Don Lay l Restaurante cantonés Madrid — Restaurant in Madrid

Don Lay delivers a disappointing Chinese dining experience that fails to justify its pricing with consistently mediocre execution across most dishes. The restaurant struggles with fundamental preparation issues that undermine even classic Chinese preparations.

The chicken truffle oil xiao long bao was particularly disappointing, barely containing any soup - the defining characteristic that makes soup dumplings special - while completely lacking any discernible truffle oil flavor despite the premium positioning suggested by the name. These expensive dumplings failed on both technical execution and flavor delivery.

The Cantonese rice was decent, providing the meal's most reliable dish with proper seasoning and texture that met basic expectations for this standard preparation. The honeyed pork ribs were alright, without the sticky sweetness and tender meat that makes this dish a Chinese restaurant favorite. The preparation lacked the depth of flavor that proper glazing and cooking technique should provide.

The char siu was particularly disappointing - dry and not at all what I expected from a Chinese restaurant. The low quality meat suggested either poor sourcing or improper preparation techniques, both unacceptable for this Cantonese barbecue staple that should showcase succulent, flavorful pork.

We ended up skipping dessert entirely, having lost confidence in the kitchen's ability to deliver quality after the string of disappointing mains.

Don Lay proves too expensive for mediocre Chinese food, with pricing that suggests premium quality but execution that barely meets basic standards. The combination of poor technique and overpricing makes this restaurant difficult to recommend when Madrid offers much better Chinese options at similar or lower price points. Positive points for excellent service...

The restaurant is beautifully decorated and the staff are incredible. Very friendly, professional and helpful. However, the menu is 99% meat/fish based. There are 2 vegetable options and 1 of them has meat in it. Also, both the options for rice have meat/fish in them. They very kindly made a plate of rice with vegetables for me. The 1 vegetable dish was not worth it. Firstly the portion was small and only 3 different vegetables in it. There was a vegetable dumpling but I will say that it wasn't tasty. The price for the small vegetables was 14euros. The waiter offered me some soup (as the rest of my table was having it) and I asked if it had meat or fish in it and he said no. I asked him 2 times because I was quite skeptical, as everything else had meat/fish. He was adamant that it didn't. Then someone else at the table said "what's the broth of the soup?" and the waiter replied "duck bones"..... I didn't quite know what to say next to the waiter so I just politely declined the soup. There needs to be more vegetarian options so that you're welcoming a variety of people to your restaurant and also please inform your waiters what a meat/fish dish is compared to a...

Nice setting and buzzy atmosphere. We’ve been wanting to go here for some time. The main waiter was un patient with our order, kept interrupting me, and also ruined our birthday cake surprise for our family member. It was suppose to be a surprise and then mentioned to the birthday guest that “she has a cake coming”. That completely was the not the point why we handed it over to them before lunch was prepared. 🥲😤

Also waiter was pushy for us to order more food when we already eat prior and we had more than enough dishes for a party of four. 😒😒😒😒

Food is fresh and small portions. Some dishes are extremely salty. I love soy sauces and Cantonese food but dishes either lacked flavor or too salty. Not balanced. For the price and portion not worth it and bad waiter service overall. 😒

Some dishes were great but majority of them are not memorable.

Great place for a birthday or first date ambiance.

Would not come back. Better Cantonese food around Madrid that I am looking...