La Manuela — Restaurant in Madrid

Went on a Saturday afternoon with a couple of friends, so maybe what I’m going to say maybe due to how busy the place was. Or maybe, seeing other reviews, it was because we were foreigners. We got there at 18:05, got a table on the back because we were in a group of 6. Mind you, 5 of us speak fluent Spanish, me included. I’ve ordered a “Verywell”, which is a really nice drink, and they forgot to bring it. Then I asked for a cup of water and of course the waitress brought some expensive bottle of water instead of tap water. Later we find out there was water available all the time that you could just grab for yourself. I’ve worked busy shifts before and I know how stressful it is but still. The board games were all missing pieces. Fortunately it was nice outside, because I can’t imagine how hot this place was during the heatwave, since we were sweating all the time. I’ve asked for another “Verywell” and this time it came. It was delicious, I can give them that. Then the bill came, they’ve charged for the verywell that never came and 4 more other drinks that we never ordered. It’s a 3 for me because they were kind enough to at least correct that and, very well, the drinks are good. I guess you could try going during the week there and your experience would be different, but, from what I’ve read and since I saw that they treated the other tables differently, maybe, if you’re a foreigner, try...

4 of us came here last night for a couple of drinks and to play some board games! They have a great selection of both [drinks and board games] to choose from.

For drinks, we tried their red wine, hot chocolates and large selection of La Sagra bottled beer. I want to recommend the hot chocolate with cream and brandy but unfortunately it was pretty tepid by the time they brought it over. They also have oat milk (0.5€ supplement)

We played Scrabble, Headbandz and Codenames - Codenames was definitely the highlight! They also had Dixit, ludo, chess, Forbidden Island... etc etc

The service was fine. Waiting staff are definitely reactive rather than proactive. The atmosphere was super lovely though - it was really sweet to see everyone else enjoying their games and we ended up having brief conversations with some of the other tables. The Christmassy decor was super cute - definitely a very warm atmosphere! We will definitely be...

Nos decidimos a probar este café por la buena prensa que tiene y, principalmente, por ser un buen lugar para jugadores de mesa.

No nos pudo desilusionar más.

Si bien como cafetería no está mal, el interior está bastante cascado (hay varios desconchones y otros desperfectos a la vista, amén de que varias sillas estaban a un tris de romperse). Entiendo que, al ser un sitio con historia, no se pueda hacer una reforma de arriba a abajo. Pero eso no quita que el mantenimiento brille por su ausencia.

Eso nos lleva al punto que más nos interesa: los juegos de mesa. Tras haber pasado por otros locales de misma temática como el Red Bar y el Epic Board Game, la selección de juegos tiene los mismos problemas que el local: desfasados y cascados. Intentamos sin éxito jugar al Dixit Oddisey por varios problemas, siendo el principal que no había instrucciones en la caja. Tampoco ayudaba que faltaran la totalidad de los pines de votos en las tarjetas de jugador, lo cual imposibilitaba jugar.

Al preguntar al camarero, primero nos intenta decir por encima de qué va, pero no recuerda las puntuaciones por jugada. Va a buscar unas instrucciones y las trae... en todos los idiomas, salvo inglés y español. Decidimos buscarnos la vida en Internet y las encontramos... Pero vemos que, sin los pines, no parece posible jugar.

Desistimos y probamos suerte con otras dos cajas del mismo juego pero persiste el problema con los pines. Probamos con la versión normal del juego, Dixit a secas y, aparte de que faltan la mayoría de fichas de voto, ves que algunos han usado antes cachos de servilleta con los números... Lamentable.

Visto el desastre, tratamos de intentarlo una última vez con el Trivial y, aunque faltaban todas las fichas marrones, decidimos improvisar con kikos porque queríamos seguir allí... Y a la media hora tuvimos que dejarlo porque el local, poco a poco, se fue llenando de gente y era imposible oír nada.

Tampoco ayuda que las mesas son bastante pequeñas para juegos de mesa estándar (ya no hablemos de un Zombicide o Mansiones de la Locura) por lo que traernos nosotros el juego de casa tampoco es una opción.

En definitiva, como café de época bien. Como local para juegos de...