La Tasquita de Enfrente

I was back in Madrid and decided to go here again, for my second time this year. This time I went with a friend who wasnt a vegetarian, unlike the last time. I was glad I returned. Overall, this place is excellent. I’m not offended as others are at the price fixe nature of the place. I thought the food — all the various courses we had — both meat and veg — were all good. Dessert was excellent — a banana pudding of sorts. Loved the wine choices. Last time I was here I tried a bottle that was very reasonable and bought it the next day on the street. The markup wasnt much. And this time enjoyed some new riojas. Service was good, the chef walks around and checks on everybody, and I enjoyed the multiple bread services. I’d recommend it if you’re adventurous and want to try inventive Spanish food. Restaurant opened at 9pm and we were the first to arrive. It was packed and there were people waiting by the time we left around 11 — ah, I love late night Spain! Enjoy and will go back again.

Terrible place. Food was barely ok. Truly. We were pressured into a chef’s tasting which for lunch for two came out to be 140 euros. Gulp. The food was very bland, very terrible, not trying at all. Nothing worse than a bad restaurant that rips you off. We had lunch the day before at TriCiclo for 40 euros total and it was delicious and special. Also a place for old folks which would help make sense of the bland food. In our late 30s, we were the youngest by far.

Fui queriendo probar sus bravas, expresamente y no las tenían, me comentaron que no sabían cuando las harían que no podían decirme día, que van variando la carta y no tienen platos fijos sino que depende del día… un punto negativo, es ir a probar suerte, a los que os movéis por antojo pensároslo un poco.
Le daremos otra oportunidad otro día porque me han hablado genial de su carta.

DO NOT GO THERE!
My dad was encouragely recommended to go there. But it was a bad, bad idea.
The maitre was the stupidest person I’ve ever talked to. His pretentious and extremely posh accent made me regret having booked a table there. No details, he made a very inappropriate comment regarding my sister’s food tastes, SO RUDE.
Food wasn’t special either… Never again.

I was heavily recommended this place through well respected trade magazines and foodies, however, I am sorry to say that it went sideways real quick.
My best friend and I came here before our dinner for a side dish and some Gin.
I am aware that it was run by a very popular chef but that means nothing to me in this instance.
The waiter says that there is no menu which is bullsh*t ’cause after a discrepancy with our bill I find that there was a print menu after all. He explains that the menu changes all the time which is fair enough, however, this gave the kitchen staff permission to charge us whatever they thought that they could get out of us since we were tourists.
He was good about addressing dietary concerns.
The main courses in the menu range from 29 — 34 euros which is fair enough, however, we just ordered ½ cup of mushrooms and peas which came to 28 euro. You cannot tell me what mushrooms and peas are 28 euro when the cost of a full course meal is the same.
When I challenged the waiter on this he came back with some bullshit story about how the mushrooms and peas were «rare.» I am not an idiot and know my food stuff and these were not «rare» veggies by any means. I agreed that they were fresh but unless these mushroom were sh*tted out by monkey’s and found in Never Never Land it was still a rip off for a side dish.
While we were eating the waiter and the other staff had their eyes on us the whole time like a hawk which made it awkward for my best friend and I.
The Gin was good, the smell had some floral notes like lilacs.
If you’re a tourist and they charge your credit card make sure that they charge in Euros. I was informed by my bank and Trip Advisor prior to leaving that they will try and offer your billing in your home currency. You may feel as though this is an added value courtesy, however, this is the biggest scam in Spain. Not only will be charged the exchange, a surcharge but also 2.85% fee for the billing exchange. Just allow your credit card to take care of the conversion for you. Your credit card statement will show the proper currency that you’re accustomed to.
Make sure to check your credit card statement daily just in case they didn’t charge your correctly so that you can immediately call Visa or MC’s 1 – 800 number to get it sorted out within the 24 hour time Frame.
Thankfully on this trip we didn’t get robbed but this eatery sure made us feel like we were.

Que ilusión tenia yo con este restaurante! Llevaba un montón de tiempo queriendo ir… Hoy en mi 20 aniversario de matrimonio hemos reservado… No se como explicar la desilusión tan grande…
Para empezar he pedido una copa de cava, me han dicho que solo tenían champagne y bueno… como era nuestro aniversario adelante con la copa!
Hemos pedido para compartir ensaladilla rusa, bien correcta, las he probado mejores sinceramente…
Después hemos seguido con una menestra, que estaba demasiado al dente pero rica.
Y de segundos hemos pedido raya a la mantequilla negra y carrilleras para compartir también.
En ese momento nos han preguntado si querríamos vino y hemos dicho… bueno vamos a seguir con el champagne! Lo normal es que nos hubieran enseñado la botella y supiéramos que champagne (porque no había cava) estábamos bebiendo!
Bueno continuamos con la raya en la que se les ha ido la mano con el vinagre… pero bastante! Y las carrilleras estaban bien pero se notaba mucho el sabor … de la menestra?
No hemos pedido postre, un café cortado y uno solo con hielo.
Cuando ha llegado la cuenta cual ha sido nuestra sorpresa que nos han puesto un champagne de 70 €!!! Culpa nuestra también por no preguntar, es decir que la cuenta ha ascendido a la friolera de 162 €!
162 €???
Sinceramente no. No lo vale. Ni el trato es tan exquisito, es mas es dueño estaba comiendo en la mesa de al lado y se levantaba para decir la carta.
Una pena la verdad. La Tasquita de enfrente… Ese nombre invita a otra cosa. A eso de lo que tanto nos vanagloriamos en Madrid, tasca: taberna, local modesto de bebidas y comidas. PERO QUE COMIDAS!!!

On our second night in Madrid, we decided to find a nice sit down restaurant where we could enjoy a more refined Spanish meal. After some research, we settled on La Tasquita de Enfrente, a small but well reviewed restaurant run by Chef Juango Lopez Bedemar. The restaurant is located just north of Calle Gran Via and from the outside, other than the numerous Michelin rating stickers from over the years in the window, you really wouldn’t guess this was much of a restaurant. However, if there’s anything I have learned from my trip in Spain regarding restaurants, it’s don’t judge a book by its cover.
Our waiter presents himself and explains that there is no menu at this restaurant. The chef changes everything daily based on what it gets from the market. We were recommended the tasting menu where you are at the whim of the chef — although you can make some requests and he will adjust for them — or if you want, you can go «a la carte» where the chef consults with you and makes a few dishes based on that. We naturally went with the tasting menu to truly experience what this restaurant is about. One member of our party requested no meat so we all ended up with no meat throughout our tasting. Ended up not being an issue — even for a meat lover like myself.
First up, a Mushroom cream soup that my camera decided didn’t like its look so I have no picture of it. Very smooth texture with wonderfully earthy tones. You could taste the freshness of the mushrooms throughout. A very nice way to start the meal. Next up, a king crab salad with homemade crisp. As it would be throughout the meal, the Chef prepares his dishes very simply — he allows the freshness of the ingredients to do the talking. Here, wonderful crab meat with a bit of binder, some bread crumbs and a little bit of roe on top. A great appetizer.
Third course now, we got a cold Spider Crab soup. Great seafood broth with hints of tomatoes in the base. The crab meat itself was delicious and added a nice texture to the soup. I am not a big cold soup fan but this one worked for me on all accounts.
Next up, egg fried sardines with some bacon bits on top. When one thinks of sardines, one tends to think about sardines in a can which I absolutely hate. This was nowhere near that. Nice crisp of both the skin and the coating around the sardine. The meat inside was nice and flaky. Overall, there is a nice richness to the dish without any oiliness or being too heavy which was a good thing given we were only halfway through the meal!
To counter that richness, the Chef then presented us with a very simple but again wonderful dish of mixed mushrooms. Just a few different varieties of mushroom presented in different ways (chopped, shaved, sliced) and tossed in a little oil. Amazing how many flavours one can get with such a simple dish. Great follow-​up to the sardines.
The next 2 dishes were truly new experiences for me. First, we got fried Hake necks with a aioli of mayonnaise, garlic and Hake neck broken down. The fried necks were wonderful — very rich and fatty texture. Our server described them as the best part of the Hake and I would agree. The aioli didn’t work for me though. While a very unique idea of incorporating the neck into the sauce, the aioli was devoid of any real flavour to add to the fried necks. It ended up just being an textural addition to the dish. It was the one thing over the course of this meal that really didn’t work for me.
The final pre-​dessert course was brown butter stingray. I had no idea what to expect from stingray. It ended up being like ribs but instead of red meat, you got flaky white fish in between each rib. Great quality of fish here and the brown butter sauce was perfectly executed. Nice richness added to the white fish.
On to dessert, we each got 2 items — a pistachio tiramisu and a spanish pain perdu. Given my hatred of coffee, tiramisu tends not to be something I enjoy but this one worked for me. The pistachios added a nice nutty flavour which helped to dull the coffee for me. The pain perdu was quite good as well. Very sweet richness with the crispy sponge cake on top for a nice textural crunch. A good way to cap off a wonderful meal.
It didn’t look like much walking in but boy was this a great meal! The cool thing throughout was seeing the chef come around numerous times to see how we were enjoying things and at the same time, seeing how each table had slightly different dishes one to the other. There truly is no pre-​set menu — even for one night! If ever you go to Madrid and are looking for a way to truly experience Spanish cuising outside of the usual Tapas fare (which are amazing don’t get me wrong), you won’t go wrong checking this place out.
Cheers!

Aunque parezca el nombre de un sitio de tapas familiar os puedo asegurar que no lo es. Es uno de los mejores restaurante de Madrid y de lo más exquisito. Su carta de vinos es estupenda llegando a tener algunos con precios realemtne elevados, pero que merecen la pena. No recuerdo ni un sólo plato por la complicación de los nombres pero sí que según nobraba cada uno yo los quería todos.
El sitio no es expecialmente bonito pero sí agradable. El precio medio por persona son unos 60 euros pero si te portas bien (y tu cuenta sobre pasa los 100 por cabeza) es posible que te inviten a tomarte una copa en un reservado que tienen compartido con otro bar donde acabar la cena en su terraza completa la velada.

Hace poco que probé este restaurante con unos amigos.
Nos encontramos en la puerta. Desde fuera puede parecer un bar cualquiera pero por dentro es un sitio muy acogedor, pequeño.
Con la recomendación y la advertencia de que no es de los más económicos pero que sirven platos exquisitos, esperábamos allí a que uno de nosotros terminase de hablar por teléfono. Como tardaba, el resto intentamos entrar. Nos preguntaron si teníamos reserva y antes de responder ya nos habían dicho que no había sitio, que había que reservar aunque fuese miércoles.
Pero la suerte estuvo de nuestro lado y durante la espera, alguien salió para avisarnos que acababan de cancelar una mesa de 4: ¡bien!
En cuanto nos sentamos, Juanjo, el dueño, recitó un menú a la velocidad del rayo, nombrando platos hechos por él mismo, con nombres poco comunes, como si ofreciera lentejas o arroz. Después pedimos.
Atención al plato ganador de la noche: cocochas de merluza (riquísimas). Después el flan de calabaza y el vino Peralada.
Precio por persona: 63 € aprox.
Lo único que no me gustó era que parecía que tuviesen prisa. Por lo demás, el trato fue cordial.
Tal vez le de otra oportunidad.

Restaurante situado en Madrid.
Uno de lo mejores sitios donde probar buenos caldos, tapas algo exóticas y buenos pescados.
La cocina es de mercado y normalmente van cambiando sus ingredientes y platos según temporada. Destacar algo que me llamó la atención y me recomendó el camarero ‘ensalada de erizo fresco’ algo exquisito que os recomiendo probar.
El inconveniente que tiene es la dificultad que tiene la zona para encontrar aparcamiento.
El precio algo carillo pero vale la pena.