Excellent service and fresh seafood!!! Main course - Rappe Monkfish is amazing and prepared to perfection!!! Fresh green olives with warm bread with VinaArdanza. Try mouthwatering appetizer artichokes with butter and fresh garlic shrimp! read more

This is the worst service I ever had in a restaurant. Don't expect any special attention even when you pay the very expensive bill! The fish is ok. Nothing great. read more

One of my biggest regrets is not coming back one more time before we left Madrid. I came here about 13 years ago and I remember the crab being AMAZING. I was so glad I kept the business card for all these years and was able to find it again. The red king crab.... omg. Mind blowing good. It's just as good as I remember. I love how they make a sauce with the crab butter/guts. Everything we ordered was really good but man.... that crab was one of the best things I've ever eaten in my life. It's so sweet and good. It's one of those things that you eat and the table gets quiet because everyone stopped talking. That good~ The manager or owner came by to say hi which I appreciate. You know it's a good restaurant when someone does this. I told him I visited 13 years ago and he was very happy I came back with my husband. I will definitely not wait over a decade to come here again. Hopefully next year :) read more

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Food was delicious...I had the grilled lobster and it was superb. Service was good (not great)...we felt as if they wanted us to leave. Everything was too fast and rushed. However, the food was so good that I have to recommend it. read more

Not the best seafood restaurant . Service is not very satisfactory . Not a single smiley face from any staff member ! read more

La Trainera came to us extraordinarily highly recommended so we were excited to try it. Ambiance was okay - seemed like a nice storefront restaurant. Not very busy (two other tables being served when we arrived - early by European standards at 645, never really full while we were there). Service was mixed - the helpers were excellent and attentive to our needs. The lead waiter was a snob, clearly put off by having to take care of Americans. Every interaction with him was stiff and as if he was doing us a favor, rather than helping us. The food was very good, but not the excellent that we were expecting. Rolls were fresh (after dinner we ran into our waiter going down to the corner to get more as they had run out). We had to ask for olive oil (or anything) to have with the bread. Appetizers were the highlight of the food - excellent, fresh oysters; fresh shrimp (gambas) cooked in garlic sauce came out sizzling and delicious; and octopus (not usually my favorite) was excellent. Main courses were very good but not outstanding - langosta were excellent, steak (one family member not a seafood type) pedestrian tender but not seasoned ahead so salty on the outside but tasteless meat, sole was very good, and sea bass was very good. Seafood was all very fresh. Would we come back - not likely, lots of outstanding restaurants in Madrid, and the service (lead waiter) was enough to give this a thumbs down from us. read more

Epic fail! I made a reservation several months ago, and when arrived we were escorted to an empty, sterile upstairs room. A second alternate was the end table in an end alcove. The temps hovered around 85! We could not breathe. The host was rude and dismissive. We left! Christmas fail at La Trainera!! La Trainera AKA Train wreck!! This experience ruined our Xmas. I wish there was a chance for zero stars as La Trainera was on of the worst experiences in my 31 years of traveling. read more

A very good fish restaurant in Madrid. Simple fish, without too much show and complicated dishes. Expensive, but high quality and consistent. There are few that are better. read more

Five stars for the fish (less for the blah ambience.) Possibly the best turbot (hard to find in U.S.) I've had in 40+ years of traveling. Ignore the spare surroundings, drink the wine, and celebrate the seafood! read more

La Trainera is an old fashioned sea food Spanish Restaurant and the food is excellent. The reason they deserve two stars is that the service is very deficient and the bread is not good. If you go make sure you reserve a front table. read more

This is probably the worse experience we had in Madrid, the Rape was raw and the waiter was making all kind of excuses not to take it back, my Merluza a la Gallega had no taste, service is slow and prices are sky high. Save your self the aggravation and go somewhere else. Anthony Bourdain, made a huge mistake by recommending this, probably he ate for free in exchange for the free add on TV. read more

La Trainera is my favorite restaurant in Madrid. The seafood is absolutely delicious!!! Every dish, you can not go wrong. We had the most amazing Christmas Eve lunch. I can not wait to come visit Madrid again and dine at La Trainera. read more

Simple, no-frills preparation. Just exceptional quality of seafood, across the board. The serpentine dining room layout affords privacy for your group. Located in the Salamanca district, the restaurant is perfect for business dinners, for celebrating that special occasion, or if you have that one night in Madrid. read more

During a one day layover in Madrid, I dragged my sick and jet lagged butt here because my Mexican-Spanish friends insisted it was well worth it. I had not been able to make a reservation (the online system is sort of sucky), so I had to bat my eyes at the owner for a table during the lunch rush. Again, I had a rotten cold and thought the food would be lost on me - WRONG. The gazpacho was perfection, the merluza in a simple browned butter garlic sauce, the glass of ribera del duero, and even the orange sorbet for desert, it was all life affirming. The service was professional and the bill was significantly less than I was expecting, given the extremely high quality. This place merits another trip back to Madrid, preferably when healthy... read more

Good squid, shrimp with garlic. Carabineros (prawns the size of your head). Delicious.

Wow the food and service are very good here. Went for lunch and did not find it too spendy. Tons of business lunches happening. Have the russian salad! Yummy! Very rich. Would be fine for 3 people. Kind of a very flavorful potato salad. Loved the gazpacho. read more

Being something of a Madrid dining institution, it's refreshing to see this restaurant is not resting on it's laurels. Food is FRESH. Portions, even the 1/2 rations are generous. Octopus was grilled/seared perfectly; langostinos tasted as if we'd just pulled them from the water. Be careful not to order too much; 2 or 3 full portions could easily feed four people. Reservations strongly recommended (even for lunch). read more

Had a delicious dinner here last night. La Trainera is a great place for seafood because they have fantastic raw materials and they keep it simple. We had salpicon de marisco, pulpo a la gallega, gambas blancas de Huelva, 2 big grilled cigalas and grilled sole. And a delicious bottle of the house albariño. My thoughts on all of it--especially the salpicon, octopus and sole-- is that these dishes are some kind of platonic ideal. Eating the pulpo a la gallega, for example, you discover how pulpo a la gallega is SUPPOSED TO taste: with an aroma of pimenton and olive oil, a little bite of sea salt, the octopus firm but not rubbery, with a fresh slightly sweet taste. The dish is amazing--not because it's so original or different, but because it makes you realize that every pulpo you've had in the past is an imperfect degraded imitation of this one. As for the sole (lenguado) they say it's their classic dish. I understand why. It's different than other sole I've had, but it's the fish that's different--firmer, meatier, subtler-- not the preparation, which is simple and does not involve any ego on the chef's part. Our dinner was very pricey, but a large component of that was the 2 big cigalas, coming in at 30 euros each. Worth trying if you haven't had them before, but next time I'll skip them to keep the price down. All in all a great meal. read more

We were referred to La Trainera by a native Spaniard and his advice was unerring. La Trainera had the freshest, most perfectly prepared, and richest seafood we've had in our lives, despite their relatively uncomplicated presentation. The most surprising adjective in that list might be "rich" as many of the seafood offerings were intrinsically rich (sole and hake) and prepared using excellent EVO. Don't miss their octopus and jamon. This restaurant showcases its beautiful fresh seafood in a refrigerated case near the door, like a fish market, yet is a white linen restaurant with service to match despite its superficially relaxed ambiance. The well developed wine list is Spanish, curated to the menu, and reasonably priced. As an example, we enjoyed a bottle of an excellent rosé brut cava for 26 Euros. Despite the largely and well-groomed Spanish clientele, the well-dressed excellent staff were patient with us as American tourists. And finally, La Trainera had the best, silkiest, flan we've ever had in more than 20 years of seeking flan perfection on three continents. read more

There are a number of pluses and minuses. THere is a really beautiful first room of the restaurant showcasing many large prawns, other beautiful seafood. I think that only the regulars are allowed to sit in that room. If you are not a regular you are escorted to one of a number of spartanly decorated rooms.... I ordered the seafood cocktail with shrimp and lobster. Compared to the shrimp in the window, these were about the smallest shrimp i have ever seen in a shrimp cocktail. it was not worth the 16 euro. However, then i received my dinner - two large pieces of hake in a tomato sauce with some scallops and shrimp. This was truly excellent. It was one of the best dishes i have had in some time. THere were no vegetables served with the fish dinner. I found the bread to be extremely good, and the house wine was also excellent and at a good price. Thus, for the main course - excellent! seafood cocktail - not good. ambience - less than average. wait staff attentive but not friendly. read more

First of all, this was absolutely worst dining experience in my life. I just regret that I can't give this restaurant no star at all. Cream seafood soup was sorely terrible, no taste, bad looking, slightly stinking substance. Even worse was the big St. Jacob's clam, abundantly filled with cooked onions, being of uninviting taste and texture. Spanish speciality Gambas in garlic oil was the worst gambas I have ever eaten in my life. The food was overpriced. I don't like conflicts so I ate all of it. But ouch! Rest of my night was spent in restroom, now I'm lying in my bed, poisoned, with fever, writing this review. Never never more... read more

Top quality seafood. The Merluza is spectacular. Barnacles are rather ugly to look at but tasty, although tricky to eat. Does get very busy but service is outstanding. Booking recommended. read more