Cafe Madrid

Let me start by saying that I love tapas and Café Madrid has an amazing assortment of tapas. Their cheese selection is top notch and the bread is soft & delicious.
I’ve never been to the place when it was crowded, in fact, I’ve rarely seen more than 5 – 10 of the tables full. The place is not on the beaten path and I think most people don’t know it is in the Bishop Arts District.
My only complaint is the wine list. They feature Spanish wines, which is great, I just wish they had a better selection and/​or the selection changed more frequently.
The service is always friendly & helpful, if not a bit overworked but it’s always a good experience.

I came here on a Friday night on a whim. Here’s what I liked:
The ambiance — Café Madrid and a tapas bar seems more at home in Bishop Arts than it does in Uptown. If I’m pretending to be in Spain, I’d rather eat among revitalized ruins than shiny glossy new developments.
The tapas — I think tapas need to become a food group. I thoroughly enjoy the small, bite sized plates of flavorful, savory foods. The cheese list is extensive and contains delicious manchego. The spanish olives are a nice size, and the croquettes come with a delectable dipping sauce.
Dislikes:
Beware — on Friday nights at 10 pm, Café Madrid in Bishop Arts embraces the arts vibe. .. and turns into open mic night! From slam poetry to comedy, anyone can have their 15 minutes of fame. While this is a cool idea, if you are dining with a companion and prefer to speak with them rather than listen to strangers trying to get their Beatnik on, this is not a good choice.
Overall, you can’t go wrong with Café Madrid. Just make sure your timing is right.

My first visit to this location and it exceeded my expectations. I am a tapas bar fan who thinks that few places get it «right.» Café Madrid had a great selection of tapas, well over 30, including traditional favorites: gambas, chorizo, tortilla espanola, queso manchego. But they also included warmed pimentos stuffed with goat cheese and drizzled with olive oil and capers, lamb chops, olives stuffed with anchovies. My only complaint was that they did not have sweetbreads, but in their defense they only buy what they need to ensure freshness.
Service was very very good, with great recommendations. Also, house wine was excellent.
i can’t wait to return.

This is a favorite of my husband and I. We frequent this place twice a month because we love practically everything on the menu. The service has been great every time we visit and we usually go on a Friday night.
We enjoy the in-​house-​made sangria and the extensive list of Spanish wines. Every time we visit we get the spinach croquettes, the garlic shrimp, the goat cheese stuffed peppers (a basket of bread is is a must have with the shrimp and peppers) and the potatoes in tomato sauce. We have had mixed success with the ever-​changing entrée list. The quail they had in the fall was excellent but the eggplant and scallops they had in February were a bit of a disappointment. This is a great restaurant to visit for a meal when you have a full wallet. You would have to order at least three $ 7 (average price) tapas to make a decent meal for one person.

A large group of us went to Café Madrid a couple weeks ago. The servers seemed overwhelmed but friendly enough.
We ordered tapas, which I don’t think we’ll be doing again. The ox tail soup was well-​flavored, but oily and hard to eat. The goat cheese stuffed peppers were heavy on cheese light on pepper, and the quail was dry and boring.
The best part of the meal was the paella, which had yummy bits of seafood, and lots of them, and a nice lemmony flavor. The other two bright spots: the dali dessert platter was awesome, and the goat cheese, onions and honey were sinfully good.
The paella and dessert made the meal, but I was disappointed in Madrid’s specialty, the tapas.

Went to Café Madrid Saturday night. My friend and I ordered the spanish potato omelette, grilled beef, grilled chicken and sauteed spinach with pine nuts. All dishes were very yummy, especially the spinach! It’s great if you’re with people who have varied tastes in food — there is something for everyone.
I’ve been twice now and both times have had very prompt and attentive service and delicious food.

Last night, in the midst of the crowds at the Bishop Art District Election Night Block Party… we decided to find food first and ended up at Café Madrid. There was a line of people waiting for a table, and then a couple and their kid just walked right past us and sat down at a table. The rest of us followed suit.
It took a long long time to get our drinks, we never did get a real menu (only the paper ones we found while waiting in line). Our food came out one plate at a time, which is sort of (actually more than sort of) annoying.
The food however had good flavor, but a few of the dishes were served cold. which is a big reason why i stuck to 3 stars… Service was ridiculously slow, but I can give them slack on such a Historic Night.
Our table of 3 had:
3 Dr. Peppers
2 orders of Beef On The Skewer …
(these showed up within minutes and were cold, obviously cooked and waiting)
2 orders of Marinated Pork Loin… these were good.
1 order of Fried Shrimp …
(interesting as they were just shrimp fried with almost no batter.)
1 order of the Sauteed Spinach with Pine Nuts … very good and fresh.
We tried to order the Saffron Rice, the Fried Goat Cheese with Honey and the Spinach and Cheese Croquettes… but they were out of all three. Instead our server brought us these Potatoes with some sort of green avocado mayo sauce on top. These were very good.
I would like to try this place again, but not when they are so busy.

Me and Ean went here and were blown away by the Paella. Then we went again and everything was awful. Service is variable. It’s like nobody is really running the place. And really high prices make it just bad. Sorry.

Very disappointing. The sangria was mediocre and most of the dishes were marginal as was the service. For better tapas, try Hola Tapas Bar.

We love that Café Madrid opened up in Oak Cliff. We’ve been here a couple times and think its great. Yeah I’m sure its not as good as what you would get in Spain but it works for us. We also love the peppers with goat cheese, the caper berries (try em if you’ve never had them), Manchego cheese, calamari, and you must try the spinach and cheese croquettes and the Sangre Del Toro wine — you know the one with the cute little plastic bull… if you haven’t had it its a very nice bottle that goes excellent with tapas. Yup, I’m pretty much good with any place that will serve me wine, bread and cheese. Gotta love it!

I lived in Spain for a while and can attest that this place is terrible. The sangria tastes like poison, the olives are sad, the entrees are flavorless.
Oddly, there was an image of «Las Cuevas de Sesamo» on the menu which is actually one of the best bars in Madrid. They also had an empty box of Prado Enea wine on a shelf which happens to be one of the best Rioja wines. Sadly, the restaurant didn’t come near Las Cuevas nor did their wine selection reflect what once lived in the decorative and empty box.

Now this is a nice place. My best friend lives right down the street, so we just strolled over for a relaxing Tuesday evening. There was a live guitar and it was really nice, not too obnoxious or loud. The waiter said they have it every Tues.
She wasn’t hungry, she just really wanted wine. We are not wine connoisseurs by any means (I don’t even really drink) and she just mentioned the flavor and depth she was looking for and the waiter brought us a sample.perfect. It was exactly what she described.
So I ordered bread, mushrooms, artichokes, and beef skewer.
The bread was not warm or anything, but really soft and good. You have to pay for the olive oil or butter which kind of annoyed me, but whatever.
The mushrooms were good, I loved the garlicy sauce, but they were cut up sooo small. I always think of tapas as a good way to get small plates and have a taste of everything, but when it’s cut up so oddly, how can you share? The artichokes were tasty, covered in some kind of pesto. The beef skewer was mediocre, not anything special.
The crème brûlée was also just mediocre, which is sad cuz I LOVE crème brûlée.
Overall I liked the atmosphere of the place… if only they had a patio! The food could have been just a little bit better though.

The brand new Bishop Arts location features the same reliable menu as the Travis Street restaurant.
Definitely try the stuffed piquillo peppers — melt in your mouth goat cheese and tiny capers in a tangy (mild) red roasted pepper.
The Tortilla Espanola — one of their signatures — is spot-​on perfection every time. Just like being in Spain. If you’ve never tried this tapa, it’s basically a potato and egg pie, served at room temperature, with garlicky mayo that is house-​made. Yum.
The only improvement I would suggest was the paella. It remains soupy and a little mushy. For its namesake, this Paella Valenciana is studded with toothsome seafood of many kinds, as well as chicken chunks (skin on, weird), but the dish would be more satisfying if it was finished appropriately and — even better — if it had that crunchy soccarat crust served with it!
Service has remained a bit uneven. At times, it seems like familiar servers from Travis St. are working the floor and other times… there is no real service from the staff.
For now, CM Oak Cliff can be a bit desolate, but the food and the great wines (and frankly awesome by the glass prices) are the real reason to come on any week night.