Tripea — Restaurant in Madrid

Located in Mercado Vallehermoso , Tripea offers a Peruvian - fusion tasting menu if you are lucky enough to get a reservation.

They usually open the bookings on the first of each month. At 12pm. And it’s very competitive, we set an alarm and went to get a table, and the first available option was on the 15th.

As mentioned, they offer a tasting menu of 6 courses with a price of 40€. Drinks not included. First and foremost everything was perfectly executed. We started with a roasted leek with a peanut romesco, chive béarnaise that was one of the stars of the night with its charred and creamy flavor. After it we had the tuna “tiradito” with a passion fruit reduction and kefir. Which was good, my girlfriend loved the fruity flavor, but I’m more of a purist with raw fish. I think it’s great on its own. Next, another star. The Peruvian bao with chicken filling, olive aioli and fried quail egg. It was my bite of the night, for how unexpected, tasty and filling it was. It was followed by a mussel ceviche. With happened to be a warm noodle dish. The idea was there, but the execution was a bit salty. Last but not least the roasted quail with massaman curry, coconut cream and seared bok choi. Delicious , perfect conjunction of flavors between the quail and the curry sauce. Sweet and savory. Delicious.

We finished with a brownie with some fruity sauce and petazetas. We also ordered pisco sours that were really good.

Only two things we didn’t like.

Add ons dishes . In my opinion there’s no need for them when what you offer it’s a tasting menu. Have an option A with 6 courses and a option B with 8 , with some premium products like oysters if you want, but don’t have the staff table by table suggesting that the signature dishes are outside of the tasting menu. And they need to be ordered before the start of the meal. When you don’t know about portion sizes . Also suggesting that one shouldn’t worry about quantity, it’s chill to add them, as it’s not much food. This is oversell and this is wrong. There’s enough food on the menu to leave the place really full. The couples on both our sides ordered two extra dishes on top, on the premise that it wouldn’t be too much food, and were really struggling by the end of the night. Music. Very loud and Electronic upbeat. I don’t know if the staff put a playlist to prepare everything , but we seemed to be in the so called “Ruta del Bakalao” for a great portion of our meal. Not the best for dinner in my opinion. Then they changed to what I think it was something more Peruvian and it was great.

All in all, the experience was amazing,...

I will give three stars because it's not terrible but it's NOT outstanding as it is hyped around the internet and reviews. I was so looking forward to trying this as the "Michelin star status" spoke a lot, and also they seemed to have creative cooking.

This is merely my opinion, there may be others whose experience is different. It's also fair to say they because of covid restrictions in Madrid, they have to speed service and this felt to me very robotic, one dish after the other, little interaction in-between. In general, food was cold and that was displeasing.

We went on the day where the menu was, my specific review on each dish: Oyster with passion fruit juice: it was okay, being Latin American, to serve an oyster with passion fruit juice and salt isn't something groundbreaking or even tasty. Mac and cheese with stilton cheese and duck confit: this was my least favourite. There's very little room to ruin such an easy dish as mac and cheese but this was made with orecchiette which wouldn't be my personal choice of pasta (cavatappi would be better), a bechamely sauce that was lumpy and some garnish of duck confit. I don't eat duck, so my opinion is only about the pasta. Prawns chupe "soup" with Jazmin rice: This was the only dish that was delicious on the entire menu. I would have loved if they had served only this in a larger proportion. Quail with curry, pak choi and Robuchon puree: well... to me this was cold, not very much impressed but I also don't like weird birds as foods. The sauces were delicious. Cinnamon roll with creme Anglaise: Extremely disappointed with a cinnamon roll made out of pastry dough. THE WHOLE POINT OF CINNAMON ROLLS IS THE FLUFFY INTERIOR AND PILLOWY TEXTURE OF A ROLL. The pastry dough basically made it a Palmera instead of a cinnamon roll.

Overall, I would no go back, there may be people who love it, but 35€ for this so-called Michelin food with unqualified simple dishes such as a cinnamon roll and mac and cheese is really too much. There are better...

COCINA: Se echó mucho de menos pan para muchas de las salsas que se quedaban en el plato. Una pérdida grande.

Menú degustación:

Puerro anticuchado a la brasa romescu, cacahuetes y chipotle. Bearnesa de cilantro, aceituna y cecina discarlux. Delicioso y complejo. Un must. Se notaban las diferentes salsas en cada bocado aunque era difícil de comer. Un plato no debe desmontarse al partirlo a menos que esté pensado para comerse de un solo bocado (lo que no era el caso).

Tiradito de atún rojo, aliño de maracuyá y miel de ajos fermentados, kéfir de cabra, migas de panko, chile y sate. Gran calidad aunque un plato un poco soso. La miel de ajo apenas se notaba, el maracuyá sí y el kéfir proporcionaba un buen contraste.

Bao relleno de ají de gallina, aceituna botija y huevo frito de codorniz. Espectacular el huevo y la salsa. Al relleno le faltó untuosidad.

Ceviche caliente de mejillones al wok, leche de tigre, ají amarillo y noodles. Plato estrella. Espectaculares, la salsa les iba de lujo. Sin embargo, era demasiado salada solo con los noodles y cansaba un poco. ¿Tal vez añadir una segunda salsa algo más dulce aparte para cuando acabas los mejillones echársela encima a los noodles y revitalizar el plato arreglando ese exceso de sodio?

Codorniz guisada en curry massaman, azafrán y palo cortado. Puré robuchón a las 5 especias chinas, pak choy al wok. Lo mejor: el pak choi con el curry funciona bien. Lo peor: La codorniz estaba seca y una estaba un pelín cruda (a pesar de que la salsa abundaba por lo que esto se arreglaba un poco). El curry tenía el grado justo de picante para un paladar europeo junto con el agradable contraste de especias que se puede esperar. Sin embargo, el puré robuchon simplemente diluía los sabores, yo lo evitaría en este plato. No estaba mal pero no destacaba. Sinceramente una decepción: el plato más flojo de la noche.

Brownie de chocolate y lúcuma, mole dulce y hierbabuena. El brownie en sí nos encantó pero la lúcuma no nos gustó. Estaba demasiado templada. Necesita un punto más de dulzor y acidez (yo probaría con physalis o yuzhu) y estar fría para el contraste. De lo contrario no aporta nada y el brownie se hace pesado. Los peta-zetas son la gran sorpresa pero al estar cubiertos en chocolate pierden la frescura y aportan más pesadez aún. Muerte por chocolate aunque podría funcionar si se refina.

BEBIDAS: Se agradeció el agua de Madrid a 0€ (la botella preciosa). La carta de bebidas alcohólicas muy correcta aunque no indican maridaje ni recomendaciones al preguntar. Los vinos que probamos fueron un acierto aunque dos de las personas que fuimos no bebemos alcohol y no había opciones. Muy mejorable la carta de bebidas sin alcohol, el gran olvidado.

AMBIENTE: ¡No es accesible! La música estaba demasiado alta, dando dolor de cabeza e imposibilitando hablar en ocasiones. Además, era estridente y no pegaba con el menú. No apto para personas con migrañas o con sensibilidad auditiva. Como persona bajita, grande y con piernas cortas: las sillas eran un suplicio. Me pegué la velada escurriéndome, no podía posar los pies en el suelo para estabilizarme y, al ser grande, me "salía" por los lados. Además, una persona con problemas de movilidad tendría problemas para subirse y mantenerse en ellas. Muy mejorables, la verdad. Las mesas altas no son aptas para personas en silla de ruedas ya que no llegan a ellas. Los cuchillos especialmente mejorables. Los ganchos bajo la mesa son un punto a favor.

SERVICIO: Había dos camareros: un chico y una chica. Él vino poco pero fue muy correcto y nos preguntó nuestras opiniones. Bien. Ella al dejar o recoger los platos no hacía comentarios ni nada. Un poco incómodo. A la hora de decir los platos iba tan rápido que no podíamos seguirla. Bastante mejorable. Se habría agradecido que los platos estuvieran escritos en una pizarra al menos.

PRECIO: 45€ el menú (ofrecían la opción de añadir platos aunque no indicaban el precio de estos) + bebidas (unos 5€ la copa de vino)

RESERVA: Se tiene que hacer el 1 del mes a las 12:00 del mediodía o...