Santa y pura Vegan Bar — Restaurant in Madrid

Disappointing - that's putting it Mildly

I had reserved a Table here - based on the Happy Cow Reviews. While the service and Ambience was good - the food was sad.

I visited at 8 PM - as I wanted to Sample what a VEGAN Tapas Bar offering would be like..

As a life-long Vegetarian (and a Vegan for the past decade), I like COOKED Food. What I received in the Platter of the day - was a sad representation of why Veganism is NOT catching on! (Despite the health benefits, carbon benefits and what not!)

What I received, was a transposition of my local Grocery Store Shelf - to my Platter - costing me 16 EUROS in the process ! The Broccoli florets and some Vegan Mayo or Yogurt topped on them. The Babaganoush - was nothing but a boiled aubergine - with it's skin intact.

The Potatoes were peeled and boiled :)

And whenever I have asked for some Spicy Sauce - I am presented a Store bought Bottled Sauce! How difficult can it be for a VEGAN restaurant - to make it's own Hot Sauce?

To add indignity to this, I am also CHARGED 1-2 EUROS for requesting such Sauce - of which I use 3-4 drops (max)

I am puzzled as to how this place "Santa y Pura" is rated as a Top restaurant in Madrid.

Also, what is with these VEGAN (Cruelty free, Animal loving) restaurants, terming their foods - as Sausage, Chorizos, Veal and what not? If you have started a VEGAN restaurant because you believe in a case, remove the terminology as well.

Anyways, I would not bother visiting restaurants like "Santa y Pura" again!

Note: Any restaurant trying to make Falafel, Hummus and Baba should have a chef who is well versed with these. The Hummus in many restaurants has the consistency of Mayonnaise!

If you cannot do it right...

The food was okay, nothing to ride home about. The waiter, a gray haired shorter guy was incredibly insensitive. This is my first time in Spain on business, so being a vegetarian for 25 years I always look for local vegan/vegetarian restaurants to support. This guy was acting like he was doing us a favor in allowing us to eat there. When ordering we ordered a lot of different dishes to sample the cuisine, we only had one day in Spain so we wanted to make the best of it. He proceeds to insult me by saying that I was ordering too much! It then proceeded to tell him that we would take leftover to our hotel, as we usually do, he was assuming that we would waste the food. By ordering more, we were giving the restaurant business and I’m sure the owner of the shop would appreciate it. Anyway, there was more cocky behavior throughout our time there it left a bad taste in my mouth and I will never support this business again. If I was the owner, I would fire this guy immediately. The food was a 2 out of 5 and the service was trash, I’ll take my business elsewhere where...

We absolutely LOVE this restaurant. The vegan food is spectacular! They have the greatest tortilla de patatas that I've ever eaten in my life! (beating all "my mum makes the best tortilla" by far!). The croquetas of mushrooms are also exquisite! As are the salads, vegan calamari, sandwiches (OMG the Serranito!), tacos, cakes (oh, the lemon cake!), pastries, etc. You name it, if they make it, it's 100% delicious! In addition, they sell very cool items like t-shirts, mugs, art, etc. with solidarity purposes: the money goes to animal charities. You can even choose to donate a bit of the price of your coffee to animal charities. The whole concept of the place is great. Plus the staff are very welcoming and friendly and the food is all mind-blowing. We've been there every day whilst visiting Madrid and we plan to go every time we're in the city from now on. I already know I will be craving their tortilla de patatas til next time! Oh, and they have a lovely terrace too. I strongly recommend this place! It's now definitely one of my favourite vegan restaurants in...