La Cabaña Argentina — Restaurant in Madrid

If you’re American, don’t bother coming to this place, they don’t want you here.

We were really looking forward to dining here based on all the glowing reviews, but unfortunately, our experience fell far short of expectations. There’s a reason they’re a “sponsored” establishment because they PAY Google to have their restaurant be one of the first ones people see.

From the start, we were brought bread, butter, and olives that we didn’t order—and were later surprised to be be charged 10€ for it. [*If they dispute this in their response to this review, just go filter reviews by the “lowest” and you will see that they have been sneaking this fee onto customer’s bills for many years.] One member of our group received the wrong entrée, and by the time the correct meal was finally brought out, everyone else at the table had already finished eating. While they were apologetic, bringing the correct meal with a lack of urgency, (when it was their mistake), was very disappointing. Service was so slow that it took us 1.5 hours from start to finish and we didn’t even order any appetizers.

The food itself was underwhelming at best. For a place with such a strong reviews, we expected far better quality, taste and service.

We were seated in the basement, which was a lovely and rustic area, however, in order to review the menu, you needed to scan the QR code using their Wi-Fi and we simply could not connect to it. When we asked if they had a menu we could review, the staff seemed annoyed, which set the tone for the evening. When we asked questions about the menu/food, they made us feel ignorant with their eye rolls and dismissive responses. (We had a vegetarian in our group and their food descriptions lacked appropriate translations.)

While the servers were on the surface, polite and apologetic about the mix up on the food, the food was nothing to come back for and we did not feel welcome here. We ordered one glass of wine, 3 entrees and it was 85€. I don’t normally take the time to write a negative review, but lesson learned- read bad reviews first and do not go to places that pay for Google advertising. Any restaurant that brings you food that you didn’t order and then charges you for it - is shameful...

We ate there one time. Great food nothing less. Waiter knew nothing of ingredients and possible allergens. We wanted to invite an important guest from abroad so made reservation to this restaurant for again a collection days later. We SPECIFICALLY mentioned that we would arrive at 18:45 the earliest. On the phone, the Wouter said she would reserve from 18:30 for two hours. We arrived indeed late after being caught in heavy traffic and picking up the guest from the other part of the city. The waiter, Michelle, was as rude as can be, with a smug face letting us know they didn't have a table for us. I told her we just made a huge effort to arrive and pay parking to be there and were trying our best to accommodate our head-of-department professor. They preached to us on how we don't deserve a table since we were late (regardless of them having my name and telephone and not attempting to call). When I went back in to demand to see a manager, Michelle claimed she had no idea who I was and that she had never spoken to me (claiming I was lying in front of her manager). Luckily I had 4 witnesses with me to prove what had happened just 5 minutes before hand. We ended up eating literally metres away in La Vaca restaurant, which, not only had a WONDERFUL STAFF, an incredible setting (beautiful melted candles), but even better food (for La Vaca I shall write a separate review with magnificent pictures to go with it). Enclosed is a photo of the "no tables" available...

I was long time thinking to give this place 5* as majority of the people, or 4* as I was feeling or even 3, what may be fair for the overall picture. I decided to give 4, special thank for Rodrigo, who saved this experience for me.

Pros: good quality, variety of food, taste and price/quality relation, butter cream.

Cons: service!!! There is nothing about restaurant rules and service. If there is quality manager, he did his work very-very bad. I can find 10 points where this restaurant can improve.

We ordered aperitif, starters, main and deserts, well, aperitif we received after the starter and after 15 min of waiting time (disaster). You will have your freemium bread (you will not ask for it, but they will bring and include it to the check for 2€/pax) you will ask a bottle of water, they will say that there is no bottles of the water to share, then bring bring you 2 of them, which you were able to share without issues.

So, those small things and restaurant cheats make them not deserve a 5 star in my opinion. When you pay 50€/pax for the dinner you are waiting a good quality without issues and tricks, but here you will still have it as in “many other places”, which makes as a final result this restaurant as a “other place” for the moment. My professional advise to hire some quality check manager/consultant to get rid of those small things, then you will definitely be a...