Restaurante El Balandro — Restaurant in Madrid

We asked for tapas and two beers at the bar and the guy said do you want a table, this was where we should have twigged he was on a mission. He brought us to the table and we told him what we wanted. My friend kept saying the whole time "small, un pequeno, not very hungry" all the while pointing at the locals small plates, to which he tried to reassure us, it's only little. Then with the little Spanish I do have I told him the amount we wanted on each plate, clearly describing the number of pieces as I felt he was being a bit selective in what he was understanding, as he was able to clearly communicate when it suited him. We should have just left at this point. As all the locals are sitting around eating nice little tapas on small plates this chap proceeds to bring out a huge platter of meats (about 400 grams), then a full squid that would be suitable for 4 people, a whole tortilla, a huge plate with a half baguette and tomato sauce (which we never ordered), a bowl of olives (again, never ordered) and a rake of croquettes, which particularly annoyed me because there was back and forth about the croquettes because he kept saying they were tiny when I said I only wanted 2, but they we the same size as any croquettes. Everyone in the bar stopped talking and were looking over with a clear look of "WTF" as the two foreign lads get fleeced in the corner.

The waiter was being dirty and fleecing us, given the conversation could not have said small any more times, did the fact that you couldn't fit all the food on a 4 person table not seem necessary to mention. Then he tried to play us off against each other (with perfect English). Even as we tried to pay, he shoved in on the other waitress and started hitting all the buttons on the screen as I think she was taking a few pieces off the list as it was such a joke.

I wouldn't touch this...

Nos fuimos sin comer. Hicimos una reserva de cinco adultos y dos tronas para dos niñas de 3 años. Al llegar, la mesa estaba montada con una única trona y un servicio sin nada donde poder sentarse. En la mesa de al lado estaban dando un potito a un bebé utilizando una trona del restaurante.

Nos dicen que no tienen más tronas, que la otra mesa reservó antes que nosotros y como solución, nos pueden ofrecer una silla de adultos con dos cojines envueltos en un mantel... añadiendo además el desafortunado comentario por parte del encargado de que esto les había pasado más veces y no habían tenido problemas. Lamentable. Nos tuvimos que ir sin comer pese a tener una reserva hecha.

Para mí, como me imagino que, para cualquiera, la comodidad de mis hijas al comer es igual de importante o más que la mía, y más aún a esta edad que se les enseña las normas más básicas de educación en la mesa. ¿Cómo les explico que no pueden levantarse hasta que terminemos todos de comer si están haciendo equilibrios encima de un cojín? O ¿Cómo les digo que no se pongan de pie en una silla si no alcanzan a ver lo que tienen en el plato? ¿Le ofrecerían a un adulto con una reserva hecha, un taburete para comer porque se han quedado sin sillas? Seguro que no. Eso no es una opción como tampoco lo debería ser la alternativa que nos propusieron.

La próxima vez no tomen reservas que no pueden atender. Imagínese el trastorno que nos ocasionaron un sábado a las 14:00 en una zona donde suelen estar todos los restaurantes llenos. Afortunadamente, conseguimos mesa en el restaurante cercano Asgaya, que por cierto no se puede comparar y recomiendo 100%,...

We visited it on a Saturday night. It was crowded. We stayed on the terrace. We were 12 people. I ordered a steak which was good. The potatoes that comes with it was horrible and fried more than once for sure. And at the beginning I found something in the plate that wasn’t very pleasant and I understand that mistakes could happen. I asked the waiter to bring me other potatoes, and he did. We got invited to some deserts at the end. The team is amazing and helpful. I...