El Cisne Azul — Restaurant in Madrid

Don't get confused with their 2 locations, as they have a more relaxed location and a fine dining spot just down the street. We at the fine dining location. We've had mushroom focused restaurants around the world, but we were somewhat disappointed with their mushroom dishes presented here. Our favorites were actually the non-mushroom dishes including the baby zucchini flowers, steak tartare and cheesecake. The worst dish was the mushroom with scallops. Lots of sand and grit from the improperly washed scallops, and the mushroom completely lacked any cooked flavour. The egg dish only had some truffle flavoring added to it but was barely noticeable. Our waiter was friendly but not the most helpful in aiding us to choose dishes and he kept saying how he doesn't eat any seafood himself. We ordered 2 glasses of wine, but somehow we got charge for 3 glasses and when I asked my waiter, he mentioned something about the portions which I didn't really understand and I blew it off as a miscommunication error on my part which I paid for. Overall a bit of a disappointment of a meal that should be mushroom centric but those being the weakest of...

A must try in Madrid!

Like many online reviews say, the restaurant exterior is unassuming and easy to overlook. However, the dishes we ordered are easily some of the best food we had in Madrid. We have had several pulpo (octopus tentacle) dishes in Spain but this one stood out as it was well seasoned, simple, and tender. The ribeye steak we had was also well seasoned and the meat itself was flavorful. The foie gras was cooked and paired wonderfully- the foie gras and enoki mushroom pairing turned out great with the enoki mushrooms absorbing the rich flavors of foie. The other mushroom dishes we had were good but not the best we have tried in our Spain trip- the add ons of egg and truffle overpowered the black mushrooms which I felt was a bit under seasoned . The assortment of mushrooms was a good starter but not as memorable as the other dishes we had.

Overall I would still consider a favorite restaurant in Madrid which I would love to go back to and recommend! Good service and easy online reservation as well.

Just to add- when we visited El Cisne Azul had 2 locations on the same street and we reserved for the more formal...

TLDR Food was 3.5/5. Not worth the price tag if you’re there for the shrooms The staff was incredible and very attentive. The ambiance of the restaurant was nice and the environment was beautiful. The food started off very good, very fresh. However, being a mushroom restaurant, the mushroom dishes were disappointing. The mushrooms seemed like they were just sweat on a pan and served without any real attention. With beautiful foraged mushrooms, it was a shame. There was no caramelization and it seemed like a good butter or oil wasn’t used to cook them. There was no flavor and they were soggy. If you are going to tout mushrooms a use mushrooms like chanterelles, they need the Maillard reaction…at least a little bit. The other dishes were all quite delicious, but the potatoes felt undercooked. Overall a good experience, but sad for me because of the...