Honest Greens Hortaleza — Restaurant in Madrid

I stumbled upon the restaurant. There was a huge lineup. So it was either good, or hype, maybe both. Menu is offered in English so while I was waiting for my turn I had plenty of time to make my choice. As you go to the cashier you can have a look at all the ingredients that will end up on your plate. It helped me make some choices. Although I still regretted some. First surprise, the cost. Actually I was expecting something expensive. It seems that there is too many people in the kitchen, it looks somewhat ineffective. And I think 7€ for a (very) small portion of salad and four slices of avocado is definitely overpriced. But it did not impact the taste of my selection. I was surprised the falafel were served cold. And the hummus came with nothing to dip it in. No bread, nachos, nada. So I ended up eating it with my fork. Potates were roasted. There again I expected them to be hot, or maybe warm. But it's like they cooked them this afternoon and left them on the counter... With the falafel I suppose. Therefore potatoes were hard to swallow and I was happy to get the creamy aïoli to get the job done. Sadly there was nothing to make the cold and dry falafel easier to swallow. That falafel experience was a total disappointment. I took a small portion and couldn't even finish it. I really don't recommend them. They are homemade, that's great, but that's it. Once you've paid you are given a number and go find yourself a seat. I thought I would have to go get my plate at some point but it gets to you. That's sweet. Wherever you sit, it's really noisy. There is no acoustic treatment of the roof and it is definitely NOT the place to go if you like to eat quietly or have a conversation with more then one person. On top of that they play music. It's inaudible and adds to the constant noise. I didn't appreciate the atmosphere. Decoration is nice, somewhat industrial in some areas, wood and steel are nicely arranged together. I must add that I saw someone giving orders to a lot of staff, probably a manager of some sort (had left earing and his talkie walkie wasn't in his ear, so I suppose he was using it to give directions and not to follow any). He served a desert to another table. When it was handed to him by the kitchen, the spoon fell to the ground. He grabbed it, put it back in the plate and gave it to his client. I was speechless. How could he? Since I'm mentioning basic hygiene principles, I noted that the kitchen staff wears black latex gloves to prepare your bowls or plates. That's both very reassuring and fancy. I don't know why that rule wasn't enforced to all of the staff handling the food. One guy adding proteins to the plates (falafel, fish, meat, etc) was working bare handed. I guess he thinks contamination of raw fish is not as frequent as contamination of salad. He would be probably wrong.

So food was OK. I am a little concerned with hygiene. So it's more hype then good...

They are true to their name ; the greens are plentiful and tasty (they are also usually but not always fresh and that can be seen with the naked eye) but the coffee is usually weak (some weaker than others).

The shakshuka had a raw egg in it and was very watery (more a soup than a shakshuka).

The barista is friendly and outgoing but unlike most people in the world 🌍 the first word he learned as a baby was not 'mama' or 'papa', rather it was 'latte' because no matter what coffee you order he will prepare a latte or a coffee that looks and tastes like a plain latte.

I once ordered a turmeric chai latte and could see from the second it was handed to me that the colour is snow white (hence a regular latte). The barista took it back acknowledging his mistake and some minutes later returned what felt like was the same latte beverage with a large amount of cinnamon poured.on top saying : "here is your chai" 😂😂

It is better to get there early (before 11 am) and on a weekday because they are more stressed on weekends and after 11 am on all days so expect some chaos that may reflect on quality.

Bottom line is the concept is great the execution needs to...

I am really sorry to say that I was utterly disappointed in this restaurant and i consider it to be fake ecology. In Spain and Madrid we can drink our tap water, it is a very high quality drinking water. I asked for a glass of water yesterday for my lunch and they said they did not serve tap water so my only option to drink water was to buy a single use small PLASTIC bottle. I asked if I could speak to the Manager to ask why in a restaurant that sells itself as " Honest green" I cannot get a glass of tap water and they said that Madrid community has another law where the restaurant can opt to not give tap water if they do not have filters installed. I will investigate this law, but most surprised me is that none of the waiters seemed to mind about I was saying, as if I was really bothering them with this request. And "by coincidence?" there was a mistake and we were not served our meal until 30 minutes later, we had to ge twice to ask why other people who had arrived before were all already served. Is the money they get for their plastic bottled water more worthwhile then helping with the huge problem we have...