shlen — Restaurant in Madrid

Discovered a gem in the barrio Goya that opened a month ago. It has rave reviews, not to mention the oohs and aahs of delight from every customer I have seen in there. A plant-based restaurant/cafe run by the lovely couple Shital and Lennon, who greet every customer with a big smile, a passion for what they make and stories of their travels around the world. Don’t let yourself be fooled by the simple, small space (which is immaculate). The flavors are exciting, the texture and mouth feel so incredible you would never know what you were eating was totally plant-based. We’ve been there twice already in three days and have to decided to make our way through their whole menu which comprises Indian street food, Spanish dishes, Italian classics like tiramisu’ and bao, bibimbap, sushi and more. Highly recommend a visit. In order, Dosa al cacio e pepe, bocadillo de mojo canario verde (a fresh sandwich with avocado, arugula and the Canary Islands cilantro-based sauce which will make your taste buds sing), bombas de sabor (a rare delicacy to find outside of India, wow!), baos con setas de ostra y cebolla encurtida, cacahuetes, mayonesa de sriracha (oyster mushrooms, toasted peanuts, onion, sriracha mayo… need I say more?), gyozas de puerro y carne de soja (leek and meat) and gyozas with apple and cinnamon… like apple pie...

Go to Shlen, NOW! Visited Shlen with my husband (who isn’t vegan btw) but even he couldn’t stop praising the food. Without a doubt the BEST food we had during our trip to Madrid. Highly recommend it. The staff was super nice and we were actually attended by Mr.Lennon, one half of Shlen itself! Before leaving we even got to meet Sheetal, the second half of Shlen. Such lovely people ✨

Their dishes truly reflect their passion for food and their determination to introduce the tastiest plant based dishes.

We had the Edamame & Truffle Gyoza, the flavor bomb, the masala dosa, the Korean Mushroom Bao and the Tiramisu and if given a chance, we would keep going back for more and more.

Lennon loves his craft beers and wines and he introduced us to some of his favourites. It truly felt like a friend sharing his favourites with us.

Cannot wait to be in Madrid again and go to Shlen! Still dreaming about that mushroom bao and...

I was looking for a vegan restaurant on Google Maps and came across this one.

The menu sounded really good, but when we got the food we were extremely disappointed to see such a low quantity of food. And to be fair, the menu didn't have the number of items in each plate, which would've been very helpful. There was this dish with 4 tiny gyozas, for which we paid 12€. And another dish which was literally a thin crepe with shredded cheese on top, for which we paid 10€. We obviously did not fulfill our hunger and yet paid almost 30€ between that and the drinks.

VERY EXPENSIVE!!

On top of that, everything was served in takeaway containers. Which was disappointing because it's not sustainable.

I wouldn't go again, but I also don't...