El Pequeno Barco - Madrid

It was January 1st and everything was closed. We found this place by luck. It was amazing. The place was nice and the food was great. We had a arroz caldoso and the apple tart. The rosé of the house was very nice.

We were staying at the Novotel Madrid Centre (O 'Donnell and one of our party had a broken leg and was on crutches so we asked the concierge to recommend a restaurant close (literally hobbling distance to the hotel. It was Saturday night at around 9:30pm and, though there were some people at the bar, the restaurant was empty and we wondered if we had made a good choice. However as my friend could not walk any further we gave it a try. The prawn tortilla they gave us with the bread was great. The wine was good and well priced. I had the grilled octopus to start that was very tasty and a large portion, in common with the other two starters. I shared as my main course the sea bass baked in salt that was delicious (it is for two people . One other of our party 's fish was OK but a little tough said the sea bass was better and another had the paella that he said was excellent. The waiter spoke no English but the manager did speak a little and in any case there were English menus with some wonderful translations. E.g. paella was soggy rice ! : We were able to be understood one way or another and I believe in Madrid you can not expect everyone working in a restaurant to speak perfect English, especially as this was off the main tourist street. The meal for four with three starters, four main courses, four deserts and two bottle of one of their best Spanish white wines came to €228 and to me that was what I would expect in a good fish restaurant with white linen. Yes they do charge €2.20 per head for bread and the excellent prawn tortilla but I do not consider that an issue, unlike a previous review! Recommended particularly if you are staying at the Novotel and want a good fish restaurant that is very close to the hotel.

Read good reviews and decided to try out the place for dinner. IT WAS A BIG MISTAKE. We ordered fish dishes. Both my wife's and my fish tasted very odd. They dont speak much English. But at last we managed to understand that the fish was RAW. so we thought may be we had just ordered the wrong items. They explained that in all fish dishes the fish would be raw. We then thought of ordering a Steak for myself and some lamb dish for my wife. Then we heard a commotion. A Spanish gentleman seemed very agitated. I asked him what was wrong. He said the Streak he had ordered was so hard that he not cut it with a Steak knife. We cancelled our order and left after parting with Euro 75. I write this to save possible future customers from a disastrous evening.

Ambiente acogedor,comida excelente y servicio inmejorable

Comida buenísima , camareros amabilísimos ,ambiente muy agradable