ATOCHA TANDOORI — Restaurant in Madrid

I recently dined at this Indian restaurant where I ordered the classic chicken tikka masala with rice and garlic naan. The experience began promisingly enough, with a trio of dipping sauces—one resembling chutney, another yogurt-based, and a sweet sauce—accompanying the starter. However, when the main dish arrived, the chicken tikka masala fell flat. The usual richness, often brought by the balance of cream and spices, was conspicuously absent, leaving the dish bland and lackluster. Moreover, there were only three small pieces of chicken swimming in the sauce, which was disappointing.

Additionally, the restaurant charged separately for both the garlic naan and the rice. The rice portion, while not bad, was small. The garlic naan was particularly underwhelming—overly doughy, with barely a hint of garlic or butter to elevate it. Dessert was a letdown as well: a familiar Indian sweet—gooey rice balls infused with cardamom and rose water that lacked any depth of flavor and left me unimpressed.

When I expressed my concerns to the staff, I was met with resistance, as they insisted that the food was prepared exactly as it should be. Having enjoyed Indian cuisine countless times, I knew otherwise. To their credit, they did offer a small gesture of goodwill with a $2 discount, but it was far from making up for the overall experience, which left much...

I really do not understand how this restaurant has 4.5 stars. If you love Indian "authentic" food and service, please read my entire review. I have been to 6 countries in Europe and have tried more than 10 Indian restaurants, Atocha Tandoori being the absolute worst. The staff is cold and rude, they wouldn't greet you. We had to call the staff multiple times to be able to place the order, they would say one or the other excuse, trying to be busy. This was the first "Indian" restaurant where I didn't really find any Indians. Generally the restaurants I go to, the staff, be it Indian or Spanish happily greet us seeing we are Indians and always are very warm and humble, not the case at Atocha Tandoori. The taste if far from authentic, there are many restaurants in the vicinity which some much better Indian food. The quantity is very less for the price, they are extremely pricey but the quantity wouldn't even be enough for 1, and a single person cannot eat 2 mains, so either you stay hungry or spend more and waste food. I had dal makhni here, and at a place called Indian Aroma in Madrid, they give really amazing taste and quantity, almost 2 times more at a much cheaper rate.

Don't waste your time here if you want to try real...

We went to this place with a group for dinner. The first thing we noticed was the beautiful interior. It’s elegant, but cosy at the same time. There’s music playing in the background. The service was also very good: polite and fast.

The food was interesting. I’m saying interesting because it was different than what you’d usually get. The food was still good, but I think the level of how non-spicy it is threw me off.

The samosas were good. The butter chicken has two options: no spice or with spice. We tried the spicier option. It didn’t really taste like butter chicken, but that’s probably because of the different spices, so if you want the old school sweet buttery dish, I do not recommend choosing with extra spices. The shrimp vindaloo was not as spicy as you would expect but it was a great curry. The aloo gobi was very mild, but pretty good. We also tried the garlic naan and that’s probably one of the best garlic naans I’ve ever had. If you want to eat rice with your main dish, you have to order it separately. The mango lassi was also really...