Jardín de los Duques — Restaurant in Madrid

This stunning restaurant is the place in Madrid for upscale Tapas in a beautiful setting. The restaurant is located in the gardens of one of Madrid’s best hotels and walking in is romantic and sets the scene for a great night out. The setting is a taverna traditional style building with beautiful tables and plants made the restaurant. The menu is extensive with tapas choices to start, then salad offering, traditional Spanish Dorje and mains, sides and more. We asked the waiter to choose as it was overwhelming. The tapas we picked was incredible. The pork was delicious, crunchy but moist. The restaurant is famous for their croquettes which were extraordinary, and the tuna tartare was a great match as it was light and refreshing. The waiter brought brews which was fresh and crunchy and delicious with the Spanish olive oil. The prawns were unbelievable. We had to de-shell them but they were soaking in salt which made the de-shelling experience delicious: we ate the whole plate in minutes. The roast suckling pig that folllowed was incredible. Moist and flavourful and the skin was out of this world. We had wines by the glass to match as the waiter recomended and we loved them all. Fresh and tasty. Even the red with the suckling pig was flawless. The waiter recommended the Mille fuelle for dessert-we were so full but we did it anyway and it was amazing. A light digestive with a fabulous circular ice cube was a delight. This restaurant was a wow every step of the way. I would love to return with a group as there is so much fabulous food and serves are...

I was excited about this reservation. The Gran Melia is a wonderful property.

Ultimately, I would try this location again during the spring / summer in order to enjoy the patio experience as well as the food.

One dish seemed to be over seasoned to me, but otherwise the dishes served were well executed.

The wine pairing was enjoyable, but I would have liked an unprompted offer of additional insight into purveyor as it would have elevated the experience.

The service within the actual restaurant was a littler looser than hoped both in terms of form as well as training. Covid has been tough on the service industry, but additional training is needed.

Last notes; I suggest either using a table cloth or losing the fixed place mat and using a cloth/organic material to bring warmth to the space as it felt 'cold'. *The lighting was obtrusively bright. I suspect the lighting is on a dimming system and that the 'settings for dinner' were not managed by the floor manager that evening.

If you are seeking a more casual experience, this is a good fit. My wife's espresso martini was well made and the flatware is of high-quality.

(*Note, F&B service within the hotel is very strong. Red Level is even better both in product quality as well as service knowledge.)...

The tasting menu for 85€ felt appropriately priced for a 10 course meal. 40€ wine pairing was nice value as well. Favorite dishes were the fish courses, and the mochi filled with gorgonzola and apple was very delicious, too! We were a party of four people—two women, two men. To me, it seemed like the women were served noticably smaller portions of food than the men in a few cases. Specifically the fish portion for the guys were maybe around 4 oz instead of 2-2.5 oz for the ladies. It was a surprising difference! I noticed because I love fish and made my husband trade his plate with me 😜 This is a type of restaurant where I would expect even portioning, so I am hypothesizing that it was purposefully done, but with good intentions to cater to smaller appetites. Wrong assumption to make for us, but maybe generally this is true. This happened also with the meat dishes. Service was pretty attentive until the very, very end when we couldn't get the bill for 45 minutes. Our servers seemed to all have gone on break. Dining room is intimate and comfortable, so we considered...