Great Shakes?
Pro Top notch grilled chicken burger.
Con Bacon and cheese fries disaster.
Pay
€€
Per Person €20 ish. Shared: 3 beers, tequeños. Solo: burger. Gratis: Nada.
Find
Website https://www.anauco.es/
ℹ️ Dietary Info Limited info on menu.
Access Step free throughout, we think.
In Short
Hopes. Quick, distinctive lunch on busy day.
Reality. Not that quick, fairly distinctive.
First Impressions. We had to wait, ignored, 5 minutes or more for a table. And it wasn't full.
USP? Bespoke burger range.TM
The offer in three words. Nearly quite good.
Service! One hard-worked bloke doing all the tables.
Friend friendly? Non-meat burger on offer.
Rating for dating. I don't know. Would an invite to a burger bar do it for you?
Tip? Nope.
Change one thing? Those bacon and cheese fries.
Revisitability. Low.
HM's Burger & Pizza Map
In Pictures
On Google Images
What's the story?
You'll eat pretty well at Anuaco, but you're unlikely to see reasons to rush back, when you can choose any one of the dozens of competitors around.
Starters? Madrid is overrun now with tequeños.Well not literally (yet), but give it time. How about Alien VI: The Tequeño Invasion, Ridley? Anyway, at least Venezuelan food's getting a foothold in the wider world. The six plumptious beasties at Anauco were excellent. We'd be astounded if they were homemade, but perfectly fried (which takes more concentration than it's given credit for), the creamy herby dipping sauce was exactly right condiment. Sweet and sour's on offer, but that didn't feel tequeño-right. Very good indeed.
And so to burgers. Like all self-respecting bespoke burger chains, Anauco wants you to choose your protein; ternera/veal, chicken (grilled or "crunchy"), pulled pork or falafel - which is a decent range to be going on with. I do wonder how pulled pork works with all the garnish combinations, mind.
My biggest mistake? Well, aside from turning down Spielberg's offer to play young Indiana Jones, it's undoubtedly the supposed bacon and cheese topping on the fries I ordered here. Not least because, and this is rarer than it should be, the chips are first class. Kitchen cut, fried skin-on, they were great, although they did need more seasoning. Unfortunately, we both opted to add bacon and cheese to them. This sounded suitably comforting on a chilly day but was about as successful as squeezing ketchup on cocido or Branston pickle on a banana. The bacon wasn't crispy. The cheese didn't deserve the name. I can't think of a publishable name for it. Cheese from a tube? I've seen it in Scandinavia, but now I know why I've never felt bad about not buying it.
But, gosh, there's still good news. The burgers look like the photos in the menu. Well done there, chef. (Do we need a new job title, there? Burgerista maybe?). A little bucket of heinz sachets show solid if unambitious saucing sense. Finger wipe towels are a nice detail, although we'd prefer a lemon water finger bowl. It's the greener way to go.
In the end though, the logistics took the shine off. One server and one person doing drinks was just about enough, but the tone was functional not friendly. We didn't get eye contact while we were waiting, let alone a word on when they'd be ready for us. Beers - La Virgen in bottles, there was no draught available for some reason - did come in good time, we should say. The eating space is clinical and impersonal. More sound deadening would help, and fixing the broken lights on the eye-catching wall logo would look like someone cared. Some sort of partition to give a hint of privacy for tables in the centre of the room would make the space feel much less boxy.
Mind you, things livened up when Anauco offered us a genuine first with its mysterious, magic vibrating table! See a plastic pot plant get vibromassaged below.
We eventually worked out it wasn't the metro underneath or a poltergeist manifesting from the Madrid branch of Ghostbusters. No, it was all down to a mysterious, vibrating wall. We ask no further questions. Imaginations, it's all yours.
Anyway, the shortage of tangible energy in the staff wasn't made up for by unfathomable kinetic energy in the architecture, and left us with no passion to bother with what looked like standard-dessert-central material. I wanted to go home for a banana. As you do. So there's some income lost, Anauco. Sorry.
Walking up Calle Reina afterwards, we saw another chain we've had good experiences with. And I reckon we'll go there next time.
Food ★★★ Environs ★★ Service ★★★
Pro Top notch grilled chicken burger.
Con Bacon and cheese fries disaster.
Pay
€€
Per Person €20 ish. Shared: 3 beers, tequeños. Solo: burger. Gratis: Nada.
Find
Website https://www.anauco.es/
ℹ️ Dietary Info Limited info on menu.
Access Step free throughout, we think.
In Short
Hopes. Quick, distinctive lunch on busy day.
Reality. Not that quick, fairly distinctive.
First Impressions. We had to wait, ignored, 5 minutes or more for a table. And it wasn't full.
USP? Bespoke burger range.TM
The offer in three words. Nearly quite good.
Service! One hard-worked bloke doing all the tables.
Friend friendly? Non-meat burger on offer.
Rating for dating. I don't know. Would an invite to a burger bar do it for you?
Tip? Nope.
Change one thing? Those bacon and cheese fries.
Revisitability. Low.
In Pictures
On Google Images
What's the story?
You'll eat pretty well at Anuaco, but you're unlikely to see reasons to rush back, when you can choose any one of the dozens of competitors around.
And so to burgers. Like all self-respecting bespoke burger chains, Anauco wants you to choose your protein; ternera/veal, chicken (grilled or "crunchy"), pulled pork or falafel - which is a decent range to be going on with. I do wonder how pulled pork works with all the garnish combinations, mind.
We tried a customised Cheeseburger and grilled chicken Tentacion. Both came exactly as asked for, cooking wise. The red meat had a hint of pink, but nothing to make the nervous more nervous. The juicy grilled chicken breast, accompanied in the Tentacion by brie, bacon, caramelised onions plus the usual red and green salady suspects was very enjoyable indeed, and obviously nicely lighter than beef. The advertised honey mustard sauce was hard to spot, though, with ultimately too many ingredients begging for a touch of attention to give a reason for them to exist. Twitter in food form, almost. And yes, I'm casting the caramelised onion as the more-is-less, over-energised, look-at-me influencer.
My biggest mistake? Well, aside from turning down Spielberg's offer to play young Indiana Jones, it's undoubtedly the supposed bacon and cheese topping on the fries I ordered here. Not least because, and this is rarer than it should be, the chips are first class. Kitchen cut, fried skin-on, they were great, although they did need more seasoning. Unfortunately, we both opted to add bacon and cheese to them. This sounded suitably comforting on a chilly day but was about as successful as squeezing ketchup on cocido or Branston pickle on a banana. The bacon wasn't crispy. The cheese didn't deserve the name. I can't think of a publishable name for it. Cheese from a tube? I've seen it in Scandinavia, but now I know why I've never felt bad about not buying it.
But, gosh, there's still good news. The burgers look like the photos in the menu. Well done there, chef. (Do we need a new job title, there? Burgerista maybe?). A little bucket of heinz sachets show solid if unambitious saucing sense. Finger wipe towels are a nice detail, although we'd prefer a lemon water finger bowl. It's the greener way to go.
In the end though, the logistics took the shine off. One server and one person doing drinks was just about enough, but the tone was functional not friendly. We didn't get eye contact while we were waiting, let alone a word on when they'd be ready for us. Beers - La Virgen in bottles, there was no draught available for some reason - did come in good time, we should say. The eating space is clinical and impersonal. More sound deadening would help, and fixing the broken lights on the eye-catching wall logo would look like someone cared. Some sort of partition to give a hint of privacy for tables in the centre of the room would make the space feel much less boxy.
Mind you, things livened up when Anauco offered us a genuine first with its mysterious, magic vibrating table! See a plastic pot plant get vibromassaged below.
Anyway, the shortage of tangible energy in the staff wasn't made up for by unfathomable kinetic energy in the architecture, and left us with no passion to bother with what looked like standard-dessert-central material. I wanted to go home for a banana. As you do. So there's some income lost, Anauco. Sorry.
Walking up Calle Reina afterwards, we saw another chain we've had good experiences with. And I reckon we'll go there next time.
Food ★★★ Environs ★★ Service ★★★