Taberna Bodegas Ricla — Restaurant in Madrid

On the recommendation of Lonely Planet, we went to this place early in our Madrid stay. Bizarrely, and surely counter-productive to any good business strategy, when the place was empty at 2215, you could only have a spot inside if you ordered a racione, not just a tapas. No other place in Madrid was like this. We had a good laugh over the week that, like Frank Costanza, they could not keep us out of Del Boca Vista.  We had thought they might just be grumpy in a charming way.

Big mistake going back today - unfriendly service; small uncreative tapas, and they ripped us off, by giving us a less expensive tapas, feigning not to speak any English, and charging us for the more expensive tapas without giving us an itemized receipt, as I think is required by law, and at least is done everywhere else in Madrid.

They have little signs posted everywhere about their rules, but ripping off people who are visiting the country and helping the economy, but do not speak the language, and not giving a receipt or providing an incorrect receipt, are not two of their rules.

They seem to be claiming to have been open since 1867, but will likely soon go out of business.  If one cannot find a better business model to collect an unearned 1.30 Euro on a sale, then you are on the wrong path.  Avoid this place as Madrid has much...

No credit cards since 1867... Which is very rare in Spain because all the shops and restaurants accept cards. I'm very torn about this place because it is NOT for tourists: they don't make you feel welcome, they don't speak English, they don't provide English menus, they don't cater to tourists, they cater to locals... And I think that's as it should be with a place like this. It's authentic... a group of old men at the bar looking as though they've been going there for decades, we were completely ignored by staff. Don't go if you're in a rush to see/do other things because it's not that kind of place... Took a while to take our order, took a while to get food.. the pace just slowed down as soon as we sat down. Again, as it should be. This place has been around since 1867 and it's not changing for anyone,...

Fuimos 3 amigos, aconsejados por conocer una taberna historica y que aun a sabiendas de algunas reseñas, queriamos tener nuestra propia opinion. Lo siento por ellos, pero NO volveremos y NO lo aconsejaremos. El trato de cierto camarero fue un desproposito. Nada mas entrar, quisimos pedir un vermut, con el local casi vacio, el camarero, con tono serio y altivo, no se si ya estaba cabreado, nos dijo, que dentro era para comer, tenia razon, efectivamente lo indicaba un cartel en la pared. Por nuestra parte, con intencion de probar el local, pensamos, bien pedimos algo de comer, vimos la carta, todo raciones y solicité una racion de Mojama de Atun, 22€. Otro camarero se acercó y me dijo que no, SORPRESA, que si eramos 3 personas, tenian que ser 3 raciones o 3 medias raciones, a lo que le comenté y si somos 10. Hablamos entre nosotros, y pensamos, pedimos una media racion mas. Le comenté al camarero si me podia aconsejar, respuesta, ahí tienes la carta, a cuadros me quede, en fin.., se lo comento a mis amigos y digo literal, son las normas, creo que no hay insulto, ni falta de educacion. Como la taberna es estrecha y las mesas de pie, estan relativamente cerca de la barra, el camarero, me oyó y para mayor sorpresa, contestó en un TONO CON VOZ ALTA y DESAFIANTE, PUES SI, SON LAS NORMAS O ES QUE EN TU EMPRESA NO TIENEN NORMAS, me giré y le dije, efectivamente hay normas, por eso nos vamos. Nunca esperariamos algo asi, es mas si fuese alguno de mis locales, primero lo agradeceria, por poner los pies en el y de buenas formas explicaria las "NORMAS" y si un cliente me deja 30, 40 o 50€ mejor que nada 0, que es lo que hizo. Finalmente, estuvimos justo al lado y con normalidad. Me gustaria poder hablar con ellos, hablando se entiende la gente, por si tenia un mal dia o por aconsejar. En fin, habrá opiniones de todo tipo, variadas segun la experiencia de cada uno. Observo que hay otros clientes que han pasado por situaciones buenas (me alegro) y no tan buenas similares.., por otro lado, les entiendo porque los que hemos estado detras de barra y cara a cara con clientes, es duro, hace falta mucho capote y mano izquieda, pero debe ser que le sobran los clientes o que tienen el negocio...