La Taberna del Marciano

Fui ya hace algún tiempo con unas amigas y, salvo que haya cambiado en este tiempo, no lo recomendaría.
Haciendo caso omiso que me dice que nunca me fíe de los relaciones que hay en la calle intentando captar clientes y puesto que a mis amigas no les pareció mal lo que nos vendía el chico nos decidimos a entrar. Si os preguntáis lo que nos ofrecía era que con cada consumición nos pondrían una tapa que podría ser de cualquier cosa, todo esto mientras nos señalaba a dos de las chicas que estaban en la terraza y nos indicaba que a ellas les habían puesto un filete.
Como hace calor nos indican que en el salón de abajo estaremos mejor. Según bajamos veo que solo estamos nosotros y un numeroso grupo de alemanes con jarras de sangría cocidos como ellos solos. Aquí ya me empieza a dar mala espina el sitio.
Pedimos y de tapa resulta que nos ponen un triste trozo de chorizo con unas patatas semicrudas calentadas en el microondas. Nos miramos todos con cara de situación pero aún así decidimos darle una oportunidad. Nuestra determinación va mermando poco a poco con el recuerdo de la «tapa» y con el poco interés que despertamos entre los camareros del local. Obviamente nosotros no eramos como los alemanes que se estaban dejando una pasta y les tenían en palmitas.
En definitiva, finalmente decidimos que no nos gustaba nada el sitio y nos fuimos a buscar otro sitio donde cenar ya que aparte he de añadir que muy barato tampoco me pareció.

It was already 10:30 pm and we were wandering the streets of Madrid in search of somewhere to eat. I understand why locals eat so late because the sun doesn’t set until 9:30−10, It was past 11 when we were walking down one of the streets and a worker spoke Spanish to us and showed us a menu to here. We walked down the alley and another worker, who spoke English, explained what they served. The guy was trying to get us to go in and was so nice about it, we thought, sure… we’re hungry, it beats walking around more. They cleared off a larger table for us and we were set.
Our waitress was very friendly and spoke «un poco» English, but we managed to order several dishes: jamon on toast, sausage with potatoes, grilled vegetables, and mixed paella with chicken and seafood. The partner isn’t a big seafood fan so I had to compromise. Everything came out as ordered. We ordered the house wine at 11E a bottle. This was a temparillo which was very good. We’ve noticed that most places serve very good wines with a limited wine menu, which is a very good thing.
The jamon was good. We thought the potatoes with the sausage could’ve been a little more flavorful, I mean they was a spice to it, but perhaps a little more. The grilled vegetables were great! Tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant, and red and green bell peppers. We didn’t eat the green ones because they’re not our favorite. The paella was delicious! Flavorful rice with mussels, claims, baby prawns/​shrimp, and chicken, some pieces with the bone in. Of course, we needed another bottle of wine. It was a very enjoyable meal.
While we were at the end of our meal, three women came in that spoke English and sat at a table across from us. They were all single because they were talking about meeting men in bars. One kinda gave the partner the eye several times. One of them asked us where we were from because she heard us speaking English, which sparked a lively conversation. They were from Nashville, and it was nice to speak to someone from the states. They were headed to Barcelona, so there might be a chance that we’d run into them. That tends to happen when we travel.
The service was excellent and everyone was very friendly. I would definitely be back, but maybe on a return trip since there’s so much to see, try, and experience. Our meal was half of what it cost us at La Cueva, so I recommend venturing outside the comforts of the hotel area.

Really good service. Really good paella. Tasty cerveza. Great location.

We arrived for dinner at this restaurant with a huge group of almost 40. We had made a reservation and they knew we were coming. When we got there, we were asked to wait because they weren’t quite ready for us. We only had to wait about 10 minutes, so no big deal because what came next was good. We were brought downstairs into a party room of sorts. The room was really nice with brick walls. We had 2 long tables and then a bunch of 4 tops. We all were seated and then had great service. The servers were all great. We started with bread and a lentil soup which many people really enjoyed. Then we had chicken and potatoes. The potatoes were delicious and the chicken was totally fine. One child in our group didn’t like the sauce, so they happily made him one without sauce. I appreciated that they accommodated us since we were such a large group with a set menu. Lastly, we ended the meal with rice pudding. Rice pudding isn’t my thing, but people were gobbling the stuff up. One of the teens in my group ate 4 of them!
I appreciated how they dealt with our large group, the food was good, service was good, and we weren’t rushed. We enjoyed the experience and I’d go back again.

Un sitio que me hizo quedar mal con una chica. Y eso no se perdona. Tuve una relación con una chica sevillana. Vino a verme a Madrid. Fuimos de compras (yuhuuu, lo que más me gusta…) y nos encontramos a una pareja de amigos que iba a cenar aquí. «Venid con nosotros», dijeron. «Vale», dijimos. Y para qué.
Dice la compañera Araceli que desconfía de los sitios llenos de extranjeros. Y bien que hace. Al menos, de éste. Nos pusieron una jarra de sangría que en lo más en lo que se parecía a la verdadera sangría es que era líquida. La memoria es sabia y me ha hecho olvidar el resto de la cena, pero sé que hubo unos caracoles con chorizo que si mantengo el recuerdo 20 segundos en mi mente me dan arcadas.
¡¡Pero lo peor es que tuve que aguantar la cara larga de la sevillana todo el fin de semana!

Lo descubrí un día que el Malaspina estaba lleno y la verdad es que esperaba que fuera mucho peor (llamadme loca, pero cuando un sitio está lleno de extranjeros… malo), pero nos sirvieron una tabla de tostas por la que casi nos pegamos. ¡Estaba buenísima!
Salimos por unos 10 euros por persona, teniendo en cuenta que bebimos lo que quisimos y además de las tostas pedimos unas cazuelitas (que no merecen tanto la pena, porque son bastante pequeñas).

En un callejón aparentemente oculto se encuentra el filtro entre el Madrid de tiendas y el Madrid de copas y para no sentirse de otro planeta lo más recomendable es pasar por la taberna del marciano. Un relaciones públicas a la caza de guiris nos da un adelanto de la clientela que encontraremos, eso sí el ambiente es inmejorable, bueno rollo, tapeo a precio razonable y buen trato. En la parte de abajo hay un salón donde cenar grupos grandes no sale por un ojo de la cara y por norma suelen ser bastante pacientes con las salidas de tono de los amantes del tinto. No podría definirlo como sitio tranquilo ni marchoso, pues lo he visto desenvolverse con soltura en ambas tesituras.