Restaurante Carbón

Carbon is a ripoff

Having settled into the Salamanca district of Madrid for several nights, and wanting to eat locally, we came across several recommendations for the restaurant Carbon. Overall the ratings/opinions were pretty positive.

For us this was not the case. As we live in a large Metro area in the US, we are accustomed to, and happy to pay for, a meal that delivers not just quality food, but good service as well. Carbon failed miserably on both counts.

Arriving at the relatively early hour of 9pm we found the area of the restaurant we were seated in had but one server, and he was overwhelmed. It took awhile for him to take our order. When we selected a bottle of wine, he returned to say that they were out of that, and proceeded to recommend a bottle at more than twice the price. Upselling at its least transparent.

To be fair, the food was not bad or certainly not inedible, but also not anything special.

However, the prices for the amount of food presented was appalling. An entree of tuna tartarre at 25€ was pitifully sized (and not that great) my husband’s is much better and my order of sauteed razor clams, (which are themselves very small), was presented as a plate of 8 clams, only 7 of which were opened— 24.5€. The waiter (with no sense of irony), asked if we were going to share this plate… These two dishes were NOT listed as tapas.

There was a little drama when the bill arrived to find we were charged 5€ for sparkling water we never asked for and which never appeared at our table.

A new waiter gave us a remarkably hard time about this, in fact was a bit aggressive and insulting. A manager appeared to see what the problem was, he did offer us a desert or a digestif, but it was, frankly, too little too late.

Lest you think my criticisms are all about cost/quantity, let me assure you that this was far from the priciest meal we had while in Madrid, but it was, hands down, the most unpleasant. I would not recommend to anyone.

Better to dine at Montes de Galicia, or similarly nearby in Salamanca, La Panela on Calle Velasquez.