El Pimiento Verde Lagasca — Restaurant in Madrid

We came to this restaurant without a reservation. The dining room was about 80% empty, yet the staff seated all guests crowded together in one corner. We were given an extremely small table for two. When my husband chose to sit next to me on the sofa, and another couple arrived, the waiter rudely gestured with his hands towards him as if shooing a dog off the table. This was extremely disrespectful, because he could have simply said: “Monsieur, sir, could you please move, return to your seat, or free the space?”.

Service only got worse. We were assigned a very unprofessional waitress a middle-aged brunette woman who was rude from the beginning. When I double-checked my order with her, asking if she understood, she impatiently repeated “yes, yes,” but it was obvious she didn’t understand English and was just agreeing. In the end, what I received was not what I had asked for.

What really stranded me was how salt was served: I asked for salt, and it was brought in a cheap plastic supermarket container. For a restaurant that claims to be of a higher level, this is, in my opinion, completely unacceptable.

The service also felt inconsistent: we were served only bread, while the table next to us received bread and olive oil. The only positive point was the cocktail the bartender was truly good.

As for the food, it was a disaster. We ordered octopus, but it was inedible: the texture was strange, and the taste was as if it had been soaked in dirty water before serving like chewing on a filthy rag. The fish was also unpleasant, with an odd consistency and a sauce that tasted acidic and watery, like diluted mayonnaise. We didn’t eat it at all.

In the end, we paid around 140 €, left hungry, and very disappointed.

Overall: I absolutely do not recommend this restaurant. The food was awful, the service rude, and for the price you can find dozens of far better...

Unfortunately, we had a disappointing experience.

Front of house were welcoming and kind, seating us quickly without a reservation. This is where the quality service ceased.

We ordered the artichoke flowers, broken eggs with truffle, foie and potatoes; as well as the Hake with Bilbao sauce. The highlight was the broken eggs, which were very tasty. The artichoke flowers were a pleasant starter too. We felt the Hake missed the mark - although the fish was well cooked. We have travelled extensively in Spain - including the Basque Country - so do not believe this was a case of being clueless foreigners!

My main complaint was the overall service. After being seated, the main server realised we did not speak fluent Spanish - and proceeded to largely ignore our table from this point. We also had trouble accessing the menu (via QR code), due to no network reception on phones or indications of how to access the WiFi. We ordered a glass of wine when we selected our food, with the full intention of buying a bottle (or more) with our meal. However, because our table became an afterthought, we did not receive another drink during our meal. We sat awkwardly for 20 minutes whilst countless staff drifted past out table. Staff were aware of our empty glasses but chose to ignore this repeatedly.

I would have happily spent €500+ in the venue, had we been attended to. However, by the time we were offered more food or beverage, we were too frustrated to stay longer. As others have commented, the venue is very nice, however, our experience with regard to the service largely...

I went there for the artichokes & was blown away by the vegetable stew!

This place includes a cover charge for appetisers - we got a warm and creamy vegetable soup in a shot glass, with some cheese, breadsticks, and bread. We ordered the artichokes (of course), red peppers with tuna, and for the main course a tripe dish and a veggie stew. Eating good vegetarian food in Spain is a tiny bit of a challenge but not impossible - this restaurant is an example.

The artichokes came highly recommended by locals. They are perfectly cooked and you can tell that they source good produce. The marinated/slowroasted red peppers were bursting with flavour - and IMHO was better than the artichokes. The tripe dish was rich and meant for a glutton ;) - for a foreign palate it can be lacking a dimension, nevertheless, the dish does justice to its origins. A 'vegetable stew' can be the most boring thing on their menu I thought, until I tasted it. The medley of (slightly overcooked) vegetables was a flavour explosion. I couldn't have imagined it just from the look. One mark of a good restaurant is checking how well they can make a veggie dish and they succeeded here.

The service is good and attentive even on a busy night. Kudos to them! They did have an English speaking waiter who made good wine recommendations. The red wine made for 'El Pimiento Verde' is a must try.

The price is worthy of the ambience, the service, and the quality of...