Boom Boom Ciao — Restaurant in Madrid

If you’re looking for a place to not enjoy Italian food but still get that perfect shot for Instagram, Boom Boom Ciao is calling your name. This place is 100% designed for tourists who think carbonara comes with cream and that Aperol Spritz is the height of Italian culture.

To be fair, the cocktails are… not bad. But everything else? Oof. The food is below average at best – a real tragedy considering how beautiful the space is. Seriously, it’s like walking into a Pinterest board. Unfortunately, aesthetics can’t save your taste buds.

Now let’s talk about the service – or the absolute lack of it. The restaurant was half empty and yet we basically had to flag down our waiter like we were guiding a plane to land. He ignored us so thoroughly that I started wondering if I was wearing an invisibility cloak. No explanation of the menu, no effort to upsell, no vibe at all. Just vibes missing.

And then there’s the bizarre military parade happening every 5 minutes – the waiter and the head waiter marching up and down between the tightly packed tables like they were rehearsing for a tactical mission. It was awkward. It was weird. It was… kind of dystopian.

On the bright side, the prices aren’t high – so at least the disappointment is affordable.

Bottom line: if you’ve ever eaten real Italian food, this place might feel like a personal attack. Proceed only if your priority is content,...

Solid Italian gnosh at this fancy, buzzing trattoria in the middle of Malasaña. First time visiting, but we'd been lured by the beautiful decoration whilst walking by on other occasions! The food doesn't quite wow you as much at the décor, but it is pretty decent Italian fare and not overly pricey. The starters are fusion-style with some traditional Spanish tapas on there too - croquetas, bienmesabe... and then there are the staple Italian dishes like vitello tonnato. All of these were pretty tasty and good quality. The stars of the show for me were the pizzas, with a deliciously puffy and chewy base, and some creative toppings on offer - the mortadella, buffala and pistachio is a must. Desserts were just ok - a bit more style than substance! Wine offerings were a little basic and overly priced, but ok for a copa or two. Over all, it was a great experience, with upbeat staff and a great vibe - views into the open kitchen and Italian designer elements everywhere to entertain the senses. Definitely worth a visit, albeit for a couple of nice starters...

We had high hopes for this place... It looks good at first glance - attractive decor, nice food presentation, fairly good cocktails. It is unacceptable though, to serve main courses one by one with about 5-10 minutes passing between serving each person. That translates to one person finishing their meal while the second one gets theirs and the third one is still waiting. Big mistake for a place where you spend on average 40-50 €/person and very awkward for every guest at the table. The food itself was fairly good, although the steak was sadly completely overcooked, salmon and octopus were nice. When making the reservation we also mentioned a person from our party is celebrating a big anniversary and they promised to "definitely sing, bring a little dessert with candles and a surprise". You guessed it, none of that happened. We chose to wrap it up early and continue the night elsewhere. We weren't the only ones that had issues - the table next to us actually sent food back to the kitchen. There's a lot of room for improvement, although there's...