They can Mexican. Can you?
Pro Creatively modern Mexican.
Con Hard to find fault. Just don't go expecting nachos.
Pay
€€€
Per Person €20-25 2 coronita, shared starter and dessert. Main. El tenedor offers may be available and are worth seeking out for a really good value meal. Gratis: a big fat zero.
Find
Website http://www.santita.es/
🛈 Dietary Info The menu doesn't use iconography.
Access Step free from street and to toilets.
In Short
Hopes. What does a mexican grill do with tacos?
Reality. Pretty wonderful things, to be honest.
First Impressions. Some very smart curvy concrete decor.
USP? Almost an entire menu of flavour combinations we've never tried before.
The offer in three words. Modern Mexican Creativity
Service! Really efficient, good eye-contact.
Friend friendly? Vegetarian and Vegan options on hand.
Rating for dating. Yep. Talking points abound. Decor and ambience suit. It's not noisy.
Tip? 5%
Change one thing? An aperitif with drinks would set the tone perfectly.
Revisitability. Unmissable. Cocktails and half a dozen or more other dishes to try.
Compare & Contrast
Similar quality street food style creativity at La Tentacion, Mercado San Fernando.
In Pictures
On Google Images
What's the story?
And so to the flipside of a restaurant-shaped coin. If you can imagine that. A recent trip rubbed us up the wrong way with how Madrid sometimes takes modern tropes from elsewhere. This time, just down the road, Santita has pretty much blown us away by getting very nearly everything right.
As most of this is going to be pretty positive, shall we kick off with our two bits of ultra-pickiness? Of course we shall. You know a rhetorical question when you read one, don't you?
Good.
So. Madrid has a long tradition of gratis goodness. And it wouldn't cost many pennies to stick a few tasty nutty morsels down with the early drinks. Freebie-free dining is a trend that needs to be reversed. (We have to accept that, on a 30% discount, a restaurant might not offer us a chupito, mind.)
And. I've just been in Canada. Hospitality service in Alberta & British Columbia is an eye-opener. Every order is met with a "Sounds great!" or "Right away!" It doesn't have to be over the top, but it would cost nothing to encourage more conscious customer appreciation. Good news? The service in Santita is really efficient and impressively speedy. Excellent, in fact. So it's only a "Hello, good afternoon!" and a couple of positive comments away from perfect.
Right, curmudgeons; stop reading now. That said, if you like your food eulogised ("It's safer than a microwave, I reckon!"), carry on.
Tostadas de Tinga. These two toasted tortillas made our tonsils tickle thanks to the tasty tinga topping. Some gently spiced chipotle. Nice creamy cheese for balance. I'd have added just a twist of lime juice, but these were easy eating. If you're wondering by the way - they're not finger food. The tortillas cut easily with a knife to load onto your fork. And there's two extra saucey pots on the table to play with, which add some oomph.
Chicken/Pollo Zarandeado was a winner too. A fantastically cooked chicken breast, which I could have sliced with my fork, let alone the steak knife provided. An excellent seasoning rub, Matched with pineapple and onion this was a terrific flavour combination, with or without the four corn tortillas. I wanted my onion more caramelised and less crunchy, but that said, the creativity and ambition means I'll take the chef's idea on merit and say I liked it a lot. Enough to order it again. And hope for the onion to get a bit more grilling time!
Tacos de Cochinita Pibil. One of our set rules is - how does a place handle classic dishes from its home cuisine? Well (feel free to think in a throaty voiceover in the style of a bad film trailer),
Anyway. This was as it should be: falling to bits porky pieces (cooked slow enough and long enough, no pulling is needed - which sounds like advice for something else entirely, but let's move on); juicy. Nice bit of acidity from orange in the pork and those classic vinegary purple onions. Very very good. And yes, like any cochinita, on celluloid or ceramic, it's extremely pretty. It comes with salsa xnipec. Delicious. But the scrabble board from hell.
Worth noting: we did have some doubts about the portion sizes. But we could only share the one dessert. You the jury, the evidence is clear.
Cheesecake. Impressed from the off, sometimes the ultimate test is to see what happens ordering The Double C at the end of a nosh-up. We all know, only too well, how it can turn out;
But blimey, here we go with an excellent handmade-style offer. It's warm, soppy, makes you smile and is, frankly, a bit rough around the edges, like someone knocked it up in their flat. Gromit in dessert form, pretty much.
Aside from canine cuddliness in cakey shape, it's got almond crunch on top and the raspberry sauce sets it off perfectly. It's really delicious and exemplifies our fourth rule in the right way.
You've noticed the stylish plates? Well, the decor is equally smart. This is a place your friends, other half or right swipe will be impressed by, although the design brief's not a million miles away from a certain English school chain that's expanding in central Madrid. Lots of moulded smoothed concretey surfaces, bare wood, stoney cushion colours and well-placed sound absorbing materials turn what could be an echoey space into something pleasingly personal and potentially intimate. It avoids being over designed, which is pretty good as there are enough orangey filament bulbs to start making my corneas quiver.
We're very impressed and will be back for the cocktails and most of the rest of the menu. We think Santita requires a visit if you're after a distinctive take on the M word.
Pro Creatively modern Mexican.
Con Hard to find fault. Just don't go expecting nachos.
Pay
€€€
Per Person €20-25 2 coronita, shared starter and dessert. Main. El tenedor offers may be available and are worth seeking out for a really good value meal. Gratis: a big fat zero.
Find
Website http://www.santita.es/
🛈 Dietary Info The menu doesn't use iconography.
Access Step free from street and to toilets.
In Short
Hopes. What does a mexican grill do with tacos?
Reality. Pretty wonderful things, to be honest.
First Impressions. Some very smart curvy concrete decor.
USP? Almost an entire menu of flavour combinations we've never tried before.
The offer in three words. Modern Mexican Creativity
Service! Really efficient, good eye-contact.
Friend friendly? Vegetarian and Vegan options on hand.
Rating for dating. Yep. Talking points abound. Decor and ambience suit. It's not noisy.
Tip? 5%
Change one thing? An aperitif with drinks would set the tone perfectly.
Revisitability. Unmissable. Cocktails and half a dozen or more other dishes to try.
Compare & Contrast
Similar quality street food style creativity at La Tentacion, Mercado San Fernando.
In Pictures
On Google Images
What's the story?
And so to the flipside of a restaurant-shaped coin. If you can imagine that. A recent trip rubbed us up the wrong way with how Madrid sometimes takes modern tropes from elsewhere. This time, just down the road, Santita has pretty much blown us away by getting very nearly everything right.
As most of this is going to be pretty positive, shall we kick off with our two bits of ultra-pickiness? Of course we shall. You know a rhetorical question when you read one, don't you?
Good.
So. Madrid has a long tradition of gratis goodness. And it wouldn't cost many pennies to stick a few tasty nutty morsels down with the early drinks. Freebie-free dining is a trend that needs to be reversed. (We have to accept that, on a 30% discount, a restaurant might not offer us a chupito, mind.)
And. I've just been in Canada. Hospitality service in Alberta & British Columbia is an eye-opener. Every order is met with a "Sounds great!" or "Right away!" It doesn't have to be over the top, but it would cost nothing to encourage more conscious customer appreciation. Good news? The service in Santita is really efficient and impressively speedy. Excellent, in fact. So it's only a "Hello, good afternoon!" and a couple of positive comments away from perfect.
Right, curmudgeons; stop reading now. That said, if you like your food eulogised ("It's safer than a microwave, I reckon!"), carry on.
Tostadas de Tinga. These two toasted tortillas made our tonsils tickle thanks to the tasty tinga topping. Some gently spiced chipotle. Nice creamy cheese for balance. I'd have added just a twist of lime juice, but these were easy eating. If you're wondering by the way - they're not finger food. The tortillas cut easily with a knife to load onto your fork. And there's two extra saucey pots on the table to play with, which add some oomph.
in a time before pulled pork...there was...Cochinita Pibil.Which, we admit does sound like a feisty female in a Johnny Depp comedy-western movie; "Cochinita Pibil, played by Penelope Cruz..."
Anyway. This was as it should be: falling to bits porky pieces (cooked slow enough and long enough, no pulling is needed - which sounds like advice for something else entirely, but let's move on); juicy. Nice bit of acidity from orange in the pork and those classic vinegary purple onions. Very very good. And yes, like any cochinita, on celluloid or ceramic, it's extremely pretty. It comes with salsa xnipec. Delicious. But the scrabble board from hell.
Worth noting: we did have some doubts about the portion sizes. But we could only share the one dessert. You the jury, the evidence is clear.
Cheesecake. Impressed from the off, sometimes the ultimate test is to see what happens ordering The Double C at the end of a nosh-up. We all know, only too well, how it can turn out;
You've noticed the stylish plates? Well, the decor is equally smart. This is a place your friends, other half or right swipe will be impressed by, although the design brief's not a million miles away from a certain English school chain that's expanding in central Madrid. Lots of moulded smoothed concretey surfaces, bare wood, stoney cushion colours and well-placed sound absorbing materials turn what could be an echoey space into something pleasingly personal and potentially intimate. It avoids being over designed, which is pretty good as there are enough orangey filament bulbs to start making my corneas quiver.
We're very impressed and will be back for the cocktails and most of the rest of the menu. We think Santita requires a visit if you're after a distinctive take on the M word.