Bodega de los Secretos

By far the worst experience I have had in Madrid.

We were a party of 3 with starters, main course, drinks and wine.

The food - At best mediocre. The ingredients seemed of high quality, however seasoning lacked. For starters I ordered the 6 scallops. They were all cooked differently, some to little, some very nice and others too much. Seasoning lacked here, it did not taste of much, other than the green salt used on top. I ordered the sirloin steak with mushroom sauce for mains. The mushroom sauce lacked mushroom flavor and salt, it mainly tasted of the cream used in the sauce, disappointing. I ordered the sirloin steak medium rare, it came out raw, so it was sent back. They also didn't apologize for this, which i would assume is common courtesy? Once I got the new steak, it turned out to be the exact same piece I had previously sent back that had just been put in the oven. For this mistake I expected a new steak, sauce and potatoes, not the exact same plate i sent back.

Service - Our first and main server was very polite and well-spoken in english, this was very much appreciated! Some communication difficulties with others, but not harmful for the overall experience.

The atmosphere - Was absolutely horrendous unfortunately. The table next to us was a party of 6-7, that were ear-deafening loud for more than 1 hour straight, which destroyed the entire experience, and definitely not only for our table, but for everyone seated within 5-6 tables. The party continuously shouted, sang and banged the table very loudly, how is this acceptable in this setting? The staff did absolutely nothing about this, how are nobody from the staff taking responsibility?? It is not my job as a paying guest to tell other guests to please lower their voices, that is the job of the staff to use their common sense, very very very disappointing. We skipped desert because of the atmosphere being too chaotic, stressful and unpleasant. When we confronted the staff about the horrible atmosphere, they said we were not the only ones who had complained, but that they could not do anything about it, only their manager could. This is to me the absolute worst response in this case, as they have known that an issue has been present, but ignored it, this is to me very unprofessional and disappointing.

Overall - Bodega de los Secretos sold us an expectation of above average food enjoyed in a setting of secrecy and "low-keyness" being that the entire restaurant is in a basement and dim lit. However, this expectation was not even close to being met, primarily because of the lack of control of the setting and atmosphere by the staff. I think you can have a very nice evening at this place, and clearly a lot of people has, however my visit was ruined by major flaws that can be controlled/corrected by the staff, but weren't, thus only 1 star rating.