Taberna Kantuta

It was one of the restaurants that was a hop away from my stay at Tres cantos. Having worked until 8pm at night, was too tired to take the metro and go to Madrid for dinner. Looked for a good restaurant nearby and ended up at Babia. The décor was interesting both inside and outside. It was a weeknight and it was crowded at around 9:30pm. I was welcomed and seated immediately. One of the servers announced me as a Norte americano and I have been assigned a friendly waiter who spoke English. I was given an English menu too. I quickly browsed through and found Anchovies and squid to satisfy my unconventional food requirements. The anchovies starter was priced at 18euros. The waiter told me that it will be too much for me and he asked if I would prefer a half serving. I was happy to have a choice of the half serving. The anchovies were, well, anchovies. They were served over a sea of olive oil, they were perfectly salted and surprisingly didn’t have a strong fishy anchovy smell or taste. They were served with baked crostini and tomato.
It was immediately followed by squid and shrimp in garlic sauce. I could ‘t hide my disappointed look when this dish was served. I expected to see a lot of squid, I guess! The garlic sauce was a joke. I bit into the sliced cloves of garlic that were floating in the pool of olive oil and couldn’t feel even a hint of garlic in them. I wondered what kind of soil they were grown! Having known the light palates of the westerners, I try not to judge their food based on my strong-​flavor-​craving-​South-​Indian taste buds. But, I am sure that the Spaniards too would agree with me on the lack of flavor in this dish. Flavor aside, it was lacking a wow factor in terms of presentation or the way the meat was cooked. Shrimp was over cooked and there was nothing to say about the squid. For 19.50 euros, can I be blamed for expecting more from this squid?
Then I ended my dinner with a flan and English toffee. It made my sweet tooth happy! The red wine I had with my dinner was good with the right amount of sweetness.
The service was friendly and very quick! I might visit them on another lazy night! Well, I need to be rrreally lazy!

Es uno de los mejores restaurantes de tres cantos. La carne es buena pero la pesca mejor!!!