Hmm, the bread charge might encourage us to not hop around too much then. Because say we decide to go on a tapas crawl and only order 10 Euros worth of food from one place, we would still get charged an extra 8 Euros if they had a bread charge per person right? So if we go to 4 places, it would be 18 x 4 instead of just 10 x 4.
Is there a way to avoid this like if we stand at the bar instead of sitting at a table?
For a tapas crawl standing at the bar, you can avoid the charge by politely rejecting the bread basket, I assume, if it’s offered.
But when sitting at a table, we are usually served an aperitivo (amuse bouche) before our starters, along with the bread basket.
For example,
where we’re having lunch tomorrow, at La Raquetista en La Habana, it states on the menu (in small print) that the charge for the aperitivo & pan is 2 euros/person. But the VAT (IVA) is included.
If you decide to have a MENÚ DEL DÍA, (bargain priced set menu of the day) for example, at Casa Macareno on your list, this menú del día will consist of a starter, a main, a dessert or coffee, a drink (wine, beer or water) and bread.
The “average” price for this menu of the day, served for lunch only, and only on weekdays, in Madrid now is €14.
At CASA DANI the lunch menu of the day now costs €14 euros on weekdays and €15 on weekends (Saturday). One can choose from 12 starters, 12 mains, and includes a drink, bread and dessert or coffee. You can see each day’s choices on their Facebook page.
Usually you will see this menu posted outside the restaurant before they open, written on a chalkboard, with at least two options for each course.
(If there is only 1 option per course, a rarity, you’ll need to make sure it pleases all of your party.)
These choices may change daily, depending on what bargains the chef can find at the market (the least expensive cuts of meat or types of fish).
The Lavapiés neighborhood (barrio) is a good place to find these daily menus, at places like Badila, Los Chuchis, El Lugarcito, Rambal (here it costs 19.90). And these are not too far a walk from your apartment, as is el 5 de Tirso off the Plaza Tirso de Molina in La Latina.
Other barrios where you´ll find these cheap eats are Chueca (El Bierzo) and Malasaña (Bogotá).
Here´s another explanation of this menu of the day from 2022, but prices have increased and the Treze menu is served now at their casual tavern, TerZio.
Thank you, Maribel! i really appreciate all your insight. For the menu del dia, for our party of 5 adults and 3 kids, will we be expected to purchase 5 menu del dias? 8 menu del dias? If we’re not that hungry or doing a crawl, can we do 3 or 4 menu del dias only?
@krystle920
For the 4-year old, you certainly don’t need to purchase a menú del día. For the two 7-year olds, it seems to me perfectly ok for them to share one. The adults should each purchase a menú del día.
My husband and I, for example, would never share one. We each purchase our own.
2 other places not far from your apartment with a well priced menú del día are Casa Pachuco and El Imparcial.
I forgot to mention that I went this morning to my Día supermarket. They don´t carry Bonilla a la Vista potato chips, but they do have Ruffles, Lay’s and Pringles along with their store brand!
At some old time, hole in the wall churrerías, they also sell homemade potato chips that are equally addictive to me.
Look for the sign “fábrica de churros y patatas fritas”. Unfortunately these places are slowly disappearing from the center due to the high rents.
There’s one, EL CANTERO, at Hartzenbusch 4 in Chamberí, near the Bilbao metro.
As someone whose wife does not like paying for bread all the time, she has been successful in refusing when it’s simply bread only. It’s relatively easy to do this at tapas bars. The complication arises when it’s paired with an apertivo as restaurants expect all diners to be charged for this. It seems harder to decline. Sometimes you can see this on an online menu.
Regarding menus del dia, I think it would be easier and cheaper for a large group like yours to order a la carte, particular if you have kids involved.
On paella, you will have a hard time finding anything less than 25 euros per person for good paella in Madrid. However, you could order for 4 and then some additonal dishes and everyone would be able to enjoy the rice as it’s quite heavy. Berlanga, as Maribel indicates is very good for Madrid. Resist the temptation to buy it in and around the plaza mayor at casual places.
Yes, the complication with refusing the bread at a sit down restaurant, such as those we frequent in the Retiro district, is that it does come with the aperitivo. They aren´t charged separately.
@tigerjohn,
You make a good point about ordering a la carte, sharing a number of dishes.
For example, last night, we dined at Asador Maribel in Segovia with friends, the one Asador we hadn’t tried other than for wine/tapas at the bar.
We had already enjoyed our cochinillo at José María for lunch, so we had very little desire for a starter and a main, or even just a large main.
So we ordered 4 starters to share, which was plenty, plus a shared dessert of ponche segoviano.
No problem. The service, BTW, was excellent. With our wines taken at the bar, we had a choice of complimentary tapas, about 10 from which to choose! We chose tortilla española plus croquetas and the waiter even added a plate of manchego.
With dessert we were all served a complimentary chupito, which is a little shot of liqueur of our choice–patxarán, crema de orujo, orujo de hierbas, etc.
I certainly would return for their lechazo from Sacramenia. Very reasonably priced and a member of Asadores de lechazo de Castilla y León.
@krystle920
You will see this charge stated on the menu in fine print at the very bottom as “aperitivo y pan” or sometimes “cubierto”.
I have a friend who runs a highly successful gourmet tour company in Sevilla, and she refuses the bread basket regularly.
As to paella, I do swear by Berlanga. And do as tigerjohn recommends. His paella for two we can never finish, and our waiter asks if we would like the remaining rice ¨to go¨.
A “to go” bag in Madrid is perfectly acceptable these days. Restaurants are used to this, have containers for this, as during the severe Covid restrictions, when they were mandated to close, they all resorted to “take away” and delivery to survive.
At la Monteria three hearty eaters ordered rabas (fried squid), a venison stew, a roasted turbot head special ) and we were totally stuffed. With three covers, the total was something like 85 euros. Adding 2-3 more dishes for 30-40 more euros would easily feed 5 adults and 3 kids. In this case keeping the bread (better than average for this type of place) to sop up excellent sauces and juices would be good value.
@tigerjohn,
La Monteria is such a truly excellent value, as are the other Retiro district restaurants owned by the same family–La Castela, Castelados (where we have reservations this Mon.) and La Monte (high tables only here).
Here’s one small thing to keep in mind: At DIa, and even in El Corte Ingles, ifi you are buying tins of shellfish or vegetables (Lodosa peppers, asparagus), check the label and make sure the item comes from Spain. I’ve seen a few of these from Peru and other countries, but you might want to focus on the Spanish marks, even if those will be more expensive.
If you’re purchasing LODOSA red peppers, pimientos del piquillo de Lodosa, there will be a prominent red and white label on the tin stating that they are Navarran, “producto de Lodosa”. Such as these:
https://www.elcorteingles.es/alimentacion/marcas/lodosa/supermercado/alimentacion-general/conservas-vegetales/pimientos-del-piquillo/
Lodosa and Mendavia, vegetable producer villages in Navarra
https://www.visitgastroh.com/en/destinations/navarre/lodosa-mendavia/
Much canned asparagus does come from Peru.
Maribel, I should not have written “Lodosa” about the peppers. My mistake! I’ve seen a lot of “roasted peppers” from countries other than Spain, as you know. And lots of squid and mollusks…
Sometimes you have to peer closely at the labels (or put on your reading glasses!) to make sure. I’ve found that if the conservas are much less expensive than many others at the same store, they might. be imported. (I’d not be put off by Portuguese conservas, though)
Small question: Do you have an opinion on Mercadona? I think, but not sure, that this is more of a discount chain than Carrefour, for example. I’ve had good conservas de ventresca from Carrefour but not so much from Mercadona. I’m curious about the place that store occupies in the perceived quality hierarchy of supermarkets.
I will have to begin a new thread soon about eating in Sevilla!
Yes, if the conservas are considerably much less expensive, they are imported. My golden rule. And yes!, put on your reading glasses.
My husband brought back anchoas (anchovies) today (a very small glass jar priced at 1 euro), and I had to put on my reading glasses to verify that they were actually from Mutriku, Gipuzkoa! I didn’t believe him, thinking that for 1 euro they couldn’t possibly be Basque!
I have a Mercadona in my suburb.
It is less expensive, in general, than Ahorramás, Alcampo, Día (some of these owned by Alcampo), el Hipermerado del Corte Inglés, BM, and certainly Sánchez Romero (owned by ECI but the most expensive of all the supermercados), but we don´t shop at Mercadona that often (except for makeup, that Queen Letizia buys).
Mercadona does have spit roasted chicken that we buy occasionally, but the overall selection of groceries we find better at Alcampo and the Hipermercado de ECI, especially the vegetables. And our Hipermercado inside our El Corte Inglés has really good take-away products from their large kitchen, such as salpicón de mariscos, pulpo, albóndigas de pollo, etc.
The Carrefour isn’t in our suburb, not far away, but not significantly better than what we have on hand.
We are members of Costco, as we were in Seattle, but we simply don’t take enough advantage of that membership, as it’s not particularly handy (in Las Rozas), and we may cancel, as since there are just 2 of us, we don’t buy in bulk. There are 4 Costcos in Spain and more coming, I think, one due soon in Zaragoza.
Costco comes in handy for Thanksgiving turkey and pumpkin pie, but we can order fantastic turkeys from the stand, Pollería Medina (the oldest in the city!) in the Mercado de la Paz and our pumpkin pies at 9 Lives, at Fernando el Católico 6.
That is good to know. Looking at pictures with the fancy plating of some restaurants makes me worried we’re not going to get full because we are “hearty” eaters as well and are used to Chinese restaurant or Cheesecake Factory portion sizes. It seems that we just need to order strategically. Like more stews versus plates with just small piece of fish.
Barmitón was our favorite place. The small bites and beginning of the menu the best of all.
The oysters were so good I’d want at least 6 next time! Best toppings for oysters I can ever recall.
And the pane pari small bite REALLY good, you’ll want at least 2 each.
But basically, listen to Maribel and you won’t go wrong.
Barmitón was our favourite until our last meal at La Lloreria. A very close one-two!
A bocadillo of calamari is a signature Madrid sandwich; if you are up for these inexpensive snacks, here is a list of recommended places in Madrid. (note that el Brillante, which I mentioned on another thread, is not among them); it’s in Spanish but names and addresses are easy to figure out; I’d like to try a couple of them myself:
El Brillante is not the best place to try a bocadillo de calamares but is popular with visitors because of its close proximity to the Atocha rail station.
Two classic places, where locals go, can be found around the Plaza Mayor: Bar La Campana & Bar Postas
Most of the places in the Repsol article serve a “reinvention” of sorts of this classic sandwich.
Of these new reinventions, we like the version of the Bar Manero (brought to the city from Alicante). There are 2 Madrid Maneros, one adjacent to the Puerta de Alcalá and the newest, and splashiest one, on Marqués de Cubas, near Las Cortes, a “super Manero”.
Another version that we like can be found at the glorious downstairs delicatessen/upstairs restaurant, Lhardy, from 1839.
I was just in Madrid for one quick night - we walked by La Campana and it looked like it was under construction/renovation. The place right next door had a long line for their bocadillos, I didn’t stay long enough to determine if it was a temporary outpost during construction or just the lucky neighbors.
I think it’s open now but I’ll check.
@krystle920
" Looking at pictures with the fancy plating of some restaurants makes me worried we’re not going to get full because we are “hearty” eaters as well and are used to Chinese restaurant or Cheesecake Factory portion sizes".
If you’re concerned about portion size and are hearty eaters, I suggest that you choose some Galician or Asturian restaurants, as portion size there is much more than ample. In fact in these establishments, as a solo diner, I can’t possibly finish my main course, as so many families share!
At La Caníbal/O Pazo de Lugo at Calle Argumosa, (Galician), just up from the Museo de Arte Reina Sofía, the other day, I, as a singleton, ordered the verdinas con rape y langostinos, (baby lima beans with monkfish and langostines) served in a large pot, that I couldn’t possibly finish. If I had been with my family, 4 of us could have shared that dish easily.
La Bobia at San Millán 3 in La Latina is another of these restaurants serving extremely ample portions.
https://grupolafabrica.es/la-bobia-original/carta-labobiaoriginal/
For hearty Galician fare in La Latina you have Xentes on Calle Humilladero. Everything here can be shared plus there is a complimentary tapa served with each drink order.
These Galician and especially Asturian places serve hearty winter stews (fabada, fabes con almejas, verdinas) and the Asturian cachopo, a breaded veal cutlet) is enormous and can easily feed two or more.
