La Rollerie — Restaurant in Madrid

I just had a terrible experience here and want to save others the experience. I was a solo diner and told to sit at the “bar,” a shared table. Totally fine. However, I sat so long with no one giving me a menu or acknowledging me that I went to the counter to ask if I was supposed to order at the counter.

As I sat there, the man of the couple seated near me at the shared table even said to his wife, “Why is no one helping her?”

After I went to the counter, someone came to take my order. The server brought out a bottle of water when I had asked for tap water. Granted I asked in English (didn’t know the Spanish word for ‘tap’). When I tried to tell my server I didn’t want the bottled water—I wanted ‘regular water,’ she kept looking so irritated and confused until the man leaned over, interrupted our exchange, and said what I wanted in Spanish. Why can he understand me and not the server? I speak Spanish! I literally just didn’t know how to say ‘tap water.’

The woman who bought my food out slammed it down, saying the name of each item. Um…I know what bread, eggs, and ham is. I ordered it.

No one checked on me the entire time I ate. When I was ready to pay, I sat there, wondering just how long it would be until someone came to help.

The original couple came and a cheerful Australian couple took their place. The Aussie couple got visibly more and more frustrated as the servers bustled past them without acknowledging them. They asked me what was going on, and I shared my experience with them. It was their first day in Madrid, and I assured them this is not normal—or at least not in my experience.

When the server finally came to take their order, she was curt with them as well.

Honestly, I was relieved to see that the servers were equally rude to the Australian couple.

I’m glad so many people have positive experiences here. This was not my experience nor that of the couple I sat with. I don’t often write bad reviews, because I know how difficult it is to run a business. However, the service here was...

It is a shame to give this place just one star because the food was great, but the service was the very definition of incompetent.

We came in for breakfast and were seated immediately, but then we had to wait over 25 minutes until the waitress took our order. In the meantime the 4 people next to us have ordered, got their food, and, by the time our order was taken, they were already leaving.

In the meantime the waitress has mixed up orders (at least) at two nearby tables. She was serving the tables consecutively rather than in parallel, meaning that if you got your order, you were very likely to get your food and check before anyone else was served. Even when we were done eating, the waitress preferred to clean other tables rather than pay attention to clients: it was difficult to get her attention for the check. We weren't the only ones being overlooked: at least two other tables got the same treatment.

Note that it was breakfast time (9:30) and the cafe was pretty full. Maybe they are understaffed. Maybe the waitress is new. But to wait for 45 minutes just to get some joghurt, cereals and coffee - that's too much.

The food was great though, cereals with fresh fruits and nice topping, probably worth the 7'50€. Maybe the portions are a bit too small for the price, but still within the acceptable range.

We would have ordered more because we were hungry and the food was great, but we feared we'd have to waste another half an hour or so.

If you are stopping by in a time when not so much is going on, then by all means feel free to try it, and you probably will have a great time. We didn't, though. We will eat breakfast in the vicinity at least 3 more times, but we probably...

I have been here for a breakfast when I was visiting Madrid and it was my first day. Firstly, there was a queue of 5 people in front of me and I waited 10 mins outside. Then the waitress came and hand gestured the couple in front of me to follow her. I thought I was also pointed to follow. I got in and then I was told that there is a queue outside and I should wait. I tried to explain that I already waited but they didn’t seem to understand English well. The other person in the queue understood, and gave me “his” way. Anyways, at this point I was so done and wanted to leave but because of the long travel the day before I was so hungry that I just wanted some good breakfast. The service was so slow, I waited around 30 mins. The food came, and it looked good. However, the moment I finished it, I started getting diarrhea. After I left the restaurant, I started vomitting. It was a horrible next 3 days spent in our hotels with my boyfriend. We went to the doctor on our second day, she asked me if I ate eggs or sauces and I said yes. Since I didn’t consume anything other than that, I believe their food was spoiled. Be careful when...