Quini Restaurante — Restaurant in Madrid

I stopped by for dinner on a Friday evening and the small restaurant was nearly filled to capacity. I was buoyed by good reviews and hoping for a good experience as well. From my experience, some of the reviews are rather overhyped. First, hallmark of a Korean restaurant is offering of several types of side dishes called bon chon. Variety, freshness and quality is important in overall dining experience. Even the most basic Korean restaurants usually give you at least two side dishes with one of them being kimchi. Here, you have to purchase kimchi separately. In all my travels, I never experienced this until now. One side dish given was pickled raddish, which seemed like dried and reconstituted, rather than fresh and were diced unconventionally small. Second, the rice served was not the right type for Korean cuisine. Instead of short grain sticky rice, it was non-stick long grain type used in Vietnamese cuisine. Only reason you'd use this type of rice is because it is cheaper than sticky type (most often the case) or ignorance. Can you imagine being served spaghetti made with Asian glass noodles instead of spaghetti pasta noodles? You need sticky rice to fully enjoy hardy Korean soups and casseroles. Third, kimchi cchiggae (casserole) was thin and watery, more like kimchi soup. You need to add couple pieces of tthuk (rice cake) to thicken up the broth, which they didn't. And it was not piping hot like the way it is normally served. If you are going to offer the signature Korean dish, you need to get it right. Tthuk mandu soup was closest to being a classic Korean dish, but it was nothing to write home about in terms of flavor and Ingredient. Even water was charged out as two bottles of water. Everything seemed bit like a dime store operation in terms of freshness and quality. I would gladly pay few extra euros to have more authentic Korean dining experience, i.e. better bon chon, better rice. I am sorry to write this review as I want the Korean owner (I assume) to do well, but as a traveler, I rely on accurate reviews by fellow travelers when determining...

I had the worst experience today. First time being in Madrid and just wanted to have a bowl of ramen. I walked in and the owner was very reluctant to wait on me. No smile, not friendly at all. He spoke Spanish and just expected that I would respond. I pointed at the “menu del dia” one item in Primero category and one item in segundo category. He shut me down and said only one item and took the menu away. He didn’t want to explain until the man from the next table confirmed my understanding. The owner then pretended that he understood.

I felt being discriminated against. This is service industry and how would you, the owner feel if you are not being treated nicely. I would not eat here at all. The place scored a 0 in each category if there’s an option. I lost...

Pedimos tres platos:

MODUM BOSOT JAPCHE. Fideos de batata con verduras, acompañado de arroz. Nos sorprendió mucho la textura de los fideo, pedimos el no picante y estaba bastante bueno.

DEFE SAMGYOP BOSOTMARY. Panceta enrollada sobre setas. Este plato nos encantó, sin duda hay que probarlo.

KIMCHI BOKUMBAB. Arroz con carne y un huevo encima.

De beber cogimos un refresco de uva, el cual nos sorprendió ya que llevaba uvas. Estaba muy dulce.

Hicimos el pedido por teléfono y lo recogimos en el local (de momento no sirven a domicilio) . Es un local pequeño, ves como cocinan. Nos explicaron como teníamos que comer cada plato para sacar el máximo de él. Tienen una carta pequeña. Repetiremos seguro y pediremos el resto de platos que no probamos.

Le pongo cuatro estrellas porque al llevar la comida a casa imagino que perdió "encanto". La próxima vez iremos a comer allí y estoy segura que le subiremos la estrella que seguramente se merece.

*EDITO DOS MESES DESPUÉS DE HABERLO PROBADO POR PRIMERA VEZ. De nuevo hicimos un pedido que recogimos en el local, nos atendieron muy bien.

Volvimos a pedir la panceta enrollada en setas, como ya sabíamos un súper acierto.

En esta ocasión probamos el pastel de arroz y pescado. Nos sorprendió a bien. Eso sí, no es un pastel como tal, es una sopa la cual lleva pasta de arroz, pescado, huevo, queso. Otro...