Restaurante Iván Cerdeño-Cigarral del Ángel — Restaurant in Toledo

[After giving it some thought, I have modified my original scoring. While food and table service are indeed outstanding, we would not return to Iván Cerdeno nor recommend the place to a personal friend, so it would be quite inconsistent to award it a 5 score with google. It's simply questionable hospitality to put guests who booked the biggest menus weeks ago at the worst table of the whole restaurant, while the good ones went to locals who only appeared for a very limited amount of time and consumed little, i.e., mostly these tables were kept empty for their comfort. I will not spend again more than 400 EUR with an elevator view, sorry.] I recommend any locals to choose among the many gourmet options in Madrid.] My original five stars referred to cooking (in our opinion, deserves more than one Michelin star; except for one course, everything was totally outstanding, the one course was excellent, but fell short of outstanding) and to service (very friendly and efficient). I would wholeheartedly recommend this restaurant to any foodie. That being said, I do NOT recommend it for any special date. We booked weeks ago, specifying in the reservation that we will go for the full menu, and they still put us on the worst table in the whole restaurant (check our photos with the view to the lovely elevator in the background). Several tables with a view to the city were empty when we arrived, occupied later for a short time, and freed much time before we left (as the customers lucky enough to get these hardly consumed anything). Worse, one much better table than ours remained empty during all the time of our stay. Adding insult to injury, in reply to a message complaining in private about this situation, they told us that thus far they considered our table one of the best. Well, if you are an elevator geek, maybe! Anyway, cooking in this place is superb, and it is a real pity that reservation services fall so much short of cooking standards. Still, if you wish to eat there, I urge you to clearly insist while reserving that you want a good table; we were naive enough to believe that they would follow standard practices, which they failed to do; you'll see the consequences in our photos with the lovely...

I had a wonderful meal here with a large group of friends. The food was consistently excellent throughout the meal, never boring, and with a mix of more classically prepared food (the last savory dish was an impeccably prepared pigeon with tater tots, also a sort of mushroom "stew" was a crowd favorite) and creative dishes (my favorite was a cauliflower "cheesecake" that was presented at around the middle of the menu, but there were also many creative small dishes at the start of the meal that hit the mark, some of which were playful takes on classic Spanish cuisine). The sommelier suggested very nice wines from nearby vineyards. The service was excellent (we were a large group of loud Americans, and the service team was professional and friendly) , and the front of the house was very accommodating when we wanted to make changes to our reservation just days before the meal.

We ate during the lunch hour, and given how beautiful the landscape is, I would recommend this as opposed to dinner. The grounds are beautiful and it was nice to spend some time walking around before and after the meal. We chose the Monte y Ribera menu at lunch time, but during the week they also have a smaller lunch menu as an option. It is worth the train ride from Madrid to have a meal here and do some walking around the old...

A prior reviewer was quite accurate:

a great value for a creative and tasty 2 Michelin Star restaurant in a gorgeous environment, perfect for a respite after a morning of sightseeing in Toledo, just 10 minutes by taxi from the center of the main Plaza. good service in a lovely place and they put non-locals in bad tables despite having several others right in front of windows (this location is in a venue that overlooks what seems like a botanical garden so the view sort of matters) seemingly without reason. We were dressed well, speak Spanish fairly fluently, arrived a few minutes early, ordered wine pairings and a tasting menu, and were the only folks in the place seating in an odd location with 3 other open tables the entire meal overlooking the gardens. Odd - not world ending - but worth noting.

The venison wrapped in seaweed and banana leaves in a beet reduction was unreal. Desserts were special. Mushroom stew - and I don't like mushrooms - was next level. Presentation was all 5 -star. Table was so bright I could barely see. Price is right for the quality. A very good...