Sabatini

We were hungry and saw this spot on our way back to our hotel. I almost walked out as soon as I walked in as the establishment appeared dirty and more like a dive bar than a restaurant. The waiter quickly tried to seat us and it became readily apparent that we were one of only two parties seated to eat food, the rest of the people were just there to drink. Anyhow we took a chance and ordered. We ordered a pasta dish and some pizza. The waiter brought us some cold hard bread as an appetizer, which we did not order, but were charged 1.80 euro for. The food itself was mediocre at best.
When we asked for the check, the waiter asked if we wanted any coffee or desert first. We said «no», just the check please. However along with the check he brought two shots of baileys and said «here you go, Spanish baileys» as to imply it was on the house of something? Then when I looked at the bill sure enough there it was a 2 euro charge for the shots. I probably should have complained, but I don’t speak Spanish well, and after reading some other reviews it appears we weren’t the only ones who were charged for food /​drinks we didn’t order… steer clear of this place, they are just out to rip you off!

Avoid!
They try to charge us for complimentary bread and butter. I say complimentary cuz they were brought to us as soon as we sat down, no questions asked.
I guess the waiter saw that we don’t speak Spanish and decided to give it a go. The bill got weird. I might not be able to read Spanish but I can count how many items were listed… Twice as many as we ordered!
He was also very pushy and insisted us ordering more than we could eat.
Seafood Paella tasted half cooked, and we can count how many seafood pieces were in there.
So run! Go somewhere else!

Came here for their churros and chocolate.
The churros were old, cold and definitely not fresh. They tasted stale and days old. The least they could have done was to warm it up.
I have no complaints about the service.
I definitely would not recommend this place based on what I ordered. If simple churros taste horrible, I can only imagine what their other food taste like.

Horrible paella. Poor service? More like barely any service.
They never gave us our tapas that supposedly came with our beer.
Big tourist trap. If you’re hungry and around this eatery, bypass and go somewhere else. You’ll thank me later when you’re enjoying a way better meal.

La comida… No me gusta.
We were super hungry before we even got to the Palacio Real, and this was very close by. Most certainly a tourist trap with mediocre food… But incredibly nice service.
We didn’t really know what we wanted, so the waiter made a recommendation and like a good uncle, said «Yes, okay… Traditional Spanish meal I’ll bring you!» Before we were really sure what we ordered. No matter… Didn’t bother us.
I would give this place a 4 just because I like the staff here so much, but as I’ve alluded before… I can’t eat servers since they just aren’t very tasty to my non-​cannibalistic palate.
Food:
— A baguette slice with ham and cheese– ²⁄₅
— Tortilla (potato and egg) — ³⁄₅. Fine, just generic
— Standard Spanish baguette– 2:5. Wow the hard crust is like 1 cm thick all around!
— Ham– good, but a plate for 18.95. Steep
— Valencia paella– 2.5÷5 chicken over cooked. Quite soupier than mine. Came with bell peppers in it
— Seafood paella– ³⁄₅ while mine was flavorful, seafood was not abundant. Came with green peas.
Does not fall into «quality meal for the price» category… Get something small if you just need a little sustenance to carry you through to your next destination!

I came here with my friend and her family. They all ordered paellas and I ordered the seafood noodles. I forgot the name of my dish, but it’s basically the noodles instead of rice version of paella. I felt like it tasted more like asian noodles with minimal seafood… which was not fresh. My shrimps shrunk so much, I thought they put tiny asian dried shrimps in. It was also quite salty. There was only one person working so service was MIA. I was hoping to get good food in Madrid, but this restaurant definitely disappointed.

Este sitio es ideal para los guiris que vienen a hacer la típica visita cultural a Madrid.
Para mí lo bueno que tiene es la cercanía con el Palacio Real, que ya que lo visitas te vas a tomar una cañita al bar cercano.
Estuve con mi madre la semana pasada tomando una caña en la terraza y se estaba la mar de a gusto, pero es un bar sin más, no tiene nada más de especial que lo que ya he comentado.
Relax en la terraza, cañas y tapas.

Es un local que deberíamos dejar más bien para los turistas que circulan por la zona y visitan el Palacio Real y los Jardines de Sabatini.
El día que yo estuve fue un día un poco conflictivo, en la carta no ponía que había que incluir el IVA y unos señores que estaban comiendo en una mesa discutieron con el camarero.
Lo cierto es que el camarero fue muy desagradable y en vez tratar de calmar a los clientes, le daba un poco igual sus críticas.
Por lo demás, las tapas no están mal aunque tampoco tienen nada muy destacado ni que les de un toque de distinción.