Discovering Lhardy on my trip to Madrid may have been my favorite unplanned stop on my 10 day trip to Spain. After an impromptu tuk-tuk tour of the city, we were dropped of semi near our hotel. Walking down the street we noticed Lhardy, which had a bit of old-school elegance that caught our eye. When we spotted that the "desde 1895" on the wall, we knew we had to pop in. When you walk in, on one end you see a beautiful array of Spanish apps like boquerones, smoked salmon, and savory puff pastries as well as tons of chilled bubbly and wine. The other side has delicious looking sweets and chocolates. We decided to order their famous puff pastries and boquerones. We asked our server about the Lhardy story and apparently their other location was one of the first fine dining establishments in Spain. I'm talking white tablecloth, fancy silverware, upscale service etc. She also told us Lhardy was the first restaurant in Spain to "let" women dine there without their husbands. We love a restaurant ahead of their time. I loved my pop-in to Lhardy and washed down my snacks with a beautiful glass of their cava. If you're in the area, pop in to this shop for a glass and a snack, you will not regret it. read more

Lhardy has been serving old-money elegance since 1839. You walk in and immediately feel underdressed, even if you're in your best Eurotrip outfit. But here's the twist, I came for bakery vibes and left with smoked salmon avocado toast. No sweets. Because I'm a rebel. Or more accurately, I needed fuel and not a sugar coma. The vibe is like a Versailles brunch.service was A++++. We had to be somewhere in 40 minutes and they accommodated swiftly. read more

Lhardy - Spanish Near Me - Madrid, M

Excelente lugar, clásico castizo y con excelente servicio. Comida fabulosa en un ambiente elegante que te transporta al siglo pasado. Silencioso, privado, pero con vida. read more

Lhardy - Callos a la madrileña y cocido madrileño. Ambos fabulosos. - Spanish Near Me - Madrid, M

What a quaint and old school restaurant. Our waitstaff, Pedro and Pablo are what made things special. They were attentive without being overbearing. The decor is mid 1800's and what stands out is that it's not so filled with a table every few square meters. You can actually talk and have a great conversation without having to shout. The food was good, but not stellar. My wife had the Wellington and I had the duck. Both well prepared and very tasty. Prices were very reasonable and as is usual in Spain, you don't have to spend an arm and a leg to get a good wine. We'd definitely go back. Ask for Pedro. read more

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Beautiful interior. Amazing offerings. Only down side was that as Americans it seemed hard to get the attention of employees. It took a local visitor to say we were ahead of them in line. read more

Lhardy - Spanish Near Me - Madrid, M

Who the heck is giving this place less than 5 stars? It is D. LISH. Just amazing. Best meal in Madrid, and there is a lot of good food in Madrid. They sat us down in a dining room from a completely different period of time. The place oozes history. We had tons of wine and apps, and my pals split the cocido Madrileño, basically a DIY soup served family style, and it was fantastic. A true spectacle, but you'd better be hungry. Another pal and I each had the seabass, and it was definitely a contender for best I've ever had. The waiter, an older gent, and his younger assistant were downright awesome -- charming, always smiling, and quick with anything we needed. Superb service. They even brought us seabass eaters the baked Alaska that came with the soup, even though we hadn't ordered the soup. So glad they did because yum! The place was so good that a couple days later we passed it by chance and saw a couple seats open at the bar so we popped in for a midday snack of fancy cheeses (the savel bleu cheese is OMG), champagne and caviar blinis. Just incredible. read more

Shocked by the bad reviews on here. We had two great experiences at Lhardy - one in the cafe and one in the formal dining room. Their vermut is outstanding. We all bought bottles to bring back to America. Great puff pastries in the cafe - ordered a variety and liked them all. Wonderful service and atmosphere in formal dining room. Accommodated six of us, all English speakers. Staff was very friendly. Coat and bag service. We ordered several items and enjoyed them all - mostly the specials. I got the pressed duck and loved that experience of watching them prepare it. My husband said this was his favorite dining experience of our trip to Spain. read more

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It was a true delight to visit and have a cappuccino and dessert our first night in Madrid. The macarons were delicious and not too sweet. Perfect coffee. The next evening we enjoyed dinner upstairs in the beautiful dining room. The broth served is delicious. The food was wonderful. Service was great! Overall a pleasant experience. read more

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This was the best cocido madrileño I ever ever had. Pedro our host was superb and his entire team was so attentive and top notch. The level of detail in the cocido was incredible. Highly highly recommend it as the top place in Madrid! read more

Service is great. Place however is super touristy and very expensive by Madrid standards. The only people in the entire restaurant when we were there were American. The Wellington was disappointing - avoid it and have the cocido madrileño and bring your checkbook! read more

Lhardy's may have been the restaurant of royalty, but everything from the dining rooms to the food seems to be living in the past Their claim to fame is that they're the oldest restaurant in Madrid with a written menu causing one local to claim that sounded like an unverifiable claim as the title of oldest restaurant already belonged to the much more popular Botín However, Lhardy's is Eater recommended on their essential list which would explain the empty dining rooms except a few tourists Service while formal is stiff and perfunctory and the food, while tasty, is easily priced 2-3x elsewhere Most disappointing is the Stew Lhardy which features a larger bowl of the clear consommé served to all guests and then "highlights" a platter of the stew's boiled meats and vegetables It's not uncommon in Asian cuisine to serve stewed contents but we don't charge excessively or pretend its "elevated" cuisine. This is a skip with much better options in Madrid. Stew Lhardy 65,00 € / Stew Croquette Lhardy 4,00 € / Wellington Sirloin Lhardy with crispy potatoes 34,00 pp / Soufflé Lhardy Lhardy Restaurante (Madrid, Spain) Seating is indoor only and the restaurant is the 2nd floor and above from their pastry shop. Credit cards accepted. read more

Um. This is a tough one. The food and the wine were quite good. The service was another story. This is probably a place where you go to if you're l local and they treat you like family, but after we were seated, we couldn't get the time of day and we're left without menus or water or anything for much too long. The whole time it felt like we were being a burden to them and, mind you, the prices here are noticeably higher than most restaurants in town. You'd think they could at least try to show some minimum level of hospitality. read more

The service is excellent. The place beautifully decorated and the food is delicious. We've had cocido de croquetas. Tender and soft inside and crunchy outside. Salmons with eff threads witch was a delicacy and the onion soup out of this world. I totally recommend this place read more

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Beautiful restaurant with plenty of old world charm. Ironed linens everywhere and a beautiful setting promised a great evening. We eagerly waited four nights for our dinner reservation. Wish I could take it all back. Top notch attentive (and apologetic; read on) service that tried to make every failure right. In my HUMBLE/perhaps peasant-based opinion...the food is not good at all. It is overly sauced, or rich, or fatty...take your pick. It's what is every thing bad (mostly by reputation and stereotype) about French food. For example: the shrimp cocktail is devoid of shrimp but the two shrimp one receives are covered (read: obscured) in a sauce that taste strangely like 1000 island dressing (Americans will know what this means). The beef Wellington is wrapped in a beautiful pastry that gives way to a sad and nauseatingly raw bacon wrapping over a steak that while tasty has lost its place because of said fatty-undercooked "bacon." My duck was fatty, and obscured by way of an over rich orange sauce that can only be useful to hide bad duck all served aside sadly over-boiled vegetables. Needless to say we ate very little and waited anxiously for the bill which we knew we would regret more than the dinner. Then dessert came. Surely, (we thought) this restaurant with the most amazing downstairs bakery would serve epic dessert. Nope. The flambé soufflé while impressive to see prepared table side was absolutely gross. Fatty, egg whites toasted with little to no taste and just a horrific texture. The mango sorbet with a cookie was good, but L'hardy gets no credit for NOT messing up sorbet. Sorry. This host was gracious and apologetic. She comped the Thousand-island drunken shrimp and dessert and tried to smooth things over with a complimentary double shot of a nice liqueur. It helped...a little. I felt like she knew our regret was not unusual...but just a guess. Needless to say we did not like this spot and were extremely disappointed. And up to this evening we had not had a bad meal in Spain. Skip this place unless you are going for pure atmosphere and charm. Don't go for the food. read more

Unacceptable service ,waitress with grey hair cheated with the amount of bill. This unacceptable for high level restaurant.

I only got two macarons: chocolate and pistachio. Both were really good (pistachio was my personal favorite). Plus, the staff were very nice. read more

Lhardy - Pistachio and chocolate macaron - Spanish Near Me - Madrid, M

The first stop on the tapas tour, which we enjoyed downstairs. Tasty bits included some croquettas (a fried cheese bite), chicken livers on toast and a traditional beef broth. The broth was the most interesting part. Served from a sterling silver urn, we learned that it's the base for a number of soup entrees. They will actually have three different courses with it, including one with noodles, one with vegetables and one with beef and more. Tasty stuff! Upstairs, the restaurant remains true to its original roots. We were fortunate to get a tour from the maître d'hôtel. who was very proud of the restaurant. The original fixtures and wallpaper and even the lamps (though converted to electric) date back to the original restaurant founding over 100 years ago. If you're looking to impress a date, you'd do very well with this restaurant. [My first review in Madrid and it's a round number review - number 7200!] read more

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This is a great place to hsve dinner, but don't come on Sundays. They serve a very poor glass of wine and the price is not worth it. This place is not what it used to be. read more

Just a heads-up: this is a quite expensive restaurant for Madrid prices (around 90 euros per person in 2022), but neither expect the refinement in the service of a high restaurant; nor the gastronomic sophistication. It is on the verge of becoming a super-overpriced tourist trap. CONTEXT This is the oldest and first formal restaurant in Madrid. The space is beautiful, and a reminder of Madrid's history as a royal court city. The consomé is served from silver tureen, and one flight up are the dining rooms with a French rococo deco. This place is best known for its cocido, the traditional Madrid's stew. Recently, this restaurant was acquired by a group of reputed fisheries from Galicia, and it went through a renovation where a part of its former pompousness was reduced, and the antique china and silver were replaced by conventional tableware. Seems to be not a great move, since it was that what made it so unique. NOT GREAT SERVICE This is intended to be a high standard restaurant, but it is far from being it: 0. Literally, no one welcomes you, and no one says good bye. A waiter said "that is your table", and that was it. And someone brought a credit card terminal and passed our card, without a word, and left the receipt on a tray, and that was their "good bye". We totally felt unwelcome here. And even confused about whether the restaurant was open and ready to take care of us. Like taking a table at a McDonalds. We paid almost 400 euros for this unwelcoming dinner. 1. The waiters are disorganized and lack consistency. They took the coat of one person from our group to the wardrobe, but not from the rest, this rest had to leave bags on the floor and coats on our chairs in a rather messy way. 2. Waiters would try to remove the plates of those still eating their food. 3. The main waiter was rushed and lacking care. He dropped the water on the table without even noticing. 4. I asked him to allow me to serve the wine (because he was constantly filling the glasses of those who did not want to drink wine, and serving too much wine to everyone else as well. But he would not listen, to the extend that he even tried once to take the bottle from my hand as I was serving someone. Quite awkward. 5. The table protocol was equally messy: They brought the wine only after our first courses were over.They actually did not bring the wine list until we requested to see it. 6. And most annoying, we ended up being a party of 5 instead of 6. We were a round table, and we literally had to move the tableware ourselves to adapt the table, without any help from the staff. I had never seen that in what is priced as a luxury restaurant. LACK OF REFINEMENT IN THE DECORATION DETAILS Whereas the architecture is impressive, the details are not cared enough. There were plastic flowers on the tables. Artificial flowers made the table feel dusty and lacking any freshness. They look and feel really cheap. I requested the waiter to light the 2 one-euro candles on the table, and I surprisingly got a rude negative response from him: "You already have an electric lamp above. There is no need for candles.". Why putting candles on a table if you are not intending to use them? Actually dining protocols require candles placed on a dinner table to be lighted before the dinner guests arrive. This is just ignorance. FOOD The food is not really better than in any tavern around, and maybe 4 times more expensive here. - The cocido is good. But there are s equally great cocidos in La Bola, Malacatín, la Daniela.... - The consomé, is good. - The callos are not great, and definitively not Madrid's best (as the menu claims).. An update and more insightfulness is needed here. They feel like coming from the microwave. They have too much souce. And the morcilla is dominating all the flavor. Other restaurants (check Tasqueria)) have done a great work refining this dish. Lardhy's feels old tasted and too heavy. - Croquetas are good, but the breading is too thick for my taste, making them again a bit heavy. - Wellington Tenderloin with mushrooms: it's good, but the meat is far over cooked for my taste. Again, a bit too old fashioned. - Ensaladilla with branzino is not good at all. The ensaladilla depends very much on the textures of potato, egg, carrot, smoothed by the mayonesa. Here they reduced it to a paste. So that the textures are gone . The branzino sounds like a good idea on paper, but it does not work .The tuna, which is the fish included in the original ensaladilla recipe, adds a touch of salt and a hard meaty texture, but replacing it with soft textured and flavored branzino is making fish irrelevant, since branzino cannot compete with the strong flavors of the rest. - Mero is ok, but overcooked, what turns not greatly. Overall, I hate to say this, but this place is far below the expectations it creates. Makes you ask yourself: Why all this effort if there is really not a love for what refinement is? read more

DO NOT EAT HERE!!!! I had family of 7 invited to lunch. Careful in getting bated into the stew. They asked me if "anyone" in my party will want the stew and I said probably someone will..we all got the stew at an extremely high price because they said that's what I reserved. I didn't argue because I was treating family and I didn't want to make a scene. So we all had stew. The stew was so salty no one could eat it. When I complained the mater D smiled and said "we don't add salt to the stew." I make this stew and I know they use salted pork which lets off SALT. Plus the broth was a dark brown, which it shouldn't be. It was obvious they added salty beef broth. At a bill of over $900 for our table to have the staff smile in my face and gaslight me that stew wasn't salty but instead flavorful was adding insult to injury. DO NOT EAT HERE!!! Estuve en Lhardy el 20 de septiembre con mi familia. Éramos 7 personas. He puesto en inglés y español review por Internet por la experiencia y insulto que pase por culpa de su Mayte D. NO COMAN AQUÍ!!!! Cuidado cuando te quieran engatusar preguntando si "alguien en tu grupo querrá el cosido? Y yo dije quizás." Pues nos apuntaron a todos el cosido a un precio extremadamente alto y me dicen que eso fue lo que yo reservé. Bueno Yo no discutí porque tenia la familia de invitados y no quería que pasaran vergüenza. Entonces todos con el cosido que estaba tan salado que nadie se lo podía comer. Cuando me queje que el cardo estaba muy salado, el metra D me sonrió y dijo "no le echamos sal al cosido." Yo hago cosido y se que el tocino salado suerte SAL. Más el cardo era un marrón oscuro, que no debía de ser ese color. Es obvio que le echaron cardo maji de res que es salado. Por una cuenta a más de $900 y que los trabajadores se nos sonrió en la cara y decirme que el cardo no estaba salado si no sabroso añadió insultó a lo herido. NO COMAN AQUÍ!!! Espero que le enseñen al metra D que no se ría y se aproveche de los clientes. read more

If I could, I would give it minus five. My family of seven was super excited to go to this traditional restaurant in Madrid. First they sat us on a separate room. When we sat down it became clear the table was only partly set up with some napkins missing. The first part of the meal went all right. They brought up several dishes to share that were fine: croquetas de cocido, ham and pate. The ensaladilla was terrible, but I recognize it might be a matter of taste. I do not like potatoes drowning in mayo with sad looking shrimp on top. Four people ordered solomillo Wellington and said it was good. However, it was supposed to come with crispy potatoes, which didn't arrive. Finally someone showed up after we had long finished eating and we asked him about the potatoes. He said they were supposed to have been served with the beef and then proceeded to bring them. I ordered lenguado and it was terrible. Inedible, really. One person ordered veal shank (jarrillo) and stopped eating after a couple of bites because it was so salty. The worse part was all the waiters eventually disappeared. There was no one around. We had to get up and find a person so we can ask for the check and pay. Even then no one came. I had to ask for the person responsible for the service so I could tell her than it was by far the worse meal and service I have ever had in Spain. It was a terrible and very expensive experience. read more

Pretty good restaurante, According to my grandmother, it's like being in the Spain of yesteryear, I've tried the Cocido Madrileño and it's been a delicacy. the service is very good and attentive at every moment. especially Pedro El Maître. You must try a vermont. read more

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Excellent place for a quick bite to eat. This is my second stop here. The first one it was moderately busy but we were able to find a table. Second attempt it was packed to the hilt with no room for movement. This morning because at 1130am, it was relatively early for local and tourist crowds, it was not crowded at all. Great cup of espresso, the foie sandwich was rich and tasty. Other places that j have tried foie sandwiches have been extremely light on the foie. Not here. A few days ago, I had the fino sherry, veal puff pastry, and chicken liver barqueta - all were flavorful and delectable. read more

Lhardy - Espresso, media noche X 2, orange juice. - Spanish Near Me - Madrid, M

This is the first restaurant in Madrid that wasn't a tavern, and Queen Elizabeth II ate here. Delicious tapas- especially the chicken liver. Soup is good too. Daniel, the owner, was very kind and showed us around the restaurant giving us the history of the establishment (we were on a food tour) read more

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This restaurant was absolutely awful. We had a private function room for about 30 of us paying £60/head. The service was absolutely dreadful. The waiters were angry and moody, ignoring us, making a fuss out of everything, acting as if they were doing us a favour by having us in the restaurant. 4 of us were vegetarian and we had given them advance notice of this - however they didn't seem to understand that that meant we did not eat meat. Apparently their famous chickpea soup which was supposed to cater to us vegetarians was in fact chicken and pea. So we had to just sit there twiddling our thumbs while everyone else ate starters. Main meal for the vegetarians was a plate of brussel sprouts, cauliflow and a few potatoes. Horrendous! And to think we paid £60/head for that delight! When everyone was ordering their coffees at the end, I ordered mine late and the waiter started to complain about me across the room to one of the other waiters. Absolutely absolutely terrible. An absolutely awful restaurant with awful service. It is supposed to be one of Madrid's finest restaurants. We certainly didn't experience it as that. And when we left the doorman letting us out was absolutely wasted! He could barely hold the door open he was so drunk. Still, he was at least the only member of staff there smiling, so he was one of the better things there! read more

After researching many reviews, we were looking forward to tasting the traditional chickpea stew so famously talked about in Madrid. I created this account to leave this review. The stew was possibly the most bland food I have ever tasted. Clearly, traditional meant before spices were introduced to Spain. It really wasn't even a stew...to be frank; just a thoughtless assortment of chickpeas, cabbage, a potato and meat messily piled on a plate. Zero flavor and I couldn't eat beyond two bites. Seriously anyone could have created a better dish from the Goya canned chick peas. It's not worth the time, money or effort to eat at this restaurant. Highly overpriced and overrated. The service staff are friendly but the food is beyond horrible. Ignore any high star ratings as an one off lucky experience. For a dish they requires a pre-order before arrival I expected much, much more. I now have a reference point for tasteless, horrible food. The stew was a total of $35, they charged extra ($8) for the regular table bread. Do yourself a favor and take your chances elsewhere. Summary: Pro - nice servers Con - beyond shitty food read more

It was a great stop for some very traditional savory pastry. The puff pastry of veal and fish was delightful and fluffy, the chicken liver pie was very tasty and you get plenty of grounded chicken liver. I love the ration of squid in black squid ink. It was well done and the squid tasted great in its warm ink. The tiramisu was not creamy enough and too sweet. I would go with the savory pastries instead. The sherry is very different here in that it's not sweet but like a Manhattan iced tea. read more

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This review is for the food stall they have inside Mercado de San Miguel. There was an older lady working there at night on May 21, 2017. While she was nice to Spaniards, she served us cold food on a dirty plate. The plate literally had pieces of eaten shrimp tails on there. I have no idea why she treated us this way. What she did was completely disrespectful and disgusting! read more

Probably the worse service and food ever! Bought a tapa and the lady put our food on a used dirty plate. The lady working didn't even offer to heat up our food like she did to other customers. This is the location inside the market. I highly recommend to avoid at all cost, go spend your money elsewhere. read more

Mercado location. Rude, pushy. Empanada served cold, then not good when it was heated. A singular sour note on this great trip. STAY AWAY FROM THIS AWFUL PLACE!!! read more

This place was recommended in blogs and in tourist books. Please AVOID. Although it's in a lovely old building and the decor is museum-like, the food is also museum like. The dishes are from the 1800s or something because there is absolutely no creativity or imagination. They have mostly classic tourist dishes from Spain, France, and Italy. I ordered the anchovies and it was 4 pieces - 25 euros. The duck l'orange was goopy and disgusting. Overpriced fuddy duddy food is the definition of this place. There were only tourists there. read more

A bit on the expensive side, the food is exceptional and the waiters understand fully where they work. This is one of the oldest restaurants in Spain. As a visitor to Madrid, if you don't mind splurging a little on fine traditional dishes of Madrid then you must come here. Consider where you are and go properly attired and with your good manners, and you will get the service you deserve. If it's your first time you must have the Cocido Madrileño. Lhardy's has a particular recipe and they also prepare this dish in a particular way -traditional. The Cocido is a winter dish, however Lhardy's has it year round because of all the visitors they get. It is best to get a reservation ahead of time since showing up at the door during operating hours is most likely to get you turned down. read more

Do not be influenced by all the hype surrounding this restaurant. It does have a colorful historical past. Today it is surviving on its past laurels. If you are interested in food and quality then this is not the place for you nor for me. I took 4 people there for lunch April 8th 2012. Dinning room is elegant. Bread and Butter was brought to the table at a cost of 20 Euros. 1 Salad with tuna was ordered at a cost of 20 Euros. It was canned tuna with two small leaves of salad and two thin slices of under ripe tomatoes. 1 Suprema Lenguado (Sole) was ordered at a cost of 35 Euros. The plate presentation for this $45 entree looked similar to someone's vomit. It was returned to the kitchen immediately. At the end of a dreadful meal I must say that the wine turned out to be the best of anything that was placed on the table and price correctly as well. If you have lost all sensory taste you still can find a better place to eat in Madrid. In fact there are many wonderful possibilities. L' Hardy is not one of them. Star rating is -1. read more