Olde Madrid — Restaurant in Racine

I was very disappointed with the authenticity of the Spanish food here. I have been searching for spanish cuisine for me and my boyfriend (who is from Spain and staying with me during quarantine), and even though this restaurant claims to be Spanish, it was far from it. The menu only has a few things similar to what food from Spain is (i.e. papas bravas, calamari, paella), but most items are latin and american fusions. We ordered the foods closest to common tapas in Spain and Sangria. The sangria was poured from a premade bottle and it had absolutely no flavor or taste of alcohol. It was clearly something you buy at the grocery store for a few dollars with a few orange slices thrown in and soda water. The papas bravas were nothing close to patatas bravas. It was just potatoes soaked in tomato sauce. (It is a very misleading name) The empanadas had no flavor. The calamari was edible but very basic in quality. The alioli sauce (which we had to request even though it is the normal sauce served with calamaris in Spain) tasted EXACTLY like tartar sauce. Despite the website claiming to cater to traditions in Spain this restaurant is just serving hispanic food with the occasional Spain influence. This is a terrible misrepresentation of Spanish culture and cooking, and those who are looking to experience Spanish cuisine and authenticity should not eat here. It is sad to think people who eat here are being mislead into thinking this is the food of Spain. Not to mention the restaurant itself felt more like a typical latino restaurant playing salsa, cumbia, etc. Spanish food itself is beautiful in it's simplicity and can be done well relatively easily, how they manage to mess that up is...

Now I'm going to start this off with me being colorblind. I was eating here with my friend and had ordered their Argentina steak (on their menu said traditionally cooked rare) - about halfway through my steak my friend across the table told me that the steak I was eating is actually raw, being red and mushy on the surface. Speaking with the server (and I believe manager at the time) I mentioned that I was colorblind and didn't notice that it was raw until my friend had said something. She apologized and went back - we told them to cancel the rest of the order - and when they came back with the check they Said they were going to charge me half for my raw steak and insisted that (besides their menu saying it's traditionally cooked rare) that it's "normally cooked medium rare" and "that's how our chefs normally cook it..."

It took me re-explaining that the steak was not in fact even rare it was completely raw on the surface of most of the meat, and that I would not have eaten it but due to me not being able to tell the difference between cooked and raw steak I did not notice to the to stop until my friend had mentioned to me that I was eating raw meat.

The manager had then given an eyeroll to the server (despite her first welcoming greeting to the restaurant) and just gave a wave to the server who then took it off of the bill.

Overall bad experience, I had to explain twice that I was colorblind and that eating the raw steak was not intentional (although why I would willingly eat overpriced raw steak is beyond me). I'm just glad I didn't get any of their seafood. Raw beef is ALOT less dangerous than raw seafood. Be safe out there folks, especially at...

This is the first time we came to Old Madrid. It was a pleasant experience. We were greeted shortly after we arrived. We needed to wait a few mins for a table, which is understandable for a Saturday night. The restaurant was very busy. Once we sat down, we waited for over 15 mins before someone came to our table to ask for something to drink. Once we ordered our water and soda, it took a while longer than usual. After about 20 minutes, we were able to order our appetizer. The server didn't ask if we had ever been there before and could have explained the menu or if there were any chef specials. After receiving our appetizer, the artichoke dip, it was really creamy and delicious. We didn't expect to get so much. The serving size was big for 2 people, and I'm happy we took it home.

For dinner, we ordered the Marisco Traditional paella that included shrimp, scallops, cod, mussels, octopus, and calamari and sprinkled with dill. It was delicious.

This is why we decided to come to Olde Madrid to try paella. The only thing that was missing was the socorrat, the crispy, crunchy toated rice on the bottom. When I asked the server, she didn't know what I was talking about. If it had the socorrat, it would have been perfect.

I may be asking too much, but isn't that how a traditional paella is made?

I would like to come back and try another paella with the soccorat of possible.

After ordering, the server forgot about us and never came back to refill our drinks, just to drop off the bill and get us to go containers.

This is a place I would like to come back to, but if the service could be a little better at explaining the menu...