Chateau Madrid Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in Carteret

I was looking forward to liking this place especially with all of the good reviews but was highly disappointed.

They have a large parking lot area for patrons and the ambiance inside is nice, slightly on the dark side inside even though we were seated next to the entrance by huge sun-lit bright windows. This establishment is by itself in a residential area.

I came here as a group of 7 people on a Saturday at 12:30 pm in the afternoon for a birthday lunch. There were no other customers but us even though they had opened at 11 am. A woman was surprised to see customers, greeted us and sat us down after we were waiting a minute or two at the front door. We were given menus by the same woman, but a waiter had not come by to see us for another 10 minutes at least. We didn't see the woman again afterwards. We were given cold bread and cold butter which was disappointing as I usually look forward to the complementary warm/hot bread at most fine dining areas. My whole party loves bread, but in this instance, we didn't finish the basket of bread as it was refrigerator cold.

We ordered two pitchers of red sangria ($21.95 per pitcher). It was good, but it was the sweetest sangria I have ever had. Very sugary.

It took a while (maybe 15 mins) for the waiter to come back to us to take our orders even though we were the only customers in the entire restaurant. My aunt had to call him over.

We ordered calamari appetizer ($9.95) which was a little on the small side. Even with the small size, none of us finished it as the calamari were soft and soggy as if it had been sitting out for some time and had cooled and then microwaved briefly to warm it up lightly.

My aunt had ordered the T-bone steak ($19.95). The coloring on the stead looked weird, unlike any steak we have ever had. She had asked for it medium, but it was on the thin side that however they had cooked it, it was more well done. The cut of meat was not the best either.

I ordered the picadinho shrimp ($16.95). It had maybe only 2 pieces of small shrimp in the entire dish with mostly soft baked reheated cubed potatoes and overcooked pork cubes. (see the picture) Nothing at all what I expected. The pork tasted as if it were reheated in a microwave. The heavy dark sauce it came in was uneven in taste. some areas were more vinegary than others. I probably had 3 bites at most and didn't eat the rest of it.

My sister-in-law had ordered the flounder fillet with shrimp. ($18.95) It was a nice big portion but a bit bland.

My brother had ordered a cod fish dish ($22.95). Bland as well.

A friend of ours had ordered chicken in garlic. ($15.95) I forgot to take a picture as his dish had come last, but it was nothing spectacular from what I recall him saying.

My other brother had ordered the broiled seafood platter ($32.95). See the picture for yourself. I didn't hear anything good nor bad from him regarding his meal.

My father had fried pork chunks ($16.95). They looked similar to my cubed pork but larger - same overcooked, dry side.

Overall none of us liked our dishes. Service was friendly, but slow and inattentive however. From beginning through end, our male waiter didn't even check in on us even though we were the only customers. We had to call him over for drinks and to take our order and to get the check. I was disappointed in the bad birthday lunch experience on top of which there was an automatic 15% gratuity which normally I wouldn't mind as we were a group of 7 but service was inattentive to warrant that...

Terribly disappointed especially after getting rave reviews from my daughter. My friends buffalo wings were not buffalo wings more like rock hard pieces of wood with some not buffalo sauce drenched on them and why are they serving it with mayo???!!!! My friend asked for shrimp alfredo which the waiter /not waiter who was trying his hardest to help and be helpful checked at least 4 times-- they brought him shrimp scampi soup. The clams casino was not too bad. The shrimp in garlic was swimming in oil and my god did they pour the whole container of salt on the poor shrimp. The shrimp in my friends dish were of decent size. So when ordering shrimp with garlic they served me these medium sized shrimp and I was expecting a bigger shrimp and for $20 it was not worth it at all. For $20 I expect the hearty jumbo wild caught shrimp. And they dont even serve a little white rice on the side. I will not be returning. Look at those sad shrimp in the pic I provided...thats not $20 shrimp. Edit: yes I have seen the prices when out grocery shopping and that same shrimp I can buy at shoprite for $10 /2 lbs. When paying the market price for seafood one expects it to be aesthetic to the eye and nice jumbo shrimp with garlic, and yes, wild caught, 3 nice jumbo wild caught shrimp little salt in a garlic sauce which is usually white this was deep red oil and an inch of it- with all that sauce one would think to include white rice with the dish- it would at least cut the salt. Thing is I dont even recall seeing garlic in the dish. But I couldn't even swallow it with how salty it was to even bother looking.

Also in every bad review you receive you say the food is fresh. Its not about the food not being fresh its about it being edible...

We have actually been here plenty of times but this is my first review for this resturant.

Staff is always nice and always attending you. They have a music box you can pay and select to play songs which is cool incase you want to listen to something specific..

Julio is literally the best!!! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Every-time we are their he is nothing but polite, attentive, and is always working hard..

The only thing I can possibly say that is a downer is that the place is hot (this is before drinking haha not during or after) but other then that this place is definitely a go.

Starting with the drinks of course!

Sangría - pretty good some days are stronger then other days.. they have a tonnnnnnn of flavors and variety 9/10⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Paella - I never liked paella but this was pretty good.. I hate mushy rice and can say this was definitely a better experience 8/10⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Picadinho - We loveeeeeeeeeeee this dish. This is an every time dish accompanied with whatever we order to share. Potatoes with shrimp, beef, sausages & pickled veggies 10/10 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Seafood - this wasn’t my dish nor got to try it but was told it was really good but needed more sauce she said.. but then again she loves saucy foods so I’m sure it was good lol with some fresh hot bread…

Chourico - 🔥 flamed sausage was really good!!!!! Nice, hot, and juicy - 8/10 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Garlic Shrimp - another dish always ordered… Super flavorful and delish!!...