We had such high hopes for this neighborhood bar, a long subway ride out from where we were staying in the center of Madrid, but it was not going to be a good experience.
We got there early, around 7:30 and the bar only had one other table being used, but we sat at the bar so we could hopefully chat it up with the bartender or learn more about their offerings.
While the bartender was 'nice' he didn't seem interested in helping us out when we were fumbling with the menu or chewing up the Spanish language while asking questions. The beer taps they had (7) weren't labeled with the same tap names as listed on the board, so that was very confusing, the bartender did take our first order but virtually ignored us until about 45 minutes later when the place was filling up and he was the only one cooking, serving and bartending. There were times when he wasn't busy and was chatting it up with another customer and didn't check on us even when he walked by several times. Yes, we've been to many European establishments before and know customs, etc. but he did wait on and check on other local patrons but never us. We just figured this was a real true neighborhood bar that caters to locals and maybe doesn't prefer to have outsiders (too much trouble?).
Anyway, this place could be been great, 7 rotating taps and boasting over 100 bottled beers to choose from. We flagged him down and closed our tab and took a very long train ride back to the city and went El Pedal, which we really had a totally different experience (see new post for that). read more