Parrilla El Gaucho Tetuan - Restaurante Argentino — Restaurant in Madrid

In our visit to Madrid wee looked for an Argentinean restaurant for New Year lunch. We found El Gaucho just around the Puerta el Sol. Located in a typical space of the area, the first surprise is that although the local is not big, you do not feel crowded and compressed. The ambience triggered to us the old restaurants in Buenos Aires. You can imagine that it setup high expectations on the food.

The first good sign is that as soon as you enter you can see the barbecue on the left: a traditional, professional and excellent argentinean barbecue. With charcoal, and indirect fire. And the master chef in charge of the barbecue dominating that space and confident. You can see what's cooking and that's the first indication that it is going to be a good lunch.

The service is fantastic: efficient, and friendly, almost familiar. Considering that it was December 31st when everybody is on the rush for New Years Eve, it says a lot about El Gaucho's service and friendliness.

Then it came the menu: a traditional argentinean barbecue, with some additional to catter for other tastes. You can ask for a suggestion and you will get a good recommendation, choosing between argentinean cuts (the more expensive) and from other countries including Spain. Also a great wine selection and the traditional argentinean and spanish desserts. You know that the food is going to make you happy!

They served the food efficiently and everything was fantastic, excellent quality and cooked at the argentinean point, and we didn't have to ask for it.

We asked for empanadas and provoleta for appetizer, and then a parrillada for 3 (we are 4 in my family) with Spanish meat: excellent quality. And for dessert we had the traditional flan con crema y dulce de leche, and panqueque con dulce de leche for the kids (after knowing other cuisines we know now that this desserts are not 100% argentinean but our part of our food culture).

TL'DR - an excellent parrilla in the core of downtown Madrid to have a good time with family and friends. The price is reasonable: not your cheapest option, not the most expensive and comparing quality versus price, this restaurant is a...

HORRIBLE WAITER TRIES TO SCAM ME:

The meat was okay (7/10), and the guy at the grill was trying to be helpful despite the language barrier BUT the waiter repeatedly tried to get scam me to pay much more than what I asked for (and succeeded!!).

Waiter’s name was BRANDON LEE

I asked for a thin skirt (essentially a flank steak), which is a lean cut (for €28) and showed him it on the menu as well. He said okay and he told me ‘what about a starter, it’s free’. I asked to confirm, ‘is it free? So the fries are free?’. The response was yes.

I saw them grill a very large fatty piece of meat and so asked to confirm what my order was. After multiple attempts with google translate in Spanish, my friend who speaks some Spanish and in English… they told me they don’t have thin skirt so they’re making me a 500g beef steak (fatty cut of meat that COSTS €50!!)

The beef steak is not very close to the one I pointed to on the menu nor does it sound the same, and I initially repeated my order to another waiter and the main waiter multiple times - just to make sure, FYI.

They also ended up charging me €8.80 for the fries, which the menu said were €8.40, and which the waiter told me were free with my order (I thought it might be a meal deal).

They ultimately let me change my cut of beef to a smaller fatty piece of meat (half of which I couldn’t eat). But kept the fries on the receipt.

I paid €33.60 for 5 bites of pretty good steak and horrible evening where I felt so much frustration, instead of €28 for a steak I can enjoy and asked for.

If the waiter did not understand me he could have said so, even with a hand movement or a translator - others do it all the time. Instead he just pretended he didn’t understand and tried to charge me €70 for food I didn’t ask for! Even the guy at the grill yelled at him eventually in Spanish.

I hope this guy gets fired and does not cause other customers to have such a sh*tty evening. Waiter’s name is included above, in case...

I have very mixed feelings about this place. Food: Bread and gazpacho: NOT FREE. They drop it on the table without warning. Good gazpacho, stale bread. Creole sausage: the only reason I haven’t given 1 star. Flavoursome, very well cooked. Highlight of the night ✨ Mediterranean salad: nice, too much rocket without dressing. Ribs: very tough, dry, meat stuck to bone. Only plus was well salted and nice char. Salmon pasta: super fishy. Fries: standard. Apple tarte tatin: overly sweet.

Drinks: water: 4 euros!! Pricey. Coke Zero: standard beer: cold. But we were overcharged for it.

Atmosphere: really nice. Upscale whilst still relaxed.

Service: This is where the restaurant lacks. Charged us for the premium Angus steak instead of the ribs. We let them know and they came back with a receipt that had the right items but everything was more expensive than the menu prices. It was not the 10% service fee because that was added at the end. Then we let them know and they finally came back with a receipt that had MOSTLY right prices. Still overcharged for the beer but by that point we just wanted to leave.

Perhaps it was a mistake. But based on how many times it took to get the bill right and previous reviews, it smells like a low-grade tourist scam. Disappointing for a restaurant like this.

If you choose to eat here, calculate the bill before it arrives so you can pick up these errors. I’m not sure how it has so many good reviews,...