Taberna el Arco — Restaurant in Madrid

We visited the restaurant a week ago expecting for some pinoy dish close to home. Service: Very good service. The owner and the Pinoy cook were friendly. The owner was very pleasant. The cook, amiable and chatty the Pinoy style . The ambience is homey.

The food; We ordered kare-kare and barbecue. Dessert was halo-halo.

Pros: The ube ice cream in the halo halo was so good. It was the cheri cream on top of the cake per se. The atchara was perfectly made.

Cons: Except for the ube ice cream, the rest of the ingredients were mediocre. The sweetened saba tasted sour, same goes with the kaong. The kare-Kare meat was pork instead of ox tripe/tail or chunks of beef( disappointed). Serving is quite small for the price. The alamang was too salty for my taste. The barbecue was okay but could be less tart. Price: I paid 42+ Euros for the 2 dishes plus dessert and cola and water for drinks. I would say quite pricey just because I was disappointed of the kare-kare and halo-halo. Conclusion: It was quite disappointing to say the least but I’d come back for the ube ice cream :) A jarred sampling of their delicious atchara to sell as food souvenir...

We ordered a few items.

The gambas was good, but portion was tiny for the price.

Lumpiang shanghai was ok. Chicken fingers were good.

The pulpo was too salty, but tender. However, they have us olive oil to drizzle on the pulpo from a packet!

The pad thai was very unusual. It wss described as Filipino pad thai but there was no Filipino or even Thai taste. The noodles were on the tough side and the sauce was some kind of a salty peanut sauce.

The paella negra was a pass but overpriced for what you get.

What stunned us was the cubierto charge of 1.50 euros per person (x6). Waitress told us it was for bread but I said we only got one serving of bread. Then she said it was a standard charge for everyone who eats in the restaurant.

We did not see it indicated in the menu. Other places will put it in the menu or will say, 1€ charge for eating outside.

It was disappointing overall.

The waitresses were friendly.

Will not...

Dreadful, in every way. A good place to eat needs good food, good staff and a good environment. This had none of these. Food - we ordered jamon and cheese to share but no sooner had this arrived than the octopus one of us ordered for main also arrived. Several other tables had the same problem and we should have sent it back like they did. The steak was full of fat (30%) and inedible bits. The hot plate to cook the steak was cold rapidly so we were left eating raw fatty gristle. Staff - it's a small place, just 10 tables. So a large group shouting chanting and making a sin spoil it for all. The staff did nothing to stop remand allowed them to pour their own drinks from bottles they brought with them. We were in and out in an hour but couldn't have taken any more of the noise. Environment - it's basic, but not in a cool way. Too crowded - we couldn't get out from out table with out 2 people and a wine cooler...