Piccola Trattoria, Madrid — Restaurant in Madrid

Where to start… this place is a mess. But a tasty mess… one thing we cannot deny: the food is absolutely DELICIOUS. However, sometimes to make the experience worth a 5/5, the food alone is not enough (is it a shame? To be honest yes!).

This restaurant is owned and managed by a wife and her husband, both from Puglia. The husband is in the kitchen and she is with the guests.

First impression: weird, but okay, quite charming. We waited 10 minutes in front of a closed door (although we reserved) and the lady came in a rush, opened and didn’t even apologise. But like I said: there was something very authentic and charming attached to it, so we didn’t care too much about it. At first we were assigned a table in the hallway (this really shouldn’t even be sold!), away from the rest- and we are very grateful we were able to move to the main room: where it was a lot more comfortable and cute.

As I said, this place is a mess… you would expect some great Italian red wines but they could only offer one from Madrid and one from Sicily. We went for the Sicilian one: very good but it took us 20 minutes to get it (the supplier was delivering the wine while guests were making their first orders).

The food was amazing though. We had to wait for a VERY long time (1+ hour) to receive our second dish, but worth it - the Saltimbocca is just to die for!

What REALLY threw us off: the wife constantly reminded us she had a second turn at 22:30- which would be fine in normal times but we were served our second dish only at 22:15. Once we finished, she was such in a hurry, brought the bill without us asking. When I asked her about the bill (some things didnt make sense to me) she felt very offended and started to be so rude (even told me I should be lucky she didn’t charge more).

In conclusion the night started as a 3/5 for the first impression - went up to a 5/5 for the food quality and then to a 0/5 for guest experience. I felt incredibly offended by the lady that it completely ruined my experience.

Hopefully you will get a better experience on a day that is less stressful for them, but this place is just… a tasty mess ☺️

FYI: prices are on...

Even though was pretty late and kitchen already closed, Mr Giuseppe decided to cook for me. It was my lucky day: I had the chance to eat a marvellous Spaghetti ai frutti di mare ( pasta seafood). As an Italian, I am rather skeptical when it comes to eating Italian abroad but I have to admit that the experience in Piccola Trattoria made up my mind: each ingredient - starting from the pasta (handmade) to the musses (very fresh) - was delicious and even the presentation of the plate was impeccable. Not to mention the culan with pistacchio (woooow). For those of you who want to see an experienced and passionate Italian chef in action I’d suggest to reserve one of the few table available. Ah, and don’t worry about the bill, you’ll receive an affordable surprise at the end ( yes, you got it: high quality at...

La verdad es que piccola, piccola, apenas caben 5 mesas entre la entrada y la barra. Las mesas son altas y los taburetes para las mismas no son precisamente cómodos y menos cuando se eterniza el tiempo para degustar la comida, abstenerse quien sea de edad avanzada, tenga problemas de espalda o de movilidad, no es el mejor sitio para saciar el apetito con esas limitaciones. El propietario y cocinero habla por los codos, siempre para magnificar la bondad de las viandas que ofrece, la mujer que atiende la barra y las mesas es agradable y simpática en el trato, así como muy atenta. En cuanto a la comida se puede decir que la base de los platos es solvente, sin embargo hay aspectos que desmerecen el conjunto. Fuimos a cenar y pedimos los mejillones con salsa, que según parece son especialidad de la casa, estos eran de buena calidad, frescos y limpios, pero la salsa desdibuja el conjunto, se pueden comer aunque por desgracia se nota en exceso que los tomates son de lata, la albahaca está picada con unos trozos con excesivo tamaño y se notan demasiado los tronquitos, la presentación de los platos está bien sin entrar por los ojos, el carpaccio de solomillo también con buen género, sin llegar a entusiasmar. Como plato principal unos comensales pidieron dos tipos de pasta diferentes que por los comentarios gustaron, en cuanto a los demás pedimos saltimbocca romano que por desgracia tenía un jamón saladísimo que destrozaba el plato, puesto que los medallones de solomillo eran de buena calidad, tiernos y sabrosos, la guarnición de ñoquis solvente, sin embargo una vez más la salsa de tomate no estaba a la altura. En cuanto a las bebidas, el agua mineral bien y los vinos tanto el blanco como el tinto muy normalitos, aunque pasables. No tomamos postres puesto que después de dos horas y media de cena empezábamos a estar algo cansados y con ganas de marchar. Este restaurante italiano está pensado para ir muy relajado y sin ninguna prisa porque las comidas se eternizan para salir de cocina, bien para turistas que buscan el lado chic del barrio de Lavapiés. Es una pena que con unas buenas recetas y unos productos principales de calidad no redondeé como debiera los platos que presenta, y por supuesto la lentitud que acaba generando cierto hartazgo y que quizás sea uno de los mayores inconvenientes del lugar junto...