La Paella de la Reina

los arroces son fantásticos, la paella mínima es de dos, por los que hay que ir acompañado, yo pedí un arroz a banda con un amigo y otros dos paellas tradicional. Para entrante pedimos pulpo, algo en lo que no son especialistas pero estaba bueno. Te presentan la paella y la reparten delante de ti fuera de la mesa.
El precio es medio pero merece la pena ir, o llevar a alguien que adore los arroces. Las rico es son muy abundantes, no sales con hambre
Los postres muy buenos, yo probé la crema catalana y estaba buenísima
Los camareros muy buenos, atentos sin resultar pesados.
Por ultimo tienen un horario muy amplio nosotros entramos a las tres y media y aún entraba gente más tarde. Sin duda repetiré !!!

The entire main course section at this place is all about paella. The specialty of this family run business is the seafood paella. The place is nestled in a backstreet off of gran via, but I barely found a table with all the crowd having dinner.
The food was delicious, the dishes were reasonably priced, but it wouldn’t seem that way if you’re a big group.
The atmosphere is retro and cozy like an old house from my childhood memories.

Came here with recommendation from our hotel. I saw the rather poor reviews but thought I should give it a chance. It was our last dinner in Madrid before we leave tomorrow. Big mistake!
The prices for paella were rather high. We ordered the mixed paella (paella mixta) for 2 people (33 Euro) and black paella (arroz negro) for 2 people (31.60 Euro) to be shared by 4 of us. The paella came out rather quickly within 20 mins (not a good sign since it should take 30 mins or more). The seafood and chicken were rather sparse and the paella rice did not have a crust on the pan (must have for a good paella). It pretty much went down high after that. Besides being salty, there was really no seafood flavor in the rice. Plus I do not think they added saffron in the Paella Mixta.
The paella is at best mediocre and if you consider the price, it is truly a rip off.
My best Paella so far in Spain was in Barcelona at Bosque Palermo. If you are in Barcelona, I highly recommend this restaurant for Paella and seafood.

A moderately priced paella restaurant in Madrid. We ordered the arroz negro (squid and shrimp rice in squid ink). The shrimp was over cooked, but the squid was just right. The rice was good and they gave us a garlic aioli which definitely added a nice flavor. The wait staff was very friendly and attentive. If you want a friendly reception, come here.

Beware, this place is an actual tourist trap. We made the mistake of asking the front desk at our hotel where to get the best paella in town. He recommended this place but said we would need a reservation first which he was happy to make for us. Great, we figured the place was popular and we wouldn’t have to wait long for a table. So after booking us a reservation we headed over there for dinner around 8. The place was a virtual ghost town. We were the only customers there as every table was empty. As we sat and ordered other tourist began trickling in. We asked a few patrons how they found out about this place and they said their hotel had recommended it and also had booked them a needed reservation as well. It became so obvious this place was working with local hotels to direct clueless tourist to come eat here. The whole «reservation» process from the hotels is so that this place knows who to give a cut to. Smart from a business standpoint but I still felt a bit taken and misled. Oh and the paella is very expensive and absolutely not all that great.

The first clue this place was bad was no one was in the place. But we were hungry and thought why not. Big mistake. The paella was terrible. $ 164.00 for 4 people for lunch. The best way to describe it would be $ 40.00 for a plate of rice. The mussels were terrible. A taste I can’t describe or even try too. Each plate had 2 shrimp, 2 mussels, 3 or 4 clams and whatever else. We should have known better when we entered and we were the only ones in the place. Stay away and search for something better.

— ¿Prefieres la caja misteriosa o la prueba de valor?
— ¡La prueba de valor!
— ¡Excelente! La prueba de valor es… ¡Conseguir comer una paella buena en el centro de Madrid que sea paella, que esté buena y que no te claven!
— Ups (…)
Ese era el reto al que me vi abocado ante la visita de un amigo extranjero, de aquí en adelante «el guiri», y tras no encontrar ningún sitio que me llamara la atención y estando La Barraca completo para el día elegido, me decidí por este sitio.
Al principio tenía algo de miedo ya que olía a engaña-​guiris por lo que veía en su web (datada de la época del Fotolog, como la decoración del local que es un poco vetusta) y de otras señales. Pero indagando un poco más vi que una crítica de una comunidad de fanáticos de la paella no le dejaba demasiado mal parada (
)
Y tenían razón, la experiencia no fue para nada mala. Para empezar pedimos unas almejas a la marinera y ali-​oli con pan para acompañar. No sé como las almejas no saltaron de la cacerola con lo extremadamente picante que estaba la salsa, que de marinera tenía poco y fue lo que menos nos gustó de la cena.
Como plato principal optamos por la Paella Mixta, que al fin y al cabo es un arroz con cosas y dista mucho de la receta auténtica, pero el guiri no quería conejo porque ellos no se los comen, los acarician.
El arroz estaba realmente bueno, y aunque el guiri no tenía con qué comprar le gustó mucho, lo que unido a un buen precio final de la cuenta acabó por convencerme de que la elección había sido la acertada.
Y como suele suceder, fue el servicio lo que ayudó a inclinar la balanza a favor de este restaurante: atento, educado, con modales de la vieja escuela. Tanto es así que al final me preguntaron qué tal todo y les confesé lo de las almejas al Infierno y me dijeron «Pero hombre, como no nos dices nada, te las hubiésemos cambiado. Lo sentimos mucho, la próxima vez si no te gusta algo nos lo dices». Majos, majos.
B.S.O recomendada para este comentario:

I think everyone who is giving this place a bad review based on service really doesn’t understand how things work in Spain.
1. Paella, when freshly prepared, takes about 20 – 30 min to cook, meaning you’re going to wait a while on your meal… so come prepared for that.
2. All Spanish restaurants bring you bread, which you are charged for if you eat. They change for everything… bread, water… that’s just how it is here.
3. Paella has to be prepared in special large pans… so it’s a waste for them to make it for one person, so the minimum is 2 persons.
4. Some might call the old guy grumpy… but I thought he was hilarious. He’s old school. He poured my glass of wine, walked off, then looked back and said «you look like you need a little more», and topped the glass off and walked off again. When we presented the paella, in deadpan Spanish he goes «careful, the crayfish will jump out at you».
Bottom line though, like everyone else said, great paella. This is the real deal.

Soooo good. Our last night in Spain we went to this restaurant on the recommendation of our hotel. They called to get us a reservation. The paella was fabulous, the wine was excellent and it was just a very memorable expereince. I would definitely recommend it.

While the paella was very tasty, everything else about the experience was pretty unfortunate. The décor is very stuffy and old, and the place did not have a nice ambiance. There was only one other table with customers while we were there, so the restaurant was awkwardly silent, which was only made more awkward by the pacing waiters and managers staring at us, and the 20 minute wait for our food. Also, on top of the high price of the food, they charged us for the crappy stale bread we didn’t eat, which they brought to us without asking. All in all, not a great experience. I’d rather eat paella on a park bench somewhere!

A mí siempre me han agradado las paellas de este restaurante puesto que son poco grasas y los pescados que llevan les dan un buen toque. Lo único que no me gusta de este local es el servicio algo escueto, pero hablando con los camareros siempre va suavizando su atención.
En esta ocasión pedimos una ración de almejas a la marinera, una sopa castellana, gambones a la plancha, una ensalada de la casa y una paella mixta.
Las raciones fueron acompañadas de un cava de la casa, y luego pasamos a un vino tinto de Rioja, LAN Reserva 2009 (carnoso con olor a tierra húmeda).
Dicho sea de paso recomiendo esta ración de almejas, está para chuparse los dedos. No llegué a probar la sopa castellana, pero me comentaron que estaba riquísima :)
En fin ¡todo estaba buenísimo! También tuvieron detalles de preguntarnos si queríamos pan o no — seguramente por sus experiencias con los turistas — ya que los japoneses no solemos comer pan con arroz.
A mi entender el truco para pasar un buen rato aquí es saber cómo tratar con los camareros. Si lo haces bien, comerás muy en condiciones.

After a wonderful lunch at LA BARACCA, I came here for dinner. Yes, I love paella that much!
I had the Paella de bogavante y almejas (lobster & clams) and it was great! It was different than La Baracca. It was quite cramped on a busy Tuesday night and the service wasn’t as good as other restaurants in the area.
Also, pass on the crème brûlée, or by my deduction, jello vanilla pudding with a crisp caramelized top.
3 Stars because while the paella was good, several key factors were missing namely the service, the restaurant was cramped (think tokyo subway) and the dessert was abysmal.
Would I try this place again? Yes! I just hope they bring their A game!

This restaurant is located in a small alleyway. Lunch starts at 1:00pm. Inside of the restaurant was clean and nicely decorated. We were greeted and the waiter took our drink orders. They were quite friendly to us, offering us English menus, and we’re obviously not locals. The waiter told us in advance it would take about 20 minutes to cook the paella and he was right. We ordered the special seafood paella for 2, which came with 3 different types of shrimp, mussels, clams, octopus, chunks of white fish, and mini shrimp without shells. It was made with a short grain rice, similar to risotto rice. It wasn’t as creamy as risotto. Surprisingly non-​fishy except for the shrimp heads. I’m very sensitive to fishiness and I gladly ate it. We were given devices to crack the tougher shells… the larger shrimp were more like crayfish or baby lobsters with itty bitty claws. All seafood was fresh and not overcooked (bear in mind they will keep cooking as they sit on your piping hot rice). They brought out the whole pan for us to inspect before splitting them equally on 2 plates (see photo for details). The rice was well cooked, no crust on the bottom, perhaps just a hair undercooked, but that’s being very picky. I felt it was a touch salty. There were no veggies, like bell peppers, in this paella.
Prices listed are per PERSON. 24.50 euros /​head. They do take credit cards. It wasn’t too busy at lunch around 1pm, probably because it was a holiday. BF said, «it was the best paella I had in years! It was a nice blend of seafood. Nice variety.» He also thought it was fairly authentic. We weren’t sure if it’s too expensive or not for a good seafood meal. BF noted there were less expensive options with less seafood. Our whole meal was over 50 euros. Good place to try in Madrid if you want to splurge.

This is supposed to be one of the best places for Paella in Madrid, with trip advisor reviews saying it’s even more authentic than La Barraca (in the same street). I went here and not only was the owner grumpy about having to serve a Paella for one (although I called ahead to check that would be okay) but he was also just generally rude and short with me. On top of this, my vegetarian Paella was almost inedible. The vegetables tasted old and almost rotten and for a meal costing 14 euro, you can see why I’m disappointed.
Do not go here unless you want terrible service and an even worse meal.

Best paella a Madrid
Go early before rush

La paella valenciana no la hacen bien aquí
Te encanta este plato típico valenciano, pues aquí lo hacen regular, no es que esté mal, sino que por el precio que cuesta te esperas algo más. Sobre todo destaco que la paella de marisco, no lleva casi marisco, pero bueno si hay hambre…