La Rollerie Alcalá de Henares — Restaurant in Alcalá de Henares

GREAT FOOD AT A GOOD PRICE WITH A COZY AMBIENCE

Living in Alcalá de Henares for almost a decade, my wife and I have seen plenty of restaurants come and go (much faster than we'd like to, especially with those we've come to enjoy and cherish), but one constant and reliable fallback, in case nothing else seems appealing to us, has always been La Rollerie.

Located in the very center of Alcalá, just a minute of slow walking away from Plaza de Cervantes it's an oasis from the busy and dizzy town center, especially if you get a table in the backyard, which has been beautifully decorated and carefully designed to resemble a small town square; especially kids just love it.

We discovered the restaurant for the first time when touring Alcalá de Henares' center after moving here and visiting the Home of Cervantes' Museum, barely a hundred meters further down the road Calle Mayor. La Rollerie immediate stood out from the neighboring typically run-down fast-food equivalent of Spanish tappas bars, which Alcalá de Henares was actually quite famous for in the year leading up to our moving here, traditionally for high-quality tapas, but since then has seen a steady and drastic decline in it's quality of service and food (same portion, more expensive, less polite staff, etc.)...

... but not La Rollerie. From the first cinnamon roll with maple syrup as a quick afternoon snack after a long stroll though the town, accompanied by an excellent coffee back in the day, to meeting my new culinary requirements of recently having become a vegan and finding (a.o.) a delicious quinoa-burger on the menu, La Rollerie has never let us down and we'll always be coming back to this trusted, charming, cozy, delightful, and simply delicious restaurant in years and decades to come, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Keep up the good work, and I've got only one remark to the staff and owner of La Rollerie: Please keep educating your future staff to be just as polite and attentive as they have been in years...

A cozy cafeteria that, even being part of a food chain, is still enchanting and lovely. As for the food itself, is quite okay, no complaints. Yesterday, I took a pumpkin cream and it was really yummy, as well as the avocado toast. The tortilla seem to vary according to I don't know what: I ordered one last week and it wasn't that great but yesterday was pretty nice. And, the thing I have always try to not order: the Canella (cinnamon) roll with vanilla ice cream and hot chocolate. Gosh!! I mean, you just HAVE TO TRY IT!! I appreciate the decoration and, should I point something not that good, the AC is never quite great and yesterday they were playing reggaeton. Guys, I mean REALLY, JUST. DON'T. It doesn't even match the place! You can find hundreds of innocuous coffee shop playlists in Spotify and waaaay better. Or only silence? (Did you know there apps with cafeteria sounds as white noise for people to relax and concentrate?) I know your staff is young and yes, I might be a bit picky, but please, c'mon, will you just try not to play any more reggeaton, even if it's not that loud? I believe in the power music has to move people - I would definitely move to another place next time I'm there and...

They have a menu in English, but none of the staff really speak or understand English. They couldn’t take our order properly. Super slow service. My boyfriend ordered the nachos and they came without cheese. It looked like they had run out of cheese because they left three drops of the cheese sauce. Why not just tell us you ran out of cheese and ask if we want to order something else? Our waiter also told me they couldn’t make me a Café con Leche, only a Cappuccino…but they are the same ingredients??? Very confusing. I tried to order the hummus with bread instead of fries (I have never seen hummus served with fries??) and they said they couldn’t do that, which was also very confusing. Maybe coming for pastries would be a better experience, but lunch is not...