Mo de Movimiento — Restaurant in Madrid

There are several aspects to mention so i would try to be specific:

We had a reservation at 12:45, which was even confirmed by a prior call from the restaurant the same day. However when we arrived we were told that it is a bit early and the kitchen only starts working from 13:00. It was obvious that they were still in setting up mode. So it would be good to have a more suitable reservation timing.

Anyway the place is very much atmospheric and vibrant and we were absolutely okey to just sit and wait.

After waiting quite some time, we then were told that the oven was still cold(by that time many other clients have appeared) and they were having issues with making pizzas.. One of the main managers(or the main one) has offered us calabacín appetizer as a starter to compensate for the big delay with our order. It was very nice by him.

However it took quite a while until they finally get the oven running properly and they managed to get our pizzas after literally one hour of waiting. Nevertheless we were understanding of the situation and we were not mad at all.

Unfortunately at the end the pizzas were not even close of what we were expecting as a pizza lovers who have quite good standards. We ordered Calzone and Margarita(number 1). Calzone was so greasy and messy that after we tried to cut it with a knife it was looking more like a ragout sauce. We tried it a bit and the taste was acceptable but still so greasy that it was not ok at all. As for the margarita it was lacking the taste very much.

So overall our feedback is like:

The place is very nice and enjoyable. The staff was dressed up very well too. However i would wish the overall staff to be more positive and kind of relaxing toward the clients. I felt some sort of arrogance vibe overall. Nevertheless the main manager was quite client oriented and we are thankful him for his efforts.

The food unfortunately was quite bad and needs to be improved quite a bit.

And also regarding the oven heating issue, it appears from other comments that it is something that has happened before so i assume they should start heating it earlier or start having clients later to have enough time gap to be able to heat it...

New restaurant decorated in a neo-industrial way (at least when seen from the outside -we eat in the terraza, according to our COVID standards). It’s in the ultra populated / ultra-competitive Ponzano area that, together maybe with Retiro, has turned into the modern tapas bar Mecca these times in Madrid

The initial impression was a bit disappointing because there were way too many waiters for such a low throughput. Even if we had booked a table outside, we had to wait in a queue, to be listened at an indoor counter, and then led to our seats. But people were nice, and even smiled

There was also a bit of hesitancy after sitting, with maybe too much time to wait for anyone to offer some drinks. But once we crossed that threshold, everything looked so much fine. The terraza atmosphere was a low-scale representation of what you would expect in Ponzano. Even more on a Friday afternoon: Lots of twenty- and thirty-somethings, majority of ladies, some after-work / pre-weekend intensity, everyone with the (apparent) feeling that having lunch here is a cool thing to do

Food was quite good. I mean, it can’t compete with a first-tier place, but I don’t think that’s the purpose at all. This is modern food, well prepared, and even what some people in the other tables would classify as “fun” (in the Ponzano way, you know). Goes quite well with the atmosphere

We started with buñuelos de calabacín (a rather necessary concession to fritanga, taking advantage of our kid-less situation today), which were not bad at all. Then we had puerros con salsa romesco (both puerros and salsa were great), and a fantastic and quite spicy salteado de verduras. Finally, a nice (but not-so-special anyway) vegetable pizza. There was the feeling (among “us”, you know) that we had ordered too much food, but we definitely had to check out the pizza (there is a dedicated, professional looking oven in the kitchen, that you can see from where we’re sitting)

Beer is standard but cold and good. Only issue is it comes in a too stylized glass that would be more appropriate for wine, but this is Ponzano after all

The bill is around €55 for the two of us, so it’s not bad at all and we will...

I used to absolutely love this place but sadly it became really bad. I came many times before and food used to be exquisite. This time we were served half burned pizza, two mediocre tasting meals (langostinos tasted nice but it’s a small portion costing 19 euros and it’s nothing special, definitely missing some taste!) and one zucchini meal which was so salty we couldn’t eat it - it was just pure salt and looked different than on the photo where there was more sauce and no salt mentioned in the dish. Certainly you can overpower any dish with a lot of salt but it just kills the taste and an easy trick many restaurants use. The worst was the attitude of the waiters. They took the zucchini dish away seeing we literally just tried one spoon. However, later they charged us with it on the bill. We pointed that we barely touched the dish and it was too salty, to which they said: “But you still tasted it.” After our protest they took it out but without care or apology. The one waiter who was mainly serving us was friendly. Another other one bringing and clearing dishes was responding to a question in a super unfriendly and hardsh way. It’s the attitude that counts and I don’t think we will come...