We have always missed a good tapas restaurant in Amsterdam. Until we heard of Restaurante Madrid in Amsterdam West. Located on the corner of Bellamystraat and Ten Katestraat, not exactly one of the foodie neighborhoods of town, Madrid delivers: A typical Spanish interior with wooden furniture, lots of wine and ham on display and colorful artwork. A friendly Spanish waiting staff that knows and loves Spanish cuisine. A menu that has all the tapas classics as well as some lesser known specialties. And last but not least well executed dishes across the board.
On one of the few pleasant evenings of this summer, we sat outside and eagerly poured over the menu. Making decisions wasn’t easy with too many of the tapas and pinchos sounding appealing. Luckily the waitress was more than happy to help out with recommendations and while doing so also set us up with an incredibly fruity Priorat wine that wasn’t on the wine list. We love restaurants that go the extra mile to make their guests happy and Restaurante Madrid certainly came through!
As for the tapas, we went with a large selection to share and let us sample as many as possible. We especially liked the classics. The Iberico ham was very smooth, the bacalao had great flavor and the patatas bravas a perfect sauce. Of the specials, the marinated pork with white beans and the chorizo in dough hit the spot.
Over a second bottle of the Priorat we started chatting with the next table, a group of Spaniards living in the neighborhood that had discovered Restaurante Madrid recently and quickly became regulars. When leaving, they asked us to keep the secret about this great restaurant as to not spoil a good thing.
www.restaurantemadrid.nl
Bellamystraat 11
1053BM Amsterdam
Tel.: +31 (0)20 4899375
Public Transport: Trams 7 or 17 to Ten Katestraat
Cuisine: Tapas
Neighborhood: West
Vibe: Tasteful
Price: €50 per person
This place looks good. I’ll have to check it out, but I would say that I already know a great tapas place in the Jordaan: La Oliva. They have pintxos (tapas in Northern Spain) and a Chef from northern Spain. Was the highest rated Spanish restaurant in A’dam on iens.nl one of the last years. Spanish friends agreed that it would be a good place if it were in Spain. Definitely worth a go.
Hi Tim,
For some reason I seem to be the only person in Amsterdam who does not like La Oliva. I saw the positive reviews too and went back multiple times only to leave disappointed every time: http://s19.c69.myftpupload.com/2010/01/05/la-oliva-amsterdam-%E2%80%93-no-really-don%E2%80%99t-bother/
Really don’t know why…
–dutchgrub
I had some friends that had the same impression about La Oliva. I think that the food off the menu is definitely pricey and average or below average. When we go, we make sure to get in earlier in the evening and have their tapas. The tapas I’ve had were always really good and reasonably priced, but when they run out they don’t make more and you are stuck with the pricey menu. We went with 4 people and a bottle of wine and some drinks and it was about 35pp, but looking at the menu for Madrid, I think we may have a new favorite place. I’ll definitely check it out – thanks for the great site and posts.
I must admit that we were pretty disappointed with Restaurante Madrid:
-the dishes themselves were hit and miss–e.g. fish in asparagus sauce was excellent but the chorizo in puffed pastry was a poor version of a sausage roll;
-every tapas bar in Spain serves bread especially to soak up the sauce in Albondigas etc. No bread appeared until the end of the meal (it appears that they might have been baking the bread during the dinner service);
-how you can be credible tapas bar and have no sherry available on drinks list? There are now restaurants in the UK serving sherry instead of wine with food; so, surely a tapas bar in Amsterdam should be able to offer an interesting variety of sherries;
-wine list offered no variety. since it calls itself a Vinoteca, i would expect more than a choice of 6 bottles from only 3 different producers.
For the price paid, not very good value for money.
Hi kerry,
Thanks for the detailed feedback. And sorry to hear you had such a bad experience!
Agree that bread should be served right away without you having to ask for it. And it certainly was when we went. Otherwise we would have been a lot less happy.
And we were actually quite happy with the wine list. It’s short but has good options. And in our case the special available upon request made all the difference!
–dutchgrub
I went early evening in july (I was on my own) & had 3 tapas and a bottle of beer for I think 15 euros & thought it was great.
Another place I heard about is Pica Pica. Not any good?
I always enjoy your blog.
I’d been planning on eating there until i saw this:
http://www.parool.nl/wca_digi/resto_detail/313/200101/Madrid.html
Not that I agree with anything he ever says, but this is pretty severe.
Gee, that sounds totally not cool! Van Dam or not, that’s just terrible. And I certainly wouldn’t be back after an experience like that.
Needless to say that our experience was quite the opposite. Things weren’t perfect, but always accommodating and friendly in a Southern European way.
Guess I’m going to have to go back now and double check!
Anybody else who had a bad experience at Madrid?
–dutchgrub
Interesting to read about this “Spanish experience” in Amsterdam, I´ll certainly check it out next time I´m over on a
visit. One way of comparing it with the real thing would be to take a look at http://www.diningcity.com/madrid: any comments welcome.
Oh, I’m glad you found this place. I so wanted to like it, because I miss Spain so much. It’s beautiful inside, and the menu looks promising, but in the end I found the food to be ordinary. They pushed their special pincho on me, and it was attractively served on a chic slate plate, but it definitely did not take much away from my hunger. When I returned for a second visit, I this time sat at the bar and has a nice chat with the amiable bartender. But the patatas brava were too mayonnaise-laden, and the olives were not remarkable. In general, I would say the tapas portions are quite small given the price. For that amount, I would expect to pay 4-5 euro, not 7.50 euro.
They have excellent Spanish red wines by the glass, and I will probably go back just to enjoy that, in the lovely proper elegant glass they offer.
I want so much to like this place, that I will return, if only to be able to smile and speak with a Spaniard.
For those looking for a more homey Spanish restaurant experience, I highly recommend Vamos a Ver in de Pijp, which I wrote about here http://tinyurl.com/7c2ftz9
Hi Suzanne,
Thanks for the feedback. I must say I am getting worried about the amount of negative feedback on Restaurante Madrid. Strangely I also still get many people who are very satisfied. Can’t quite put my finger onto what is going on.
I have been to Vamos a Ver a few times and liked it. It certainly has a comfy feel to it.
Didn’t know your Amsterdam blog. Glad you left a comment and I got to check it out. Definitely keep those queen’s day pictures coming 🙂
–dutchgrub