Monocromo vermuteria gastrounderground — Restaurant in Bilbao

Avoid this place if you care about a nice dining experience. It is a trap.

In short: -we were pushed multiple times to take more dishes than we wanted -dishes are pretty expensive, but this not justified in the quality of the food -dining experience is weird because this place tries to go for exprnsive fine dining experience. But why do I need to find the menu with a QR code on the table? Why is the music inside so loud?

Visited Monocromo on August 11th because of the good reviews here on Google maps, but left with a bitter aftertaste. After getting our drinks we wanted to order a dish to share (Iberian pork). It was late, we were not super hungry and the menu said it was good for two. When the waitress takes our order she says "it is not enough for us" and recommends we order 3 dishes minimum. We don't understand, but she says we should really order 3 dishes: "the pork is super small!“ She gives us some time and comes back a few minutes later. We add just the Tuna tartar but she says we should have another dish, and we hesitantly take the duck as well. We probably should have left at this point but we were so overwhelmed by this pushing for more dishes that we didn't know what to do, we drank half our drinks and the table was already prepared for us...

I've never had this weird, pushing experience ever in my life and it ruined the last part of our nice day in Bilbao. Thanks for that people of...

We came to this restaurant with high expectations based on the recommendations and what we could read on their menu and see on the pictures. While the starter was nice, the main dish was a disappointment - black rice with pulpo. The pulpo most likely gets grilled on the same grill as the pork, which changes its taste and the black rice wasn’t black rice and had a too strong taste from the squid ink. As a dessert we had monochromo’s version of a cheese cake. Unfortunately the description of the menu is kept very general (both English and Spanish). Since the cake is based on goat milk the taste was very strong and not our cup of tea. Generally speaking, the food is probably just not our taste since the place has so many good reviews. We did mentioned our difficulties with the food to the service but they didn’t comment on it. Another thing that was a little difficult, is the open kitchen - the vent isn’t strong enough so you’re leaving with a strong charcoal smell of...

One of best restaurants ever. Creative, plentiful dishes served with aplomb at very fair prices.

We loved the grilled baby lettuces with a burrata-style cheese and thick green goddess dressing.

We loved the pork tartare - sweet, succulent and served with the best-ever housemade tortilla chips.

We loved the lamb gyozas in a flavorful broth that was so good we scoured every last drop off the plate with the excellent bread.

We loved the giant squid in a thick, oozing ink.

And we LOVED the Gold Negronis that add a couple of shots of cava to the standard preparation to elevate our favorite cocktail to a new, molto alcoholic level. At 7e, it is a bargain.

In short, we loved this place so much that we are going back again tonight to sit in front of the tiny open kitchen to watch the chefs work their magic. When in Bilbao, go to the Guggenheim for the art but stay for the culinary artistry...