El Viajero — Restaurant in Madrid

I came here on my first night in Madrid based on a recommendation. I wish I hadn’t. Isn’t food supposed to bring joy? Well, this place certainly doesn’t. I ordered the artichokes with salsa, an okay dish if you don’t care about food, I suppose. Parts of the artichokes were nicely charred, while still remaining pretty much raw, and a challenge to chew through. The pico de gallo complimented them just fine. I then ordered a salmorejo, my favorite summer dish in Spain, a cold creamy tomato soup, traditionally served with jamón, eggs and extra virgin olive oil. Sadly, theirs was watered down to the point of being like tomato juice. They also didn’t serve me a spoon. This is where I found out just how attentive the staff is. It took about 6-7 minutes of trying, and failing, to wave any server down, until finally, the bartender noticed my weak attempts and brought me a spoon. Pretty hard to eat a soup with a knife and fork, isn’t it? In restaurants I’ve worked at, we bother to notice which way each plate is facing, so the restaurant logo faces the guest, and therefore each dish is plated to look the most attractive facing the person being served. Bringing a soup with no spoon is just complete lack of caring about your guests’ experience. I then ordered beef, “in the style of kebab”. Whatever you expect that means, you are mistaken. There are no chunks of beef, and most importantly no skewer, it’s served as mincemeat, in a paella-type pan, with pine nuts and hummus on the side. The flavors are strange and too sweet, unless you douse each bite with the hot sauce they provide on every single table. But surely, I haven’t come to eat bottled hot sauce. In order to hammer down the already miserable atmosphere from the food, they decided to play the most uplifting song perfect for any bar, that always sets a joyful drinking mood. R.E.M. - Everybody Hurts. I am not kidding. Without understanding a single lyric from that song, it is the most depressing thing I have ever heard played in any restaurant. Wow, was everything upsetting. The staff, as soon as done talking to a nearby table, have the strict tendency to make a 180° turn and walk right off, as you are politely waiting for them to be done talking/listening to get their attention. It’s like they have better things to do. The music choice, and service, understandably made the atmosphere as good as the food. Which is…...

Walked by and it seemed to have a good vibe. After a bike tour of the city we came back to our Air BnB. Our daughters relaxed and my husband and I went to have a beverage. Choose this place. Outside seating seemed packed but we had heard music and fun coming from up top so we walked in. A few seats on the first floor. Walked to the second which seemed packed. Went to third, very bustling. Long line for a table, so we decided to go back to the 2nd floor.. air conditioning ahhh. Found a seat at the bar. We are on vacation/ holiday and I like to people watch, after a while a couched/ table opened up and I asked a server if we could sit there, he said no, but I have this seat for you in just a minute. Was a perfect people watching seat. Had our beverages and tapas. The bartender helped me with my second drink. The staff was pleasant, sometimes busy and a little short but never rude. Places are normally open until 5:30 close and then open at 8:30 for dinner. I'm not sure what happens on the 1st, 3rd or outside but the 2nd floor opens for a disco between 5:30~3am (on the weekends). We normally try to eat/hang out early when we are not sure because you get more help vs during their busy hours. Tapas were great. Maybe spendy but the atmosphere was fabulous and the food was tasty... although we didn't order anything too fancy tomato trio and...

Terrible service, we ordered drinks and left without ordering any food (even though we were hungry). We were a group of 10 and had 3 toddlers with strollers and waited until a couple of tables were free. The waitress was incredibly rude to us when she saw us take up 3 tables in the terrace, then even more rude when we asked for the menu (she said "your tables already had menus before you moved the tables" and proceeded to bring them with a sour face). Then we asked for some potatoe chips for the kids while we asked for food and she said NO, that we needed to ask for everything at the same time. It was like if we were bothering her all the time. We put a complaint, but if you're waiting tables, politeness should be the...