Tell Me What Happened
Pro Feels entirely authentic.
Con You might have to work at getting a table. Also probably authentic!
Pay
€€
Per Person €20: five shared dishes, four beers between three of us.
Find
Website Not on the net, as such. Phone to book.
Access Typical small step from the street.
In Short
Hopes. Word of mouth to live up to.
Reality. Broadly successful.
First Impressions. It's 1973. Phone James Blunt. Well, OK, you don't have to.
USP? Non-poshed up Lebanese food.
The offer in three words. Bustling, tasty, unfussy.
Service! One incredibly industrious server for most of our visit.
Friend friendly? This cuisine is inherently adaptable.
Rating for dating. An experience with talking points. So a goer, probably.
Tip? Small one.
Change one thing? Juicier chicken.
Revisitability. Good.
In Pictures
On Google Images
What's the story?
Blessed with spectacularly good word of mouth,there are discoveries to be made at Yunie, although a bit more polish in places would work, too.
Out first attempt at a visit before Xmas 2018 failed epically. We failed to book, which is one thing. But we also failed to realise there'd be a queue outside the door 15 minutes before opening time. So we popped up the road, and found the worst caña I've ever had. And someone else got in ahead of us and grabbed the only table not booked up. We skulked off for a Mexican, vowing to return.
And return, we did. Armed with a reservation and determined not to be late. But even five minutes after opening time, half the tables were occupied and there was enthusiastic noshing ongoing.
Start with the decor. Don't ever change. It's still your grandmother's Spain. Cream and brown formica. A bar complete with a glass-surrounded cooking area and hatch for plates to be dispatched through (not in use, sadly). Four-seat booths in corners, designed for people rather less amply proportioned than 21st century humans. It's true. People were smaller, even in the relatively recent Spanish past.
For food, you're looking at 20 or so classic levantine dishes. Taking an old hand with us today, we had a guide when it came to recommendations, so here we jolly well go.
Foul - rhyming with pool. And you'd be a foulish not to order it. A great warm beany salady stewy thing, it was new to us and very enjoyable. As filling as you'd expect of a bean dish. When it comes to traditional Lebanese cooking, this felt like taking its pulse. Ahem. Onward.
A delish - as the young hip hap'nin' are want to say - smoked aubergine was maybe the highlight of the evening. An impressively natural smoky flavour, this was brilliant and the kind of thing you hoover down with the excuse that you're rechecking it really is as aromatic as you thought. And it is. It's as smoky as a jazz club next to a kipper factory. As a dish component, this could - should - be on Michelin menus. A great alternative to hummus, which, natch, is on the menu.
The tabouleh was, we were informed the real deal, too. Full-on parsley salad, garnished with lots of tomato and lemon juice. A light palate cleanser/ starter, I loved it. But you have to like your greens.
An unexpected sight on the menu - chips with two sauces. Entirely industrial deep fried frozen fries popped up, with equally mass produced squeezy bottled sauces splodged about on top and around. Perhaps it's a taste of downtown Beirut as pictured around the walls. Not something you can easily find fault with, and, amusingly, entirely in keeping with the Cuéntame Comó Pasó decor, but there's not much to review, that said.
Shawarma was a tasty and filling choice, although we would rather our chicken was juicier and cooked to order rather than carved from a giant kebab thing. But for the price, we can appreciate what you get. Flavours good, then, but occasional hard - i.e. dry - flakes were not so successful, even if they're part of the cooking process.
We didn't do dessert today. Service was spectacular, with one server coping single-handed for 90 minutes with a dozen or so tables, with a rapid customer turnover. She still found time to ask if we'd enjoyed it, and did so with a smile. And smiles are not common in service in Madrid.
People from every background possible in this fairly posh area, came in for takeaways. One bloke looked like he might have parked his lorry round the corner, and the way he wolfed down a whole shawarma suggested he'd not paid at the meter. Two mums gossiped next to their toddler's carts. A smartly dressed foursome squeezed themselves into the booth next to ours. Restaurant, bar or diner? It's all of them at once. Don't expect a quiet hushed tone. It's closer to a classic English greasy spoon than anywhere else I can think of in Madrid, just with Mint tea not PG Tips.
Worth a visit for the value food and terrific service, don't go expecting a gourmet event, but an unexpected slice of the pleasingly multicultural life to be found in Moncloa of an evening.
Pro Feels entirely authentic.
Con You might have to work at getting a table. Also probably authentic!
Pay
€€
Per Person €20: five shared dishes, four beers between three of us.
Find
Website Not on the net, as such. Phone to book.
Access Typical small step from the street.
In Short
Hopes. Word of mouth to live up to.
Reality. Broadly successful.
First Impressions. It's 1973. Phone James Blunt. Well, OK, you don't have to.
USP? Non-poshed up Lebanese food.
The offer in three words. Bustling, tasty, unfussy.
Service! One incredibly industrious server for most of our visit.
Friend friendly? This cuisine is inherently adaptable.
Rating for dating. An experience with talking points. So a goer, probably.
Tip? Small one.
Change one thing? Juicier chicken.
Revisitability. Good.
In Pictures
On Google Images
What's the story?
Blessed with spectacularly good word of mouth,there are discoveries to be made at Yunie, although a bit more polish in places would work, too.
Out first attempt at a visit before Xmas 2018 failed epically. We failed to book, which is one thing. But we also failed to realise there'd be a queue outside the door 15 minutes before opening time. So we popped up the road, and found the worst caña I've ever had. And someone else got in ahead of us and grabbed the only table not booked up. We skulked off for a Mexican, vowing to return.
And return, we did. Armed with a reservation and determined not to be late. But even five minutes after opening time, half the tables were occupied and there was enthusiastic noshing ongoing.
Start with the decor. Don't ever change. It's still your grandmother's Spain. Cream and brown formica. A bar complete with a glass-surrounded cooking area and hatch for plates to be dispatched through (not in use, sadly). Four-seat booths in corners, designed for people rather less amply proportioned than 21st century humans. It's true. People were smaller, even in the relatively recent Spanish past.
For food, you're looking at 20 or so classic levantine dishes. Taking an old hand with us today, we had a guide when it came to recommendations, so here we jolly well go.
A delish - as the young hip hap'nin' are want to say - smoked aubergine was maybe the highlight of the evening. An impressively natural smoky flavour, this was brilliant and the kind of thing you hoover down with the excuse that you're rechecking it really is as aromatic as you thought. And it is. It's as smoky as a jazz club next to a kipper factory. As a dish component, this could - should - be on Michelin menus. A great alternative to hummus, which, natch, is on the menu.
The tabouleh was, we were informed the real deal, too. Full-on parsley salad, garnished with lots of tomato and lemon juice. A light palate cleanser/ starter, I loved it. But you have to like your greens.
An unexpected sight on the menu - chips with two sauces. Entirely industrial deep fried frozen fries popped up, with equally mass produced squeezy bottled sauces splodged about on top and around. Perhaps it's a taste of downtown Beirut as pictured around the walls. Not something you can easily find fault with, and, amusingly, entirely in keeping with the Cuéntame Comó Pasó decor, but there's not much to review, that said.
We didn't do dessert today. Service was spectacular, with one server coping single-handed for 90 minutes with a dozen or so tables, with a rapid customer turnover. She still found time to ask if we'd enjoyed it, and did so with a smile. And smiles are not common in service in Madrid.
People from every background possible in this fairly posh area, came in for takeaways. One bloke looked like he might have parked his lorry round the corner, and the way he wolfed down a whole shawarma suggested he'd not paid at the meter. Two mums gossiped next to their toddler's carts. A smartly dressed foursome squeezed themselves into the booth next to ours. Restaurant, bar or diner? It's all of them at once. Don't expect a quiet hushed tone. It's closer to a classic English greasy spoon than anywhere else I can think of in Madrid, just with Mint tea not PG Tips.
Worth a visit for the value food and terrific service, don't go expecting a gourmet event, but an unexpected slice of the pleasingly multicultural life to be found in Moncloa of an evening.