Bodega El Capricho — Restaurant in Santa Elena de Jamuz

I never write reviews for restaurants, but my experience dining here last night was so bad in all dimensions that I have to write one.

Based on our experience, we wouldn’t recommend this to anyone, especially given the price tag ($391 euro for 2ppl, or $276 without wine)

TL;DR, service was really slow (despite only 3 tables with diners in the whole restaurant), staff doesn’t seem to care or have any passion for the job, pushy upselling of menu items, Jose Gordon Selection steak cut was so chewy we didn’t even finish half of it, some food hygenie issues with packing food togo. I’m surprised my experience is so different from the positive reviews and the world’s best steakhouses ranking.

More details: My wife and I dined at 8:15pm on a Monday evening, we were surprised only two other tables had diners, and no other customer arrived through our entire meal.

Here’s all that went wrong: The wine menu was not given to us until we already ordered food even though we asked for it multiple times. Then it took another 10+ minutes for our wine bottle to arrive, long after our first appetizer was already served. Another reviewer mentioned the waiters strongly pushed you to order more expensive menu options, and we felt the same way. We asked for the premium ox cut ($140/kg), but the waiter insisted that we get the Jose Gordon selection($170/kg) as the ‘premium ox cut’ was from the ‘worst part of the cow’, and the Jose Gordon selection was much more tender and even aged longer. After we told the waiter we are ok with the premium ox cut, they even brought the sommelier over to try to convince us again which I was surprised by. We trusted them and went with the Jose Gordon selection, which ended up being one of the chewiest steaks I ever had (more on that later). The sommelier also upsold us on the wines, I asked for wine recommendations up to 100 euros, and all the wines he recommended were 130-150+. Onto the meal itself. We ordered the steak tartar, carpaccio, 1.3kg of the Jose Gordon selection cut, and the peppers. The tartar and carpaccio were decent, but nothing special warranting the 2x price tag. However the steak was actually worse than other steaks we’ve had in Spain despite the 3x price tag. I found it odd they had the sommelier serve and cut our steak, are there no other staff members? The steak itself was so tough and chewy, it was a jaw workout with each bite. We thought maybe it’s just a specific piece of the meat like that, but we tried all different pieces of the steak, cut it different ways, and it was the same texture. We also didn’t taste anything special from the steak itself, no intense ox flavor. By the end of the meal our jaws were sore, and we didn’t finish half the steak. If this is how the Jose Gordon selection cut is, I can’t even imagine what the ‘premium ox cut’ would be like. At the end of the meal, we had 2 plates of leftovers, the steak and the peppers. When we asked for our leftovers to go, the waitress took our plate of meat and stacked the bottom of the plate of peppers which was sitting on the table directly on top of our meat. This is very unhygienic, and when we pointed it out, they didn’t know it was wrong. Then they packed the peppers with olive oil and the meat together in the same to go container!! Now the meat is sitting soaked in olive oil and mixing flavors with the peppers. Clearly haven’t had any hospitality training. The final insult was asking for the bill. We asked twice, and after 20 minutes of waiting (why is service so slow if there are only 3 tables total dining), we got fed up and went upstairs to the cash register to find someone to pay. When we got there we saw the floor manager walking out the door, get into a car and drive away. In all my years of dining I’ve never seen the manager leave while guests and waiters were still there. Perhaps it was because Jose Gordon wasn’t there that day to supervise, but there was a clear lack of passion and care from the staff that reflected in our...

We flew in from Miami to Madrid and took the 3 hour drive to stay at the Elvira and eat at El Capricho with our 11 year old son. Unbelievably we enjoyed a 93 degree summer day at the local river-fed ice-cold swimming pool and waterfall, and by 6pm it was 60 degrees with what can only be described as a once in a thousand year hail storm. Literally feet of hail and rain fell in about 10 minutes dangerously flooding the streets and causing so much water that it flooded into the caves and the El Capricho restaurant. By 7pm it was sunny and 80 degrees again - we decided to go to dinner....they were lifting buckets of water out of the dining and cooking areas - dinner was canceled and we figured we were lucky to be safe and sound so we grabbed some food in town.

The restaurant miraculously 1) was open the next day for lunch 2) adjusted our reservation so we could still have the famous meal and 3) lived up to their reputation in every way.

Wine - lovely list of local wines at reasonable prices - we had a glass of their own wine (dry, simple, solid) and a bottle from a nearby vineyard for a bit more money and it was also quite good. We ordered the full tasting menu for around $200 each - we got this for 2 - plus ordered a 'working animal' which was very rare and aged for close to 200 days (the normal tasting menu has a beef that is 115 days old) and is able to withstand this due to the unique musculature of the animal (no cows 'work' these days it seems) and it was a lot of food and a lot of meat, but we got through most of it. the 200 day meat was a 10/10 - best steak any of us have ever had - tender, marbled, grilled to medium rare perfection. the 115 day meat my son liked less and my wife liked more as it was cooked just past raw but also was truly superb. the various cured meat dishes, tartare, amazing artichoke (about the only veggie you'll see), fantastic desserts, bread service, and more were all outstanding, kept at a good pace to be out of there in under 3 hours for 10 courses. The very best was the 24 hour roasted beef slice which was like the best slice for a sandwich ever made - cooked at 130 degrees for a day. service - 10/10 visit to their farm prior to eating that day on a 1 hour tour was a highlight - petting and feeding the cows, seeing the variety they have, checking out their cellars (buy some chorizo and other cured meats - yum) and getting a feel for the community was well worth the few bucks and I think you can't fully appreciate what happens here without doing it. the town is very odd - there are no humans in it we could find - no lights at night - we had a great dinner nearby with about 2 other tables. the town of Beneza 10 minutes away has more but also is pretty empty all day and night it seems for having 10,000 people. it felt like Vanilla Sky in Jimenez de Jamus but great for a 1-2 day stop. we visited Museo Alfar to do pottery and took a 15 minute ride to picnic at the river fed pool they can guide you to.

Truly an experience and thanks to the entire team for doing an amazing job of recovering from a rare national disaster event the likes of which we've rarely seen (and we live in Miami!). we know likely some people lost homes and businesses. Complete class and 5-star...

What can be said! I try to be brief. I arrived around 8pm after driving for many hours from san Sebastian as my last stop. On arrival the place looked closed, but soon i found someone and informed them i wished to dine there if possible. English seemed a problem even though they understood. After waiting 20 mins, which i do not really do, i saw that the chef was giving me a look over from behind the kitchen glass to see if i am worthy to eat there type of look! I thought, wow this place must be really booked up and full that they cant find a table? 2 mins later i get asked to follow one of the staff to a table. Going down some stairs and entering into a cave, which seemed cool for a second, only to notice there was hardly anyone inside. I think i counted 4 tables of 3 and myself! The rest was empty! Then i get presented with a menu, stating that the minimum must be one cut of 1kg of beef/ox with no combination and no alternatives + starters ! So i decided to go for the 1kg of “full flavoured ox” at 170 euros per 1 kg. After a short time i was presented with the cut of 1kg, in my opinion it was 250g of lean meat, 450g of bone and 300g of fat Anyways, i was intrigued to see what the big hype is about the “best stake in the world” so i continued. After a while i was presented with the cooked steak, fat take off to be made “crispy” and the rest presented to me. First bite, im heading crunchy rock salt not ox or beef. After clearing all the excessive salt off, i started to try to find out what the fuss was all about! The green salad of wilted lettuce or the left over tasting potatoes really were not impressive! I continued to eat the meat while i was listing with amusement to the next table who were vowing not to do this again and what a big mistake it was for them to drive from Leon to eat at this place. I held my laughter in as I have the same sentiment… “over hyped, over priced food in the middle of nowhere… not doing this again” after they ordered a lot of meat, starters and wine to wash the excessive salt down with. I simply asked for the bill, the waitress (one of only 2 for the whole restaurant) asked if the food is ok? I answered “ honestly… over salted” This is a perfect example of a place that is over hyped, awarded and rewarded by people who do not know what they are talking about only to create some kind of “elite spot” which this can not compare to the likes of others around the world or even Spain or portugal next door who would put this place to shame in quality and price. I would be surprised if they really survive as a restaurant for another year with this kind of attitude, quality and pricing towards punters! The sad reality they do not do justice to the amazing ox/beef they grow and slaughter for profits. As stated by the next table “over hyped, over priced, wouldn’t...