La Encomienda — Restaurant in Madrid

Tourists in Madrid, my brother and I went to eat here, we were checking out the menu outside the restaurant when an older man and a younger woman approached us saying they were police, they flashed a badge real quick and demanded our ID’s (only the man showed a badge and we’d never before seen a Madrid police badge, which seemed as obvious as the fact we are tourists). We thought they were scammers due to their street clothes and their demeanor so we told them no, they didn’t speak enough English, and we enough Spanish, for proper communication. When they flashed their guns we quickly took the conversation inside the restaurant where I asked the staff for help which the staff was super helpful and calm, and one staff memeber was able to translate for both me and my brother and the other two, it seemed as if the other two didn’t want to let him think as they kept loudly making demands to him, mentioning if they had to call backup we’d have a problem, he told me that they were the police and that there are cameras in the restaurant for our safety. Still uneasy about whether or not the two police officers were in fact police and if they were intimidating the staff (we have been on guard because tourist scams are common) I called the emergency police number (091) and a squad car pulled up, the uniformed officers kindly explained that these were in fact undercover cops and they just needed to see our ids, it turns out this area is popular for drug deals and they were attempting to scare us away even though we were just there to eat, so I recommend if you want to eat here head directly inside the restaurant and don’t stand around outside. Didn’t end up eating after all was said and done I lost my appetite, yet the food looks amazing and the staff is...

I have to say that I am a bit disappointed after having dinner here. I went here with my parents to maybe change their thinking of vegan food, so that they are more open to food without meat of fish. Obviously they were a bit sceptical and supposed to criticise more than in normal reataurants, but hoped that they wont find points to criticise… unfortunately this was wrong. We were placed in the front room and the decoration and atmosphere was pretty good. Even the fact that the door could not be closed completely was very annoying and is the first negative point.

The servuce was young but not able to speak english.. so she couldn’t explain our questions to the menu, which is small but covers all directions of food. We liked that. Although it was a small menu we had to wait so long for our food and during this time did not feel welcome. The waiters looked at us which straight/unemotional faces and were nit friendly at all. When I came here I hoped athat they will recognise my sitation and also try to convince (old people bzw typical mest eaters) of the beauty of vegan food…. be friendly and just habd over this feeling. But we rather felt unwelcome.

The 3 stars come from the food which came really late, but tasted good. Even if The portions were too small, my parents said that the taste was good and compared to the OK-price the food was fine.

Anyways I would not recommend this restaurant and hope that they will change in the future… Unfortunately in my and my sisters young...

This place sucks! SUCKS. We sat down and ordered drinks only to be told (once we had drinks and couldn’t leave) that the kitchen wasn’t open for another 45 minutes. Ok, we have drinks so I guess we will wait. Well an hour rolls by and when they come to take our order the waiter informs us that they only have the burger and the jackfruit tacos - out of the WHOLE menu. At this point we are starving so we order the burgers. It takes an hour to get the burgers and we are told that they are out of both French fries (so we will get pita chips) and cheese. Obviously I’m pretty annoyed at this point but it’s too late to find another vegan restaurant and we have already been here for TWO HOURS so we might as well eat. The burgers come out and they are gross - literally just mushed up bean patties covered in what tastes like avocado blended with water. My husband gagged when he tried his and we are very adventurous eaters. This is literally the worst food and service we have had in three weeks in Spain - go eat anywhere but here. And if this is your only choice then I would just eat a can of dog food because it will taste...