Cafe Madrid — Restaurant in Dallas

The question is, where do I start? It was our first time there today to celebrate my birthday. When we arrive, the staff in the front gave us this weird look and they were speaking in English, so spoke to them back in English even though I’m a proud bilingual professional. We asked him to set us by the harp presenter and they just turn around and set us on the other side where we didn’t ask to be seated. It was OK I let it go then it’s a server came to order we told them that it was our first time there and he’s like he didn’t care and didn’t make any suggestions and ask me do you speak Spanish, ? And then he came back to take our order with this really grunting face didn’t made any suggestions for the menu and he very rudely said “this is a tapas restauranteverything is in small pieces “so we did order And I’ve been to Spain, lived there for a whole year studying abroad, and I do remember the flavors of authentic tapas but we order 4 differently plates, and none of them met the standards of Spanish tapas, including the cheap sangria served in a regular glass, not a wine glass. When the first plate arrived, it was potatoes, bland flavor. The tomato sauce had no flavor. I make better tomato sauce from scratch. I asked the server if you could bring me some salt and he rudely responded “can you please wait” If I want to enjoy a good plate of food, I don’t look at the price but for four tapas and two cheap sangrias it was more than $100. I would not come back here even if they pay me. Staff here needs to be respectful and welcoming. As soon as any client that is not blonde or light skin should all be respected and treated the same. And please be respectful of the people investing in your food and get yourself a real Spanish chef. we ended up heading to the restaurant in front where they sell delicious...

TL:DR Overcharged, slow service, understaffed

I called to let the restaurant know I wanted to do bring my friends (15-20) in during happy hour. I always called when I do happy hour, so the restaurant can have a heads up. I left a voicemail, and never got a call back. My friends were coming and going. This was said at the beginning of the happy hour. People would come and go as they please, but we would probably have around 10-15 people at a time.

The server, bless his heart, was running inside and outside. He was probably waiting on 6 tables (2 of them large parties) without any help. It took 30-60mins to get drinks. Food was brought over, but it was things that were either already there or not ordered by us. They couldn’t split the check by items. Imagine, a restaurant that specializes shareable food, but can’t share the bill.

So my friends and I comb through the check, and tell them each item they ordered. When all was said and done, things were still left on the bill that were either: A) paid for earlier that night by guests that left early, or B) charged from the extra C) possibly left over The owner contacted me, while cordial, tried to place the blame on my friends for the bad experience. I have these happy hours (15-40 guests at times) at least 1 to 2 times a quarter, and have never had an experience like that.

My same friends have been coming to these happy hours for 4 years now, and have never had to sit at a table and comb through a check like that. As people were leaving, the didn’t even take items off the bill. So, no one could figure out what was going on. Even if things were left over by people who left earlier, how could we tell?

I have never had a problem with the bill before. It was embarrassing. I’ll be going to the other tapas place next time, and save myself...

For the most part most of the tapas were very good but at the price point for them i feel like there should have been more of everything, particularly the cheese board which was the most lackluster $15 cheese board I've ever had. 3 different cheeses (2 pieces of each), 2 crackers somewhere between rhe size of a nickel and a quarter, a few almonds, 2 1 inch cubes of fig bread, and a little bit of some sort of jelly to go with it. Compared to cheeseboards of equal price I've gotten elsewhere it seemed like they had 4 people order it at the same time with only enough stuff to make one and just stretched it out. The calamari was also disappointing as it tasted like nothing and also had a small portion size for the price compared to places like tgifridays were the quality is also, shockingly, better. Blood sausage, lamb meatballs, beef skewer, and many others were all fantastic as far as flavor went. This is a great place to sit down and get some tasty snacks but for that reason I'd also only go back if, like this time, I was invited by a friend in family. Also when I went the dining room was almost entirely open but for whatever reason my family and I were all seated at 2 tables directly to the side of the front door when it was 20f outside so any time the door was open we were blasted by below freezing air for when there were easily 15 other tables in the main room that were open where this wouldn't have been the case. Our waiter was great, I forget his name unfortunately, but this is why my experience is rated as so. 1 star foe the waiter, 1 star for the food that was flavorful, 3 off for the way we were seated, the price point, and the portion size and cheese board. Overall my experience was lackluster and thus I won't be going back unless through invitation of...