In Hudson Yards’ Spanish market, our critic found more great food and drinks per square foot than anywhere else in New York.

When you come face to face with a classic dish made the way it’s supposed to be, you know it. Mercado Little Spain, the labyrinth of restaurants, bars, kiosks, counters and shops tucked under Hudson Yards at the point where the High Line runs into it, can give you that experience over and over. If gazpacho has always struck you as a pointless salad run through a blender for no good reason, the one here will make you see the point after all.

José Andrés, the chef, restaurateur and unofficial one-man Spanish embassy, is an owner and the perpetual motion machine that drives the project; Ferran and Albert Adrià, the brothers who led the culinary innovations at El Bulli, are among his collaborators. Mr. Andrés talks about the project as a tribute to the indoor markets like the Boqueria in Barcelona, places where you go to buy groceries and coffee and a snack, and an hour or two later find that you’ve already had a couple of glasses of wine and decided to stay for lunch.

Ellen Silverman for The New York Times

The comparison doesn’t quite fit. Unlike its European models or even local markets like Eataly and Le District, Mercado Little Spain is not set up to provide the ingredients for tonight’s dinner. What it is useful for is on-the-spot eating of almost unparalleled quality.

I was well into my fifth meal in the complex before I came across a dish I didn’t really like; as a general rule, everything is good, which is not something restaurant critics are in the habit of saying. After eating twice in each of its three sit-down restaurants and stitching together another half-dozen meals out of items sold individually at the bars, kiosks and so on, I’m ready to declare that Mercado Little Spain offers more delicious things to eat per square foot than anywhere else in New York.

Ellen Silverman for The New York Times

If you are in a rush or hope to feed yourself for under, say, $20, choose one or two items sold at kiosks — for instance, a ham and cheese sandwich called a flauta from the Jamón y Queso counter. The kiosks tend to be efficient, taking your money and handing over your food within five minutes at the outside.

With a little more time, the bars become tempting parking spaces. La Barra is an American-style tapas bar with a longish menu of smallish plates and an edifying list of Spanish wines. Bar Celona specializes in vermouth, cocktails and Spanish-style gin and tonics to drink with the kind of Iberian bar snack that basically goes from jar to a plate without any cooking.

The restaurants are, in a sense, the least rewarding places to spend time at Mercado Little Spain. In part this is because service can be poky and a bit green. In part it is because two of the restaurants, Leña and Mar, aren’t quite separate enough from the market; you can see the action outside, and when things get slow you can start to wish you were out there, moving freely. Mar may be the operation’s weakest link. The theme is seafood, but there doesn’t seem to be any underlying sensibility, and some of the best treasures of the Spanish coast have so far been missing.

Within the sprawling labyrinth of Mercado Little Spain are counters selling portable food that can be eaten anywhere in the market. There are also full-service restaurants including Leña and Mar, top, and Spanish Diner, bottom right. The engine driving the operation is the chef José Andrés, who is pictured in a mural, bottom left, holding a paella pan. Ellen Silverman for The New York Times

Even Mar’s razor clams are not as good as the ones served next door at Leña, where they are cooked on a grill, like almost everything on the menu. Grilling brings a kind of austere glory to Leña’s artichokes and asparagus, not to mention the superb lamb chops, fresh Ibérico pork and glorious botifarra sausages paired, following Catalan custom, with white beans.

The idea of the third restaurant, Spanish Diner, is nearly self-explanatory. Pancakes and French toast are served in the morning, tripe stew and ham sandwiches are available in the afternoon and evening, and almost everything can come with eggs, which are fried at almost any hour.

Spanish Diner also serves some of the greatest hits of the kiosks next door. And it has the most charming location in the complex, sheltered under the High Line Spur, which opened along West 30th Street around the same time. With its garage-size doors rolled all the way up almost every day this summer, Spanish Diner is one of the few places in Hudson Yards that welcomes passers-by instead of trying to stun them into submission.

A B R1 G B1 E C D B2 H F I J K B4 L R3 B3 R2 Restaurants Kiosks R1 A G Mar Pasteles Cocas R2 B H Leña Helados Churros R3 C I Spanish Diner Pescados & Mariscos Bravas D J Tortillas de Patatas y Lacón con Patatas Paella al Plato Bars K Jamón y Queso B1 Vinos E L Bocatas y Empanadas Granja B2 La Barra Frutas y Verduras F B3 Bar Celona B4 Diner Bar A B R1 B1 G E C D B2 H F I J K B4 L R3 B3 R2 Restaurants Bars R1 B1 Mar Vinos R2 B2 Leña La Barra R3 B3 Spanish Diner Bar Celona B4 Diner Bar Kiosks Pasteles Cocas A G Helados Churros H B Pescados & Mariscos Bravas I C Tortillas de Patatas y Lacón con Patatas J Paella al Plato D Jamón y Queso K Bocatas y Empanadas Granja E L F Frutas y Verduras