Coffee Safari | Quevedo - Moncloa
The HM Coffee Map
Two reliable coffee locations within a short walk. And one to avoid.
Thousand Cups
1000 Cups at Quevedo is now closed.
A busy spot on a weekday morning, with an impressively varied customer profile, from gileted Skypers, via Auxiliaries sharing their Spanish homework to gossiping grandparents. There are bookshelves, sofas and a Quotidien-style long table out front, with stools, and smaller tables as you go deeper inside.
Coffee is very satisfying, with fresh milk cartons in evidence behind the counter. Water's not delivered with it. Bakery products are good, with a smart-looking Napolitana and a smallish croissant, planchaed and delivered almost instantly. Traditional plastic tubbed butter and apricot jam may divide the crowd, though.
Service is efficient and respectful ("we forgot to write down what you ordered, so could you tell me what to put on your bill?"), with great awareness from our server who checked to see if she had what I wanted, and sought me out to give the thumbs up.
Pricing is not dramatically more than you'd expect in Manolo's Bar (see Mirm's Law), but the quality of ingredients, including fresh milk detected by HK's dairy antennae*, justify it.
A pleasing - and unexpected - mix of classic and modern Madrid sensibilities, we think it's worth a visit.
Coffee 👍👍👍👍
Bakery 👍👍👍👍
Comfort 👍👍👍
Service 👍👍👍👍👍
*We wish to make clear that HK is not some kind of cattle-insectoid hybrid. As. Far. As. We. Knnnnnow.
Toast Cafe
Coffee and shared cake €3.50 to €4
http://www.thetoastcafe.es/
Once one of two Toasts (The erstwhile Toast tavern is no more. It's, well, toast. Ahem. Anyway...) to be found on this corner, space is ample, with a dining room-type set up with proper solid furniture, which looks like it been attacked by a man with an industrial sander and an unhealthy love of paint stripper. Lighting is a gentle yellow. The walls are amply decorated with multiple picture frames. Yes, frames. Empty ones. I suppose you have to fill them with your imagination. Ooh, that's clever. Not going to work at Prado, but the Reine Sofia might go for it.
Pleasingly unbusy when we turned up after three on a Friday, a friendly waiter quickly informed us the milk offer was either full fat or avellana/hazulnut. Useful info. Two con leches weren't frothed, tasted fresh, but could have been hotter. A tarte tatin tasted commendably home made but didn't need the megasplodge of Madrid-o-cream or drizzly stickiness of caramel gunge. Service wasn't the quickest, but was friendly. Water's not offered by default.
A convenient spot, with space to spread out a bit and do some laptoppage.
Coffee 👍👍👍
Tarte tatin 👍👍👍
Comfort 👍👍👍👍
Service 👍👍👍
Con-Z
Coffee and bakery €2.50 to €2.95
An extremely busy spot on a morning just after Christmas 2018, the service here would make a one legged glacier with gout look like it was rushing for the bus. We ordered at the counter, before various other people were instructed to prepare stuff, after which a different person would deliver it. Result? 25 minutes' wait for croissant and coffee, which should take 30 seconds to 2 minutes to put in front of me. The quality was completely acceptable, when they finally turned up.
An over-complex system might be OK, if organised well. Or, indeed, at all. It's run like six attention-deficient squirrels set up a dried fruit takeaway. It is, simply, nuts. One guy spent 20 minutes, statue like, behind the counter getting in the way four who were rushing about so haphazardly they were, in the end, doing the work of two. Staff wandered with trays, shouting random customer names as tables of people stared hopelessly, like humans expecting aliens to emerge from a bright light in a forest. On time arrival of an order being a far less likely scenario.
We were, in effect, trapped. Walking out only hurts when it costs and the system had, wisely, relieved us of our cash. Perhaps I should praise the charge-prepare-deliver nexus that leads to a perfect causal feedback loop. Less reason to serve quickly, more faff in delivering, less work to do. But, hang on. Less work. Fewer customers. Unemployment. Oh.
Perhaps it's fine if it's not busy. We won't be back to find out. Which I suspect you twigged about 120 words ago.
Coffee 👍👍👍
Breakfast 👍👍
Comfort 👍👍
Service Z by name, Z by nature.
The HM Coffee Map
Two reliable coffee locations within a short walk. And one to avoid.
Thousand Cups
1000 Cups at Quevedo is now closed.
Website remains open. https://1000cupscafe.com/
A busy spot on a weekday morning, with an impressively varied customer profile, from gileted Skypers, via Auxiliaries sharing their Spanish homework to gossiping grandparents. There are bookshelves, sofas and a Quotidien-style long table out front, with stools, and smaller tables as you go deeper inside.
Coffee is very satisfying, with fresh milk cartons in evidence behind the counter. Water's not delivered with it. Bakery products are good, with a smart-looking Napolitana and a smallish croissant, planchaed and delivered almost instantly. Traditional plastic tubbed butter and apricot jam may divide the crowd, though.
Service is efficient and respectful ("we forgot to write down what you ordered, so could you tell me what to put on your bill?"), with great awareness from our server who checked to see if she had what I wanted, and sought me out to give the thumbs up.
Pricing is not dramatically more than you'd expect in Manolo's Bar (see Mirm's Law), but the quality of ingredients, including fresh milk detected by HK's dairy antennae*, justify it.
A pleasing - and unexpected - mix of classic and modern Madrid sensibilities, we think it's worth a visit.
Coffee 👍👍👍👍
Bakery 👍👍👍👍
Comfort 👍👍👍
Service 👍👍👍👍👍
*We wish to make clear that HK is not some kind of cattle-insectoid hybrid. As. Far. As. We. Knnnnnow.
Toast Cafe
Coffee and shared cake €3.50 to €4
http://www.thetoastcafe.es/
Once one of two Toasts (The erstwhile Toast tavern is no more. It's, well, toast. Ahem. Anyway...) to be found on this corner, space is ample, with a dining room-type set up with proper solid furniture, which looks like it been attacked by a man with an industrial sander and an unhealthy love of paint stripper. Lighting is a gentle yellow. The walls are amply decorated with multiple picture frames. Yes, frames. Empty ones. I suppose you have to fill them with your imagination. Ooh, that's clever. Not going to work at Prado, but the Reine Sofia might go for it.
Pleasingly unbusy when we turned up after three on a Friday, a friendly waiter quickly informed us the milk offer was either full fat or avellana/hazulnut. Useful info. Two con leches weren't frothed, tasted fresh, but could have been hotter. A tarte tatin tasted commendably home made but didn't need the megasplodge of Madrid-o-cream or drizzly stickiness of caramel gunge. Service wasn't the quickest, but was friendly. Water's not offered by default.
A convenient spot, with space to spread out a bit and do some laptoppage.
Coffee 👍👍👍
Tarte tatin 👍👍👍
Comfort 👍👍👍👍
Service 👍👍👍
Con-Z
Coffee and bakery €2.50 to €2.95
An extremely busy spot on a morning just after Christmas 2018, the service here would make a one legged glacier with gout look like it was rushing for the bus. We ordered at the counter, before various other people were instructed to prepare stuff, after which a different person would deliver it. Result? 25 minutes' wait for croissant and coffee, which should take 30 seconds to 2 minutes to put in front of me. The quality was completely acceptable, when they finally turned up.
An over-complex system might be OK, if organised well. Or, indeed, at all. It's run like six attention-deficient squirrels set up a dried fruit takeaway. It is, simply, nuts. One guy spent 20 minutes, statue like, behind the counter getting in the way four who were rushing about so haphazardly they were, in the end, doing the work of two. Staff wandered with trays, shouting random customer names as tables of people stared hopelessly, like humans expecting aliens to emerge from a bright light in a forest. On time arrival of an order being a far less likely scenario.
We were, in effect, trapped. Walking out only hurts when it costs and the system had, wisely, relieved us of our cash. Perhaps I should praise the charge-prepare-deliver nexus that leads to a perfect causal feedback loop. Less reason to serve quickly, more faff in delivering, less work to do. But, hang on. Less work. Fewer customers. Unemployment. Oh.
Perhaps it's fine if it's not busy. We won't be back to find out. Which I suspect you twigged about 120 words ago.
Coffee 👍👍👍
Breakfast 👍👍
Comfort 👍👍
Service Z by name, Z by nature.