La de la Rubia: Lucía Freitas's signature burger, on a brioche bun

If you've been coming to La Urbana for a while, you know how much we love a crunchy bun. For La de la Rubia, the new signature burger by Lucía Freitas, we've made an exception. For the first time in our Signature Burgers, the bun is brioche. And yes, you're going to have to try it.

From A Tafona, with a Michelin star, to La Urbana

In 2009, Lucía Freitas opened A Tafona as a casa de comidas (a traditional home-style restaurant) in Santiago de Compostela. Before that she had left Galicia at 19 to train in Bilbao, worked in kitchens such as Mugaritz, El Celler de Can Roca and El Bohío, and specialised in restaurant pastry. She came back to Santiago to open her own place. In 2018, A Tafona won its first Michelin star, which it still holds, and in 2026 it picked up its third Repsol Sun.

At A Tafona, Lucía cooks with whatever the Galician coast and gardens offer each season. A few steps away, next to the Mercado de Abastos, is Lume, her gastronomic bar. There, that same way of buying and cooking turns into tapas, raciones and dishes to share. La de la Rubia is the first recipe she has created for our menu.

A signature burger with a woman's name on it

Every time we invite someone to cook with La Urbana, we ask them the same question. What would a burger made your way look like? That's how recipes from chefs who work with Galician produce, each with a very different way of putting it on the plate, have made it onto our menu. We love finding out what each of them does when we hand over two buns and free rein over everything in between.

This time Lucía's answer came with brioche, Rubia Gallega beef and two ways of making a chimichurri. And we love saying it loud and clear. A signature burger by a woman chef, signed by Lucía Freitas.

Rubia Gallega, brioche and double chimichurri

La de la Rubia gets its name from its 190 g of Rubia Gallega beef. It comes with melted cheese and chimichurri twice over. One is creamy and the other is a vinaigrette. The pickled red onion and carrot give it its tang, and the iceberg lettuce brings the crunch we've forgiven the bun this time. It also has fresh herbs.

To see how all those ingredients come together, we went to the kitchen at A Tafona. There we filmed Lucía making La de la Rubia. If you want to see how she builds the burger she dreamed up for La Urbana, here it is, in her own kitchen.

To launch the burger, we hit the streets with a question

Before revealing who was behind La de la Rubia, we took to the streets with a few clues. The question was simple. Who is the new Galician chef with a Michelin star who signs La Urbana's latest signature burger? Anyone who guessed the chef's name won a voucher to try it for free. Some said Lucía Freitas straight away, and others... let's just say it took them a little longer ;)

La de la Rubia has been on our menu since 5 November at our burger bars in Lugo, Vigo and Santiago de Compostela.