Exploring the streets near our hotel for a suitable dining experience on our first day in Madrid, it became apparent that we’d wandered into the red-light district north of Gran Via (you can draw your own conclusions as to what we saw). Undeterred, we continued perusing the menus in each restaurant window. On Calle de la Ballesta we found a tiny place called La Villa de Luarca. What caught our eye was their three-course meal offering: appetizer, entrée and dessert (including bread, wine and tax) for the unbelievably low, low price of 7.20€. That’s less than US$9.00, for those of you keeping score at home.
We gave each other that "Are you kidding me?" look, but decided to throw caution to the wind and let our hunger cast the deciding vote. We walked in and were seated, quickly realizing only one other table was occupied. Not a good sign. Trying to put a positive spin on the situation, I made a note of the high table-to-waiter ratio of 1:1. Our servers this evening were two forlorn looking elderly gentlemen, impeccably dressed in black dinner jackets. One was apparently the owner, the other perhaps his brother.
We were handed menus, and bread and wine were served. A few minutes later our waiter returned and we ordered. We sipped the wine (admittedly it wasn’t very good, but what do you expect for 7.20€?) and took in our surroundings: just one other couple other than ourselves in the whole restaurant. The sound of a talk radio station spilled out from the kitchen.
We plowed through our appetizers (mine was a delicious plate of mushrooms smothered in a tomato-based sauce), then our entrées were served. The Better Half raved about her paella with chorizo and morcilla sausages. My roasted chicken was about the best chicken I’ve ever had. A leg, thigh and breast simply prepared but flavorful and juicy, with the meat almost falling off the bone. This was a very bipolar dining experience. The food was fantastic, yet the place was practically empty. After a while we finished our wine (no matter how bad it was, it still produced a buzz) and desserts (strawberries and cream).
Then came the bill, and there it was: 14.40€ for this feast, this celebration of Spanish cuisine. The food was so good and we felt so sorry for the two waiters that we returned the following night. (Feeling sorry for the staff is not a very compelling reason to patronize a particular dining establishment, but at least we knew the food would be good.) To our amazement, on the second night we were the only customers the entire evening. This did, however, improve the table-to-waiter ratio to a mind-boggling 1:2.
Hands down, La Villa de Luarca was the biggest bang-for-your-buck eats we had in all of Spain, never mind Madrid. They just need to get some people in the door.
My 1-10 ratings:
Food - 9; Service - 8; Atmosphere - 4
Additional information:
District: Old Madrid
Metro: Gran Via (L1, L5)