The ornate Carlos III cinema opposite the Plaza de Colón has been artfully transformed into a dynamic culinary scene with more than a hint of burlesque. There are 12 restaurants, three gourmet food stores and cocktail bars.
Working with the original theatre-style layout, the multilevel seating has been used to array a series of restaurants that seem at once self-contained yet connected to the whole through the soaring open central space, with all of them in some way facing the stage area where cabaret-style or 1930s-era performances or live cooking shows sometimes provide a rather glamorous backdrop. It's where food court meets haute cuisine, a daring combination of lunch or dinner with the occasional floor show but without the formality that usually infuses such places.