Tra la la la la la la
Pay
€€
Per Person
Shared starter, main, shared dessert. Beer. €20 per person. El tenedor discount may be available.
Gratis: Some very nice potato crisps.
Basics
Location
http://www.bululubarandcoffee.com/
In Short
Hopes? A well-made, relaxed lunch in a warm environment.
Reality? About 1.3 out of three scored.
First Impressions? A bit stark and a cold atmosphere.
A USP? Bespoke burger range.
The food in three words? Bespoke burger range.
Can they get the staff? No delays, very prompt.
Service with a smile? Entirely impersonal.
Would you take your friends? No.
Rating for a dating? Lacks atmosphere.
Tip? Basic one for prompt service.
Change one thing? Floors - and bathrooms - need to be cleaner.
Going back? Not likely.
Compare & Contrast
Steakburger Luchana
Hamburguesa Nostra
In Pictures
On Google Images
In Depth
Burger bars. There are gazillions of them. Take Glorieta Bilbao. Within 100m, there are at least 7, and more are constantly appearing.
So, near Conde Duque, here's Bululu. Playing a canny game, they're trying to have their burger and eat it by aiming at both the artisan coffee and burger markets. So is this a cosy coffee cohab made in heaven? Or a burgered up blind date?
It was a chilly-feeling white-tiled room surrounded by disparate fellow diners. A man stranded in a draughty corner looking sad. Another batting away gamely at a chicken escalope. In a window seat a woman passively bullying another into resigning. Presumably so she could keep her cowardice intact and not have to sack her.
Into this human nightmare before Christmas came the menu. Rather a smartly laid out one, with very clear allergy and content labelling on each and every dish, which not everyone is taking so seriously.
While that self-sacking seminar rattled on - not a free crisp was touched - time for our own agenda;
1 Arepas
Five sizeable cornbreads were filling, but lacked interest. An onion salsa had some nice acidity to it, but we needed much more variety. Nata criolla wasn't quite sour cream, but wasn't liquid either, thankfully. But without sauce, this is like setting a pantomime in a nunnery. Tasteless.
2 La Jacky and La Cami
Two impressively stacked burgers, both seemed medium-well done. One was supposed to be rare. The meat was OK, though. Well seasoned. Not a bad burger in itself. We didn't bother with the bun top half. It wasn't interesting enough.
Potato wedges weren't a million miles away from the frozen wedges in blue bags at the supermarket next door. They were fine and there was a decent portion of them. But...details matter. Why no ketchup or mustard on the table? Other chains nearby are deploying half a dozen different sauces, so this is a strange omission. We both had barbecue sauce which helped those spuds along, but the sweet sugary Jack Daniels reduction with the Jacky didn't work with them and didn't taste of or look anything like what I'd expect of intensified JD. Sweet, pale and sugary? That doesn't sound right, does it?
And it didn't do much for the Jacky. No sauces included meant no added succulence. The Cami had a good chorizo mayonaisse - chorizo jam, I'd say - and some cheese which gave it a bit of interest, but no mayo, no ketchup and none on the table.
3 Dessert
If you never try you never know, so how about a blast from the very, very colourful past. Stone me, it's a banana split!
And look at the those ice-creams. Stoned is about right if that's a real aura that dessert is emitting. Maybe an iphone just can't cope with the colour contrast. A vision of soft-focus 70s colour discoordination, maybe this Banana Split was designed by those Banana Splits. Plastic flamingo pink meets English mustard yellow meets chocolate brown...chocolate. If you weren't around in the 70s, this is one way you managed, to quote someone who definitely was, to get lucky.
Unencumbered by strength of flavours or evidence of artesan products, this is perhaps the only dessert in the 28xxx postcode enhanced by megasplodges of spraycream. It's food time travel. Every mouthful says 1973.
4 AOB?
Not, thankfully Any Old Beer. Pleasingly, it's the excellent La Virgin both draught and bottled. It's really good stuff, with a distinct extra bite over most others that come in red or green bottles and cans.
5 Matters Arising
So, just before we go, here are the main points again.
The burgers can be OK. The tables need sauces. The beer choice is excellent. The starter we had was dull. The dessert was like an explosion in a food colourant factory. The bill was €20 each which is not cheap for the quality on offer.
6 Action Points for the future
Go somewhere else next time.
And that's it.
Except to add that she'd not offered to quit when they walked out.
Well done you, madam, whoever you are.
Pay
€€
Per Person
Shared starter, main, shared dessert. Beer. €20 per person. El tenedor discount may be available.
Gratis: Some very nice potato crisps.
Basics
Location
http://www.bululubarandcoffee.com/
In Short
Hopes? A well-made, relaxed lunch in a warm environment.
Reality? About 1.3 out of three scored.
First Impressions? A bit stark and a cold atmosphere.
A USP? Bespoke burger range.
The food in three words? Bespoke burger range.
Can they get the staff? No delays, very prompt.
Service with a smile? Entirely impersonal.
Would you take your friends? No.
Rating for a dating? Lacks atmosphere.
Tip? Basic one for prompt service.
Change one thing? Floors - and bathrooms - need to be cleaner.
Going back? Not likely.
Compare & Contrast
Steakburger Luchana
Hamburguesa Nostra
In Pictures
On Google Images
In Depth
Burger bars. There are gazillions of them. Take Glorieta Bilbao. Within 100m, there are at least 7, and more are constantly appearing.
So, near Conde Duque, here's Bululu. Playing a canny game, they're trying to have their burger and eat it by aiming at both the artisan coffee and burger markets. So is this a cosy coffee cohab made in heaven? Or a burgered up blind date?
It was a chilly-feeling white-tiled room surrounded by disparate fellow diners. A man stranded in a draughty corner looking sad. Another batting away gamely at a chicken escalope. In a window seat a woman passively bullying another into resigning. Presumably so she could keep her cowardice intact and not have to sack her.
Into this human nightmare before Christmas came the menu. Rather a smartly laid out one, with very clear allergy and content labelling on each and every dish, which not everyone is taking so seriously.
While that self-sacking seminar rattled on - not a free crisp was touched - time for our own agenda;
1 Arepas
Five sizeable cornbreads were filling, but lacked interest. An onion salsa had some nice acidity to it, but we needed much more variety. Nata criolla wasn't quite sour cream, but wasn't liquid either, thankfully. But without sauce, this is like setting a pantomime in a nunnery. Tasteless.
2 La Jacky and La Cami
Two impressively stacked burgers, both seemed medium-well done. One was supposed to be rare. The meat was OK, though. Well seasoned. Not a bad burger in itself. We didn't bother with the bun top half. It wasn't interesting enough.
Potato wedges weren't a million miles away from the frozen wedges in blue bags at the supermarket next door. They were fine and there was a decent portion of them. But...details matter. Why no ketchup or mustard on the table? Other chains nearby are deploying half a dozen different sauces, so this is a strange omission. We both had barbecue sauce which helped those spuds along, but the sweet sugary Jack Daniels reduction with the Jacky didn't work with them and didn't taste of or look anything like what I'd expect of intensified JD. Sweet, pale and sugary? That doesn't sound right, does it?
And it didn't do much for the Jacky. No sauces included meant no added succulence. The Cami had a good chorizo mayonaisse - chorizo jam, I'd say - and some cheese which gave it a bit of interest, but no mayo, no ketchup and none on the table.
3 Dessert
If you never try you never know, so how about a blast from the very, very colourful past. Stone me, it's a banana split!
And look at the those ice-creams. Stoned is about right if that's a real aura that dessert is emitting. Maybe an iphone just can't cope with the colour contrast. A vision of soft-focus 70s colour discoordination, maybe this Banana Split was designed by those Banana Splits. Plastic flamingo pink meets English mustard yellow meets chocolate brown...chocolate. If you weren't around in the 70s, this is one way you managed, to quote someone who definitely was, to get lucky.
Unencumbered by strength of flavours or evidence of artesan products, this is perhaps the only dessert in the 28xxx postcode enhanced by megasplodges of spraycream. It's food time travel. Every mouthful says 1973.
4 AOB?
Not, thankfully Any Old Beer. Pleasingly, it's the excellent La Virgin both draught and bottled. It's really good stuff, with a distinct extra bite over most others that come in red or green bottles and cans.
5 Matters Arising
So, just before we go, here are the main points again.
The burgers can be OK. The tables need sauces. The beer choice is excellent. The starter we had was dull. The dessert was like an explosion in a food colourant factory. The bill was €20 each which is not cheap for the quality on offer.
6 Action Points for the future
Go somewhere else next time.
And that's it.
Except to add that she'd not offered to quit when they walked out.
Well done you, madam, whoever you are.
