Madrid

[Chambolle]

 

I liked it but I've come the conclusion I don't value hotels.

Same here, obviously.

 

Fair enough, Orik, so let’s talk Madrid apartments

 

 

I do like my URSO Hotel ... but not necessarily for more than four days

 

This place that you mentioned years ago seems pretty good and I am considering going for it :

 

 

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/410699

 

 

The location isn’t great but it’s acceptable … and has good metro access

 

 

Not loving the lack of a bedroom closet / drawers … but not a deal breaker

 

 

Not loving the location of the bathroom vis-à-vis the bedroom … but nothing wrong with a little exercise

 

My main concern is the tiny “kitchenette” … ie is there a fridge with a freezer (need ice cubes for Gin Tonics !) and is it acceptable to cook a simple dinner if that's the desire for a night or two ... thoughts ?

 

Happy to entertain better options, but I don’t want a 5^th floor walk-up and I don’t want my bedroom to be a mattress-on-the-floor at the top of a flight of stairs … even if the rest of the apartment is excellent

[Orik]

If available then this one is everything you want - quiet bedroom, good kitchen, nice views, elevator, etc.

 

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/4459682

 

The other place I'd recommend is a 5th floor walkup.

[beachfan]

If you can only eat one thing this year, try to make sure it's Carabineros at La Trainera (or, I suppose at one of the other high end seafood places). At about 2.5 shrimps/lb, these are gigantic, deeply flavored, well textured creatures. Better than lobster, easily, probably better than most homard breton *duck*

 

Based on this recommendation, I had a fabulous meal there 10 years ago - loved the percebes!!  In your recent post, I noticed it was missing from your list.  Should I go to O'Pazo for percebes or La Trainera again?  Will be at the Westin (near the Thyssen musuem).

[beachfan]

Does this list for a tapas crawl still look good?  (My favorites were Cervezeria Cervantes and Dolores, and La Valencia).  Any new musts (especially near these three)?  They seem to be open on Sunday evening, is there a great seafood restaurant open on Sunday?

 

Thanks in advance!

Thanks to the collective MF wisdom, I had one hell of a tapas crawl my first night.

The closest to my hotel was Cervzeria Cervantes and that octopus lived up to it's press. Only problem was I was solo (wifey doesn't believe in Madrid time), so no room for raciones here on out.
Then Cerzeria Dolores for what I thougth was fabulous achovies and a great smoked salmon (said salmon became my daily breakfast for the following two days).

Cross town to La Latina, tried to get into Tximini. More crowed than the 4 train to wall street at 8am. Oldest person there was younger than the youngest person at any of my other stops. They must have been there for something other than the tapas. Had to pass.

El Temparanillo was best. Really wished I wasn't solo because the fried squid in ink sauce looked amazing. I got a couple of tapas instead, both had a tad too much mayoniasse for me. Loved the wine there though.

Nexgt was Casa Lucas. I got a taps there -- way too much mayonaise for me. Obviously chose wrong, should have had the little pork chop slider. The Albarino was heavily oaked, another minus. Yet the service was outstanding -- 1) Asked if I liked the ALbarino, and when I said "barrique" and made a face, he switched it for me instantly and 2) When I asked for water, got a 12 oz. glass of the best tasting tap water on ice in Madrid ()must have been filtered). Everywhere else was 4oz glass.

And then finally La Vanencia. Those anchovies! I thought the ones at Dolores was good, but having been alerted by this thread to the tail-on beauties there, I was in anchovy heaven. And had quite a course in sherry too. Wound up tasting all five on offer (met another couple who provided the booster rocket needed to get through the list). That did me in for quite a while, but it was a grand crawl.

Thanks to the posters on this thread who guided me on this worthy endeavor!

PS Also loved the Mercado San Miguel, although prices on the seafood was pretty high.
PPS If there are any newbies reading this thread, know you can order a tiny glass of beer to go with your tapas. By your fifth stop, you'll be glad you did; I didn't figure it out until my third glass.

[Chambolle]

 

If you can only eat one thing this year, try to make sure it's Carabineros at La Trainera (or, I suppose at one of the other high end seafood places). At about 2.5 shrimps/lb, these are gigantic, deeply flavored, well textured creatures. Better than lobster, easily, probably better than most homard breton *duck*

 

Based on this recommendation, I had a fabulous meal there 10 years ago - loved the percebes!!  In your recent post, I noticed it was missing from your list.  Should I go to O'Pazo for percebes or La Trainera again?  Will be at the Westin (near the Thyssen musuem).

 

You can NOT go to O Pazo or La Trainera or any restaurant in the world (including in Galicia) and simply assume that you are going to order percebes that night and get excellent product.

 

They may not have them of course, but worse yet, they have them and the quality is mediocre ... even at the top places in the world for them.

 

Ignore Chambo at your peril !

 

But then again if you don t know much about percebes, you may not know the difference anyway and you may be tickled pink with whatever the hell they serve you because you are just chewing away like a crazed mad man, happy as a giant clam, thinking to yourself : My God, I am eating Percebes ! Percebes Percebes Percebes !!! How lucky am I ? Tonight I consider myself to be the luckiest man on the face of the Earth !

 

Ignorance truly is bliss in such cases.

 

So if you really want percebes, call the resto and ask them if they have them that night (and don t forget to ask about those carabineros too) ... and even if you do this, do not be shocked when they are gone (or the goods ones are gone) by the time you are ready to order.

 

Moving along, for carabineros, I would go to O Pazo as their pricing is better than La Trainera and their quality should surely be as good and is probably better. Early this summer, O Pazo carabs were 110 euros per kg (their price has not changed in many years !). Trainera was 155. This has been the case for the last few years.

 

Prices for percebes at both places were pretty similar BUT THAT IS MEANINGLESS* !

 

If you understand percebes, you know that based upon their size and their place of origin and based upon how they were cut off the rock etc that the price varies by a factor of at least 2x or 3x or 4x. And then there is the freshness factor which requires seeing them (yes, seeing them, even at the BEST percebes places in the world ! The many, many tales that I could tell ...) The menus list the prices but you have no idea what the actual product on offer that night is unless you LOOK AT it. Chambo NEVER orders percebes prior to peeking at the product ... and further we select the actual percebes that will be cooked right then and there. Then again, you must know how to distinguish what you are looking at ...

 

Am I complicating things ? Yes, I am !

 

All that said, you may find La T to be more geographically desirable ... and the ambience at these two restos are very different so that is a factor too

 

 

* And yes, even with carabs, price is FAR** from the whole story, but with these two restos the quality should be pretty good. Once again, you want to LOOK AT the product and verify that they are looking good / fresh, and the more salient factor, at least for me, would be their individual size / weight. For the most part, bigger is better than smaller with these scarlet red critters IMHO

 

** Like whether they were frozen or not ... and what size they are ... and where they are coming from ... and did they come from a frozen, pre-packaged box ! (whenever carabs are priced really great, I will bet you they came from a pre-packaged frozen box ... which are a very sad imitation of the real McCoy)

[Orik]

 

If you can only eat one thing this year, try to make sure it's Carabineros at La Trainera (or, I suppose at one of the other high end seafood places). At about 2.5 shrimps/lb, these are gigantic, deeply flavored, well textured creatures. Better than lobster, easily, probably better than most homard breton *duck*

 

Based on this recommendation, I had a fabulous meal there 10 years ago - loved the percebes!!  In your recent post, I noticed it was missing from your list.  Should I go to O'Pazo for percebes or La Trainera again?  Will be at the Westin (near the Thyssen musuem).

 

 

I haven't been in a while (eta: at LT I mean). O'Pazo is excellent. There's also a new place that was recommended to me but waiting for more information to recommend it

[beachfan]

This is helpful, not because I have any hope of learning how to judge percebes priior to my  next visit, but it explains why I didn't see the fuss over Carabineros when I had them and percebes at La Trainera (the percebes knocked my socks off).  I wasn't going to order them again, but maybe I'll give them  try again.

 

 

If you can only eat one thing this year, try to make sure it's Carabineros at La Trainera (or, I suppose at one of the other high end seafood places). At about 2.5 shrimps/lb, these are gigantic, deeply flavored, well textured creatures. Better than lobster, easily, probably better than most homard breton *duck*

 

Based on this recommendation, I had a fabulous meal there 10 years ago - loved the percebes!!  In your recent post, I noticed it was missing from your list.  Should I go to O'Pazo for percebes or La Trainera again?  Will be at the Westin (near the Thyssen musuem).

 

You can NOT go to O Pazo or La Trainera or any restaurant in the world (including in Galicia) and simply assume that you are going to order percebes that night and get excellent product.

 

They may not have them of course, but worse yet, they have them and the quality is mediocre ... even at the top places in the world for them.

 

Ignore Chambo at your peril !

 

But then again if you don t know much about percebes, you may not know the difference anyway and you may be tickled pink with whatever the hell they serve you because you are just chewing away like a crazed mad man, happy as a giant clam, thinking to yourself : My God, I am eating Percebes ! Percebes Percebes Percebes !!! How lucky am I ? Tonight I consider myself to be the luckiest man on the face of the Earth !

 

Ignorance truly is bliss in such cases.

 

So if you really want percebes, call the resto and ask them if they have them that night (and don t forget to ask about those carabineros too) ... and even if you do this, do not be shocked when they are gone (or the goods ones are gone) by the time you are ready to order.

 

Moving along, for carabineros, I would go to O Pazo as their pricing is better than La Trainera and their quality should surely be as good and is probably better. Early this summer, O Pazo carabs were 110 euros per kg (their price has not changed in many years !). Trainera was 155. This has been the case for the last few years.

 

Prices for percebes at both places were pretty similar BUT THAT IS MEANINGLESS* !

 

If you understand percebes, you know that based upon their size and their place of origin and based upon how they were cut off the rock etc that the price varies by a factor of at least 2x or 3x or 4x. And then there is the freshness factor which requires seeing them (yes, seeing them, even at the BEST percebes places in the world ! The many, many tales that I could tell ...) The menus list the prices but you have no idea what the actual product on offer that night is unless you LOOK AT it. Chambo NEVER orders percebes prior to peeking at the product ... and further we select the actual percebes that will be cooked right then and there. Then again, you must know how to distinguish what you are looking at ...

 

Am I complicating things ? Yes, I am !

 

All that said, you may find La T to be more geographically desirable ... and the ambience at these two restos are very different so that is a factor too

 

 

* And yes, even with carabs, price is FAR** from the whole story, but with these two restos the quality should be pretty good. Once again, you want to LOOK AT the product and verify that they are looking good / fresh, and the more salient factor, at least for me, would be their individual size / weight. For the most part, bigger is better than smaller with these scarlet red critters IMHO

 

** Like whether they were frozen or not ... and what size they are ... and where they are coming from ... and did they come from a frozen, pre-packaged box ! (whenever carabs are priced really great, I will bet you they came from a pre-packaged frozen box ... which are a very sad imitation of the real McCoy)

 

[beachfan]

Any thoughts on a seafood (preferred) or other fine dining open on Sunday in Madrid?

 

Backup plan is a tapas crawl, but as I don't drink much these days, it's not as appealing as before.

[Orik]

Filandon (a somewhat more casual / family option from Pescaderias Corunesas) is open for lunch. 

 

Rafa is open, but go dressed for battle.

[beachfan]

Filandon (a somewhat more casual / family option from Pescaderias Corunesas) is open for lunch.

 

Rafa is open, but go dressed for battle.

Sorry, but don't understand the "dressed for battle" comment. Very crowded?

 

I will pay for percebes but not fight for them.

 

Filandon not open for dinner? Lunch is at the Mercado (my only chance this visit).

 

Thanks!

[Chambolle]

I believe the following are all open on Sunday ... you can check re lunch and/or dinner

 

 

You won t missing much by missing the Mercado

 

And after an elongated lunch that starts at 3pm (or later) then you are not going to be in dire need of dinner

 

 

For seafood Rafa or Sanxenxo.  Other options, Viridiana, Bomba Bistro, La Bien Aparecida

 

 

Or why not Mawey Taco Bar for a simpler but good lunch ... luv that taco place (in the back room) ! Superior to upstairs at Punto MX now and half the price

 

[Orik]

Mawey is a good idea. 

 

Last time at Viridiana was the last time at Viridiana.

[Orik]

 

Filandon (a somewhat more casual / family option from Pescaderias Corunesas) is open for lunch.

 

Rafa is open, but go dressed for battle.

Sorry, but don't understand the "dressed for battle" comment. Very crowded?

 

I will pay for percebes but not fight for them.

 

Filandon not open for dinner? Lunch is at the Mercado (my only chance this visit).

 

Thanks!

 

 

If you mean mercado san miguel then what Chambo said.

 

I mean that Rafa is one of those places where if you're seen as too much of an outsider you will not have a good time. 

[beachfan]

I’ve been to Mercado San Miguel before and loved it. Is it much different then in 2011? I am having a light lunch there.

 

I have zero interest in Mexican food or a 3 hour lunch that day.

 

Thanks for the dinner tips!

[Anthony Bonner]

I mean I'm pretty confident you can do a lot better, but I see the appeal of the atmosphere. I had a beer there while Mrs. B found el bano.