Averaging out one 5 star experience with one 1 star evening for a final 3 star rating. Our first experience was our first day arriving in this neighborhood in Madrid after some time in Barcelona, and we arrived in early afternoon, sat on the patio and were greeted by a lovely waitress that took our order without issue. The gyozas and canelon were far more rich and delicious than we expected for a location picked on somewhat of a whim on a travel day, and we thought we would come back another night to experience more of the excellent cuisine.
We came back on our last evening in Madrid to try to have a relaxing night with a bit more tapas and some drinks, and had a very different experience. We ordered two gin and tonics, in imperfect/completely awful Spanish I'm sure, and the waiter seemed somewhat confused but we were able to communicate and apologized (in Spanish) for our language issue when he returned with our correct drinks. We asked for menus (in perfect Spanish) and waited about 30 minutes for those while other tables received theirs and ordered food.
A lovely part of Madrid is receiving a snack with your drinks in nearly all places- olives, boquerones, mánchego, tostas, jamón, etc. Here, we received gummy snacks in complete contrast to the ham dish we received the first day, and were the only table that had anything so absurd delivered to us. We could only take it as a mark as us being Americans as the rudeness continued throughout the evening, and never once was something like that delivered to our table before then.
As Americans traveling in Spain, we have done our best with decent but imperfect Spanish in 4 cities over 17 days. We have had no issues and have been told on multiple occasions that we have done great with Spanish communications- whether gracious lies or truth is neither here nor there. We are fully aware we are visitors here and always try to be respectful, but this second experience with the rude waiter was too much to leave unmentioned.
Let the gal working the first day run the night crowd, or teach this man some manners. Imperfect Spanish speakers beware of male waitstaff. read more