese bites with sweet tomato jam
Grilled melazane
Our main dishes were: two pizzas (4 cheese and carbonara), and a typical Spanish paella (olé! 
). Again, all the dishes were tasty, but we really liked the carbonara pizza, and the paella was sublime as well. I recommend ordering one paella for 2-3 people along with one or two appetizers to get a full lunch.
Pizza carbonara (front) and 4 cheese (back)
Paella with veggies
We couldn’t decide which dessert to try so we ordered 3! The cheesecake with blueberry jam, the vegbrownie with almond ice-cream and the vegamisú. Everyone loved the vegamisú the best.
Cheesecake with blueberry jam
Brownie with almond ice-cream
Vegamisú, our favourite
I highly recommend Hakuna Matata. Whether you’re spending a few days in Madrid or you live here, I can promise it’s worth the visit. I’m definitely going to come back soon.
If you do try it, please let us know in the comments which one was your favorite dish, and don’t forget to upload your review on HappyCow!
About the author: Nerea Langa is a vegan journalist and filmmaker based in Madrid who went vegan about 1 year ago. Going vegan changed her life forever and now hopes she can help the vegan movement while working on what she loves most. @Serunful is her username in HappyCow
