El Club Allard

For Belgians eating *** rated is always better abroad: the average price is much more reasonable then back home. In Madrid we chose Club Allard, and managed to walk out with max 150 EURO less. Aperitive was Cava nothing compared to the average bubbles you drink at home. Silksmooth. Then we took Club Allard menu with everthing from eatable menu to rice that turned out to be squid. My first *** experience and I loved it.

My Wife and I were in Madrid for three days and on that time we wanted to try at least one of the michelin star restaurants .
My Wife is Vegan so I always I have to either email or call restaurants we want to try to make sure they will be able to accommodate her dietary restrictions and also this way if the chef needs to get ingredients that they don’t usually have, they will have the time to do so.
I emailed El Club Allard to check if they could prepare a Vegan menu for her and there was no problem for them to do so (i did call other top restaurants and they weren’t or actually they din’t want to modify any of their menu items) besides I read so much about El Club Allard I wanted to try it.
What can I say, it was Incredible, the Textures, Flavors and Creativity of Chef Maria Marte not only for my 13 course 3 hour lunch but what The Chef did with my Wife Vegan menu .
It is really commendable the effort put into creating for Her such an interesting creations that matched every dish I got with a Vegan dish for her.
This Restaurant is one of the best we have been and We have been at the best restaurants in the World, being Paris, Rome, Monaco, NYC, LA, London and We can add Madrid to the list.
We are going to be back in Madrid and I called to see how soon I can make reservations and I talked to Alba Sanchez and she mentioned to send her a copy of My Wife’s menu so when we go next time when we are in Madrid The Chef would be able to make another Vegan menu with different dishes, that just show their dedication and care they have for their customers.
Also I would like to mention How good, professional and friendly the staff was .
Another interesting fact worth mentioning, the cost of our Lunch including two glasses of Cava and three glasses of wine was more or less the same price of what just two entrees would cost in any of the top restaurants in Paris

I want to qualify this review by telling the reader that this is one of the six restaurants that we ate in during the last week of November 2014. To put this review in context, we were six people who were in Madrid four days re-​visiting and trying new restaurants. We ate at Casa Lucio, (twice lunch and a late dinner), El Paraguas, La Trainera and O’Pazo which were all stellar. We also ate at Ten Con Ten which was okay but highly overrated.
I have never written a bad review as I would not want to hurt the people who make their living by working in a service industry. Having said that, I can not hold back my absolute contempt for the food, the service and the ambience of El Club Allard. This was on my list of fine restaurants in Madrid; it should never have been on my list or any other list when it comes to gourmet dining.
The gimmicks of eating a tasteless paper, akin to receiving a communion wafer, was just the start. The cold razor clams were dirty with grit. The silly foam additions on every other plate were totally lacking of flavor, truly a new low in Spanish cuisine. The turbot was like rubber. We had the Superior menu which only meant we had more insipid dishes than any one person should ever try to eat.
What was truly appalling was the service! We had a waiter who thought it was funny to plop down our silverware after each course. He seemed to have some personal, internal joke going on that made him speak about each dish as rapidly and incomprehensible as he could. He was rude and insulting. I had wanted to walk out after the first ten minutes but did not want to embarrass the rest of the members in my party. This was a mistake because two of our guests were sick with food poisoning for 24 hours, ruining two days of our holiday.
To finish up, the ambience of the room that we sat in was cold and dark; a gray room made especially for visiting tourists.
I apologize to the reviewers who had a good meal here but I truly recommend you try the restaurants that I mentioned in the beginning of this review, so as to know where the great food, excellent service and warm ambience can be enjoyed while in Madrid.

Best meal in my life so far. Art and food meet superbly. Most memorable dish in my 10 (11? – I lost count) course dinner included the intensely aromatic smell of a log fire under the bowl that I wafted as I ate the truffled appetizer. Incredible! Service okay but language may have been a barrier. Sommelier friendly and approachable.

Loved it!
They blew out all my circuits with this meal.
This was my first meal in Spain. The time was tight. Our plane landed around 1pm and our reservation was for 2pm. Here were the four of us: rushing off the plane, grabbing our luggage, bussing to our hotel and changing from our sweaty airport clothes, before cabbing it to Club Allard.
Whew! We made it.
They seat us immediately in a semi private room. Mozart and Bach played in the background as the food tantalized our senses. One of our friends took notes. Someone else moaned when appreciating the flavors and textures.
The surprises blow your mind. Food you thought would not work well, has such depth of flavor and richness. Such as the cherry soup and caviar. And such beautiful presentation of traditional food in unexpected way. Ex: The delicate caviar leaf and the game truffle.
And consumption of food that you usually did not enjoy, you found yourself appreciating. Ex: The smoked sardine with varying gradients of smokiness.
Dishes I wish I had two more portions of were the pea’s ravioli, egg with bread and pancetta, cuttlefish and the wagyu. (But physically, you really don’t want two more portions because after the first dessert, you are 200% full).
The pea’s ravioli was delicate film sweet potatoe, filled with creamy sweet pea. The iberique was ground into a creamy soup and served at table side. All of us desired to lick the bowl clean.
The egg with bread and pancetta was just perfectly executed. Crispy phyllo flakes with the runny Hen egg and creamy slightly salted potatoe sauce. This was such a savory, creamy and hearty dish.
Fuciformis cuttlefish with wasabi mayonnaise was the most unique and delicious entrée on the menu. The briny cuttlefish was the perfect complement to the rich smoky seafood enriched wood mushroom, giving this dish the perfect earthy taste of the sea. This dish was umami-​ously our table’s favorite.
Wagyu picanha was just perfectly done. Soft tender wagyu slices topped with fried beef slices and slivers of mushrooms. The balance of flavors and textures was so well done, I wanted to spend half an hour appreciating and savoring each bite. Unfortunately for me, we were already 2.75 hours into our course and my dining companions had already finished this dish.
This restaurant made me changed my mind about the last meal. I want the form, beauty and umami taste of the fuciformis cuttlefish and one hour just to savor it.

Spectacular food, impeccable service, and an artful presentation barely begin to describe the incredible experience of dining at El Club Allard.
The 15 plates were each pushed to the edge of culinary physics and design with items like mint smoke, edible menus with aioli, olive oil caviar, aquarium presentations, and dessert ‘eggs’ with chocolate shell, custard white and mango yolk. The most amazing gastronomic experience my boyfriend and I have had. We were blown away.
El Club Allard is worth a trip to Madrid.

Hidden in a nondescript building, a couple of people in our group were unable to find the place without assistance. Inside is a minimalistic space of rooms some closed off from others with tables for large and small groups. The food was Incredible employing all the senses. We had an 11 or 12 course meal each fantastic. The service was world class, so excellent you barely knew they were there except when an arm extended from behind you to change plates and silverware. The main server did make his presence felt announcing with much gusto the each course as it arrived.
The bathrooms are a bit strange but the waiters were quick to arrive and demonstrate how to use them.
This was the best overall culinary experience in Spain by far. Highly recommend it.

First off. My words can not begin to describe the culinary «experience» that is Club Allard. I walked right by the non descript building that houses the most incredible dining experience of my life. I can’t do this restaurant (culinary theater?) justice by trying to describing the 3 hour production. Yes, it took that long for my meal to be completed! I repeat. I was entertained and fed for 3 hours! Like a great movie or play that you have seen and your friend hasn’t and you don’t want to spoil it for them… I’m not going to spoil it for you. Just go and send me a message. It IS pricey but worth EVERY dollar.
The servers were incredible and very informative and Chef Diego Guerro’s vision and flavorful explosions were nothing short of the best production I have ever witnessed. Please go, the atmosphere, ambiance and impeccable taste and decorum will astound you.

My family and I came here to celebrate my mom’s 65^th birthday while we were traveling in Spain. I have to say being from San Francisco and having culinary geniuses around every corner I thought it would be a good meal but didn’t have any crazy expectations. The staff here blew us away. They sat us in a semi private room toward the back of the restaurant. In the room was a large round table and a book shelf with the restaurant’s Michelin awards.
The staff didn’t speak the best english so some of the nuance was lost but they were incredibly friendly and attentive. We decided to do the rendevous menu for five. The first course although not very good was super innovative and fun.
Our meal consisted of about 16 courses. The garden mushroom truffle course and the dessert were my favorites of the night. But each course was delicious.
Overall, this was one of the best meals of my life. The only other 2 star resturant I had been to til now was Manresa in Los Gatos and club allard made that experience feel mediocre. At the end of the meal Chef Guerreo comes out to every table to do his rounds.
The total tab for 5 (with wine pairings for 2) was ~520euro. This seemed like a bargain considering the beautiful execution. They also threw in an extra pre-​dessert which was special for mom’s birthday. At the end of the meal, my indian mother who has never been to a meal like this couldn’t stop talking about the little details. The most amusing part for her was they used the tiniest mushrooms in one of their courses. Its the little details that make a place great

Creative cuisine served in an elegant restaurant and the best part, the staff is unpretentious and you feel right at home. No formal dress code and I saw a few guests wearing jeans. 10 — 15 courses but the dinner may last from 2 hr to more depending on your pace. No stuffiness at all. Not bad for a 2 michelin star place. Chef Diego Guerrero talks to every guest before the meals for suggestions and afterwards for feedback.
Memorable dishes:
— Butter Fish Tapa served over a rice sheet which is on top of a soup and that’s above a candle!
— Eggs with bread and pancetta with a potato cream sauce
— the fishbowl
— egg dessert which you can find pic all over the web

En la Casa Gallardo, un magnífico edificio modernista abierto al público desde 2003 –fue un selecto club privado– podéis disfrutar del talento de Diego Guerrero, que acaba de obtener su segunda estrella Michelin.
Ambiente clásico de luz cálida y suave, amplio espacio entre mesas, muy buen servicio de sala, y excelente calidad de los platos. No hay carta, sólo menús (entre 74 y 99 €) Guerrero toma personalmente la nota de cada mesa, pasa a saludar y se acerca al final a comprobar si todo ha ido bien.
¿Y que decir de sus platos? ¡Que los pruebes!
Mini babybel de camembert trufado (con ella ganó el concurso nacional Ciudad de Valladolid 2009)
Sukiyaki (sopa japonesa de huevo, algas y verduras)
Ceviche de carabinero
Huevo con pan y panceta crujiente sobre crema ligera de patata
Raviolis de alubias de Tolosa en infusión de berza (falsas alubias esferificadas que contienen el chorizo, todo en un caldo de repollo con unos hilos de berza y de piparras fritas)
Langostinos en costra de arroz crocante y concassé de tomate.
Corazones de tomate de caserío en ensalada con pastilla helada de manzana verde, anchoa marinada y melón
Bombón de Bacalao y pil-​pil, lecho esponjoso de brandada y churros de pan de ajo
Vieiras en chop-​suey de apio, bacon y hongos
Ventresca de bonito asada con marmitako, esponja de limón y jengibre.
Taco de liebre estofada
Carré de cordero con tallarines de ciruela y coliflor salteada.
Foie a la sartén, con aloe vera.
Pichón de Araiz asado al momento en dos cocciones con un arroz cremoso de trufa. Ternera en terrina con natillas ligeras de foie (premio pil-​pil de la gastronomía 2002).
Su máxima creatividad la exhibe en sus deliciosos postres. La Pecera (Crema de Yogur, Blue Curaçao, Frambuesa Chocolate Blanco y Chocolate Negro), La Maceta (Flan ligero de jengibre y tierra de Tarta Sacher), El Huevo poché, (como un huevo entero con cáscara de chocolate blanco que al romper deja ver la «yema» (mango) y la «clara» (coco), La Vela (Mazapán bañado en Fresa, Helado de Módena con Vino dulce de misa)
Y con los cafés, El Jardín Zen, con estrellas de mar de frambuesa, roca de chocolate, las trufas de té verde y cacao o de chocolate blanco y arbequina…