Location: Mercado de la Reina, Gran Vía 12 in Madrid, Spain (mercadodelareina.es)
Edibles: prix fixe dinner - details below
Musings: This place was across the street from the paella place we had intended to visit. (They were full up, so we made a reservation for the next day.)
I was actually pretty happy about our detour. There was something about Mercado de la Reina that just *looked* right: it was modern and trendy but not obnoxiously so, bustling and, most importantly, not full of tourists. I had a feeling we'd eat well. And I was right.
Despite how crowded it was, we were seated within a few minutes at the bar in front of the kitchen. A prime view of the action! They've a small kitchen, but it looked well-organized and efficient. Another good sign.
As we were only able to half-decipher the menu, we went with the prix fixe. I tried to order different dishes for us for each course (you know, to hedge our bets) and was successful for two out of three courses. Don't know what happened with the first; fortunately, it was a great dish and we both loved it. But I'm getting ahead of myself. First, there was the amuse bouche, a crostini with a sort of tomato and anchovy sauce and a bit of melted brie:
A good start. The bread was nice - soft but chewy - and the fish in the sauce was an unexpected surprise.
For the first course, we were both served baby broad beans, sautéed with jamón Ibérico (Iberian dry-cured ham) topped with two sunny-side-up eggs. You break the yolks and let them run over the beans, and yum.... heaven. This dish would be a really superlative hangover breakfast. Bourdain would love it.
For our mains, I got the cod with peppers and squid ink sauce. A really nice piece of fish, with a good hard sear on the skin. I don't think the squid ink sauce added much but Winnie liked it. (Turns out she loves all things squid ink - go figure.) I did like the stewed peppers; I think they really brought out the sweetness of the fish, besides being a somewhat unusual vegetable side for it.
Winnie ended up with these tiny lamb chops with french fries. This dish was a complete wild card - I couldn't identify any of the words in the description. The lamb itself was fantastic, crispy and brown and well-seasoned. I could have eaten piles of them, no problem. But they really could have done better than those anemic french fries as a side.
The two desserts were a cream mousse with flambéed pineapple, and a Cantabrian-style caramelized cheese flan with raspberry sauce. I'm not a big fan of flan in general so I thought the mousse was the better one. Of all the courses, I think dessert was the weakest overall.
But bottom line, I was really happy with our meal. Including some table wine, it was all done for 35€ (or about $50). Mercado de la Reina is a restaurant that 1) I wish was located in New York, and 2) I think could do really well in New York. And you know that's my ultimate compliment!
Along with our earlier adventures in Mercado de San Miguel, it really has been an A+ food day, far surpassing my expectations.
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