El Buscón

El Buscón es otro bar clásico de esta zona que tanto me gusta. Aunque te encuentres muchos turistas, pienso que está muy bien para locales también. Raciones generosas, con un género bueno y bien de precio. Y eso siempre es algo que aprecio mucho.
Además siempre tu pequeña tapita para acompañar a tu bebida. Cuenta con bastantes mesas y una gran barra, pero suele estar lleno de gente, así que seguramente os tocará esperar un poco.
Creo que 4 estrellas muy merecidas, porque la tortilla, pimientos, ensaladas todo lo que he probado está muy rico.

J’ai vécu à Madrid deux années et je peux dire que El Buscón était mon QG avec son ambiance espagnole sans conteste, un service en continu permettant d’improviser à n’importe quel moment de la journée un petit arrêt sympathique. Tester la sangria bien sûr et les gambas al ajillo… Yummy!

HORRIBLE WASTE OF MONEY!
Save your money and go to a restaurant that provides quality food as well as quality service!!!
My mom and I were looking for a place to have dinner in Madrid. We stumbled upon this restaurant and it seemed very popular so we figured they must have good food.
The place was packed and we were seated in a back corner of the restaurant (secluded from basically everyone) because that was the only table available at the time. Fine, no big deal.
They seemed to cater towards serving meat, so my mom decided to order the T-​Bone Steak (mind you this is a large piece of meat, for 2 people) BAD IDEA!!! The steak was served RAW when we asked for MEDIUM. The steak was served with salad and French fries on one plate. It looked like they threw some cheap salad on a plate, no dressing. If I can make a better looking/​tasting salad than you then you have a problem! They served the salad/​fries way before we were served the steak. So we were left just eating steak and cold fries.
We were shocked that the steak was RAW. We informed the waitress and she sliced it into pieces and brought a steaming separate plate to our table!!! THIS WSS FOR US TO COOK THE STEAK THAT WE ORDERED MEDIUM. This plate was not hot enough to cook a thick piece of meat. Then we needed ANOTHER PLATE in order for our meat to turn out medium. I have never been to a restaurant where I had to COOK MY OWN MEAL. We paid € 33 euros for a practically rare piece of steak with absolutely no flavor.
What is even WORSE is that the waitress and chef did NOT seem to CARE whatsoever. We kept getting an attitude from the waitress. Basically ruined our evening!
If your looking for a nice place to enjoy dinner and feel at home, I highly recommend Rosi La Loca. It is a near by restaurant in Madrid.

This place was great! Platter full of all kinds on meats, including ribs and sausages for a great place! The actual restuarant seems to be located in building that goes backs middle ages!

This is the same restaurant as Venta El Buscon (the real name of it).
I don’t understand what all the hype is around this place — I came because from the reviews I understood this to be a well priced local (for Sol) spot with quality food. The price is only about 1 euro less than it’s neighboring restaurants, but with the 1 euro difference you’re sacrificing a lot of quality that you can easily find right next door, at Alhambra for example.
CONS: (the food)
The restaurant calls itself a steak and seafood place, so we ordered accordingly:
Gambon al ajillo (8eu): the shrimp were of a decent size but were a bit overcooked. The sauce they come in is average. Nothing bad, but nothing to come back for.
Meat platter for 2 (20 eu): Terrible. It came sizzling and smelled great, so it seemed so promising! A skillet of chicken fillets, a rack of ribs, 2 chorizos, 2 slices of morcilla, and 2 fillets of tbone steak. The morcilla had a nice peppery taste to it, by far the best on the plate, and the chorizo was grilled quite nicely, however the chicken, ribs and steak were extremely fatty, and the steak was overcooked. Most of the portion served was either bone or fat, and the part that was edible was TOUGH, not worth the purchase.
It comes with a side plate of lettuce and tomato slices (for what??), roasted red pepper (tasted ok, but again, for what??) and a nice portion of well cooked fries.
Sangria (jarra for 11 eu): Just as the waiter promised, not incredibly sweet or strong. I think they put mailbu in it so it’s got a coconut-​y flavor, which also makes you believe will be stronger. 1 jarra has a tonnn of sangria in it, but I split it with my girlfriend and walked away feeling pretty normal, so I’m going to say it’s on the weaker end of the booze-​filled sangria spectrum.
PROS:
Service: I will say the waiters are doing a ton of work tending to all the tables, but are definitely more attentive than most you’ll find in this area. But, no one goes to a restaurant because they hear the waiters are doing their job.
Also, the bread. Sounds weird, but bread in restaurants is often served stale or cold. The bread served was not your typically basket of sliced white baguette bread, but instead semi-​multigrain rolls which were crusty on the outside and soft inside. Perfect for the gambon al ajillo sauce.

Great Tapas Bar in the center of Madrid. Just around the corner of Apple Store. I recommend Gambas a Ajillio and Pimientos with salt.

En esta zona tan turística, que te encuentras? Restaurantes para turistas. Pero hay veces que alguno de estos locales, ofrecen a todos los clientes (sean turistas o no) un producto y servicio clásico. Este, es uno de ellos.
Tienes tus Rioja y tus Ribera, clásico. Tienes tu tapa con choricitos, clásico. Tienes tus barras de madera y camareros que saludan fuerte al cliente que entran en su local, clásico. Y tienen unas raciones con color y con cantidad, clásico de los antiguos clásicos. Todo ello, con un precio justo, acorde a las cantidades.
Tomate un par, o pica algunas raciones. Estarás servido para continuar.

I came here last night with a friend and had a great time! We arrived just before 9pm and the place was full (which is generally a good sign), so we got a seat at the bar and had a beer with a free tapa to pass the time. The place is very lively and all the people working here are super friendly!
After 15 to 20 minutes or so, we were seated. We ordered their paella and a platter of Iberican meats. It was delicious, and probably best to share for more than two. The paella is quite salty so make use of that lemon! The meats are sliced very thinly and there are about 5 different varieties which are nicely arranged around the plate. It comes with a basket of toasted and buttered bread and 4 pieces of cheese.
One of the favorite dishes that were ordered by multiple groups in the restaurant was the steak, which comes steaming in a hot dish. It smells heavenly! I’d love to try it some time.
After finishing, we were given two free shots — hence the 5-​star rating. Note, service here is wonderful and quite attentive but you may end up in the restaurant for 2 hours. Eating over that period of time is a cultural thing. When I’m in Madrid again, I’ll definitely be back here!

Juan and Angel were there every morning with a smile and fresh squeezed Orange Juice to welcome me! The food was fresh, and tasty everyday! I recommend Venta el Buscon!

Bad food (my son’s was inedible) and bad service. Major disappointment. They brought out the wrong food at first, took forever to get the bill, and then joked with us about getting change back.

I recently took a large group (35 people) to Madrid for a hockey expedition. We broke up in to smaller dinner groups for a few of the nights, and Venta el Buscon was far and away the favorite of the three choices that the groups visited. Fantastic atmosphere and great service. We had a table of adults and one of teenage hockey players. Not too many Spanish speakers among us, but the staff were helpful and patient.
We tried all kinds of different dishes, and should have heeded the server’s warning that the portions were VERY big. We shared between two, but really would have been better off sharing between four to six people.
The first night we were there, the paella was very salty — almost inedible as a result. But other dishes were solid, including prawns, calamari, tomato salad, house salad (massive) .
It was the atmosphere that made the night for us — the manager in particular, was thrilled that he had a bunch of female hockey players in his restaurant and was peppering the girls with questions.
Highly recommend.

LOVED this place!
This place isn’t far from Plaza del Sol which is a super touristy part of town. That said however, there were not a lot of tourists here. Clearly, this is a local hang out. Although… they did have a menu in English for us. So… still, looking around, this seemed like a local crowd. Or tourists who all spoke beautiful Spanish.
For starters, they set down a small dish of chorizo or something like it. Since I haven’t eaten meat in about 23 years, I couldn’t tell you what it was. However… I *could* tell you that it tasted really delicious and I astounded my husband by asking for seconds and thirds. Yup, that’s how good the stuff was.
Hubby had some meat dish that he loved — and devoured heartily. I had grilled prawns that were delicious and fresh. We also had some Spanish tortilla and washed it all down with some rioja. So good.
But, you need to time it right. It was a Sunday evening — early — like somewhere around 7p or 8p and it was PACKED. Luckily, we didn’t have to wait for a table. It was
amazing. Go here!!!

I lost my friends one night and walked into here looking for them and
never left. I spent a wonderful evening drinking red wine and evouring
the food that the barman kept bringing. Lovely smoked chorizo slices in a
crusty bread, pimento de Padrone done to perfection. This place is next
to a load of otehr Irish type tourist bars and I recommend this for a
break from the mayhem. Came in here a couple of days later for an
afternoon and it was packed with a diverse mix of locals and the more
mature tourist. recommend the pimento de Padrone over anything else,
House red is a good and service very attentive. Very cheap as well

Again another winner in Madrid! Bar guys were very friendly and tapas were good. I think you can get better tapas in Madrid but as a place to hang out it’s as good as any!

My family and I had a very filling breakfast here. For just a few euros, you can a beverage and tostada (toast) dish. The tostada dishes come with a variety of options including tomato spread, bacon, jam, eggs, etc. The tomato spread was so good! It reminded me of bruschetta minus the basil. The portions here were huge! There was soooo much bacon! And it was really good bacon! My sister had the cured ham and cheese tostada, which also had a TON of food. Everyone opted for their freshly squeezed orange juice for their beverage. Overall this place was such a great value for a hearty breakfast.

Ugh, this place was so stupid good.
On our last night of our two week European adventure we settled into a table at Venta el Buscon not even realizing what was about to happen.
We ordered a ton of things for the two of us. A huge jug of sangria, the patatas bravas, the Spanish meatballs, the paella, and the garlicky shrimp. It might not sound like a lot, but the portions were huge.
Holy sh*t, everything we ate was amazing. Who knew Spanish meatballs were like the best things ever? And after all the patatas bravas we had in Spain, this was the best. The aoili was incredible. The paella was a bit mindblowing and though the shrimp were a little «shrimpy», the sauce was to die for.
All of the waiters were more than nice to us and though they didn’t know what « Unilocal» was, I told them they’d find out soon enough.
If you’re in Madrid, go here.

This was the first place we ate at in Spain, my first vermút (not my last, YUM), and the Mr’s first cerveza Maho (can you get it here, Bevmo here we come). It was also our first plate of patatas bravas, and our first chupito at the end of the meal (I think it was chartreuse, which I don’t like). We just had the potatos and a plate of cheese I think, but we both loved the spot, even though it probably wasn’t the most vegetarian friendly restaurant in Madrid (this is true of most bars, where Jamón seems to be king).

Stumbled across this restaurant whilst on a desperate search for meat, after having suffered from 5 days of bread, fruit, and water (half from the deplorable food scene in Granada and half from a bout of food poisoning the one meal I dared to eat meat in Granada)
I’ll admit part of what lured me in was the rabo de toro — Spanish oxtail stew — and partially also the attractive waiters. in any case, the food was delicious, the waitstaff friendly (which, believe me, is hard to come by in a country where restaurant etiquette is rather lazy to put it euphemistically), and the prices reasonable. My stew was flavorful and generous at € 10, accompanied with a glass of delicious sangria to wash it down. The party next to me had divine looking plates of mussels, clams, and salmon, as well as gazpacho for their post-​meal. Don’t know if this is standard practice or the fact that I was a chick dining alone, but the waiters gave me a free chupito of something (yerva? Who cares) at the end. I’m still buzzing in a delightful way and it’s only mid-​afternoon.
This is located right off the plaza between Tirso de Molina and Puerta del Sol, and is worth a stop by while you wait for a v.o.s. playing of a movie at the nearby Yelmo Cines or on your way back from the overwhelming eye candy at one of Madrid’s great art museums.

sepia aoli very tasty and it is also worth to try the paella, I can also recommend the vino rosado, really nice tapas bar I will definitly come back

Nettes Lokal zum Tapas essen
In gemütlicher Atmosphäre bekommt man hier leckere Tapas zu vernünftigen Preisen. Die meisten Leute kommen hier her, essen und trinken eine Kleinigkeit und ziehen weiter. Natürlich kann man hier aber auch den ganzen Abend verbringen. Der Wein ist lecker und günstig. Die Kellner sind sehr nett. Zusätzlich zu den Plätzen, die man vom Eingang aus sieht, gibt es noch einen Gastraum im Keller.