Subterranean Roast We'd Choose
Pro Huge portions and quality ingredients.
Con If you're aiming for the cellar, take a cardigan.
Find
Navalcarnero
39km from Madrid on the Carretera de Extremadura.
Bus 528 from Principe Pio, Darsena/Stop 03, in travel zone C1.
Recommended visitor stop: Centro de Interpretación, Calle San Jose.
Restaurante Las Cuevas del Carnero
Website http://www.lascuevasdelcarnero.com/
Access Steps everywhere, but access to dining room is doable with help. Access to cellar is 20+ steps down.
In Short
Hopes. Authentic lunch.
Reality. Authentic lunch about 4 metres underground. That's a first.
First Impressions. There's a huge stuffed sheep in the bar. And that's not a joke.
USP? Dinner in a wine cellar.
The offer in three words. Go home full.
Service! One waiter handling a dozen tables. Impressive stuff.
Friend friendly? You'll be eating tomatoes and salad.
Rating for dating. Good, if it fits the diets of the diners and you're OK with slightly enclosed spaces.
Tip? 5%
Change one thing? Give the waiter a bit of help!
Revisitability. Good, for the food quality.
Compare & Contrast
Classic dishes out of town at Casa Maruja to the NW and Ración de Xer in the North.
In Pictures
At Google Images.
What's the story?
If you're after a different day out, maybe Navalcarnero will suit you. Far enough from the city to feel like an independent town, near enough for a half-day excursion and be back in time for tea,
Recommended is the excellent Centro de Interpretación in Calle San Jose, which sums up the town (which has grown from a population of 5,000 to 40,000 in 50 years) excellently and gets you a rewarding visit to a well restored wine cellar.
It's an entirely trad menu, too. Meats, fish, starters - your Madrileña flatmate's granny is still making this stuff on Sunday mornings for family lunch. It may look like the food equivalent of a golden oldies radio station, but this is Spain. The culinary equivalents of Cilla Black, Bob Dylan or Herman's Hermits - look, ask your granny! - may not be cutting edge, but they're still on many restaurant playlists. And did we mention whoever selected the soundtrack had chosen a compilation of 1960s pop classics to get the point home?
We'd no need of a fireman with an hour glass and a banker wasn't waiting for a trim, as the waiter rushed in, with tomatoes on a tray. So, Tomates aliñados? It's the classic tommy and garlic combination. Excellently seasoned, this plate is enough for three or four, really. We used it through the starters and mains as a salad substitute. Critical info: the tom-toms are room temp so flavours are spot on. And the large wheel of bread works a treat with them.
The chorizo serving's similarly generous. It's fresh, it's tasty. There's no attempt at prettiness at all. This is entirely about the sausage and the bread. Beer is recommended with this, of course. If you like your sausage mild you'll enjoy it immensely.
Main courses today started with a lamb leg (just under €20, so not bad value). Absolutely perfect and top quality - lots and lots of meat on this. You get half a baked potato. That's all. It's enough, though. Be aware the meat is milk-fed, so a leg is a portion for one.
Main two, was an adapted starter. A vast platter of fried favourites, more than enough for one. Those chips needed another 30 seconds in the fryer. Anyway, we took away half the meat products for evening snacking. This does exactly what it says on the menu. Prettiness and faffing are not - on the menu.
Don't get too excited about desserts. Anyone who's been around these parts a while knows they're almost never a priority and finding something homemade is usually as much as you can hope for. Fingers crossed, we went for our old standby.
So it's a giant wodge of Pudding! which, like the starters, is designed possibly for two, possibly to use as a doorstop. That or the chef suspects there's a large, hungry minotaur down here somewhere and isn't taking any chances.
Service, from one server handling probably a dozen tables and about thirty people, was exemplary, efficient and probably exhausting, even with a lift sending the food down.
So you need to be up for traditional food of the old school. The kind of school where writing on paper not slate is still seen as a bit novel. You'd be advised to review the menu in advance if your diet's not omnivorous. But, if poss, you really should have the experience of sitting in a naturally cool wine cellar, eating fresh tomatoes by candlelight and listening to Cilla. Step inside...
Pro Huge portions and quality ingredients.
Con If you're aiming for the cellar, take a cardigan.
Pay €€€€
Per Person €30-35 Beer, Shared starters main, shared dessert, bottle of local red. Gratis: we weren't charged for beers at the bar while waiting for the restaurant to get going.
Find
Navalcarnero
39km from Madrid on the Carretera de Extremadura.
Bus 528 from Principe Pio, Darsena/Stop 03, in travel zone C1.
Recommended visitor stop: Centro de Interpretación, Calle San Jose.
Restaurante Las Cuevas del Carnero
Website http://www.lascuevasdelcarnero.com/
Access Steps everywhere, but access to dining room is doable with help. Access to cellar is 20+ steps down.
In Short
Hopes. Authentic lunch.
Reality. Authentic lunch about 4 metres underground. That's a first.
First Impressions. There's a huge stuffed sheep in the bar. And that's not a joke.
USP? Dinner in a wine cellar.
The offer in three words. Go home full.
Service! One waiter handling a dozen tables. Impressive stuff.
Friend friendly? You'll be eating tomatoes and salad.
Rating for dating. Good, if it fits the diets of the diners and you're OK with slightly enclosed spaces.
Tip? 5%
Change one thing? Give the waiter a bit of help!
Revisitability. Good, for the food quality.
Compare & Contrast
Classic dishes out of town at Casa Maruja to the NW and Ración de Xer in the North.
In Pictures
At Google Images.
What's the story?
If you're after a different day out, maybe Navalcarnero will suit you. Far enough from the city to feel like an independent town, near enough for a half-day excursion and be back in time for tea,
Recommended is the excellent Centro de Interpretación in Calle San Jose, which sums up the town (which has grown from a population of 5,000 to 40,000 in 50 years) excellently and gets you a rewarding visit to a well restored wine cellar.
Lunch? Well, if you've not planned ahead, be looking for a booking by 1.30. We plumped for the attractive exterior of Las Cuevas del Carnero, just off Plaza Segovia. Arrive in good time. Watch out for the ancient phone and, eye-opener alert, some unusual chandeliers in the bar. The rather gruff barman will direct you to the incredibly aimiable head waiter. Tables are arranged in trad dining rooms with real fires, even in April and, get ready, down in the labyrinth that is the wine cellar. No need to start unravelling your jumper (if you're sensitive to chilliness you might want to have one handy, mind), but it's a special experience descending into the ground, trying not to whack your head on an arch and wondering where the spiders are.
We'd no need of a fireman with an hour glass and a banker wasn't waiting for a trim, as the waiter rushed in, with tomatoes on a tray. So, Tomates aliñados? It's the classic tommy and garlic combination. Excellently seasoned, this plate is enough for three or four, really. We used it through the starters and mains as a salad substitute. Critical info: the tom-toms are room temp so flavours are spot on. And the large wheel of bread works a treat with them.
The chorizo serving's similarly generous. It's fresh, it's tasty. There's no attempt at prettiness at all. This is entirely about the sausage and the bread. Beer is recommended with this, of course. If you like your sausage mild you'll enjoy it immensely.
Main courses today started with a lamb leg (just under €20, so not bad value). Absolutely perfect and top quality - lots and lots of meat on this. You get half a baked potato. That's all. It's enough, though. Be aware the meat is milk-fed, so a leg is a portion for one.
Don't get too excited about desserts. Anyone who's been around these parts a while knows they're almost never a priority and finding something homemade is usually as much as you can hope for. Fingers crossed, we went for our old standby.
Service, from one server handling probably a dozen tables and about thirty people, was exemplary, efficient and probably exhausting, even with a lift sending the food down.
So you need to be up for traditional food of the old school. The kind of school where writing on paper not slate is still seen as a bit novel. You'd be advised to review the menu in advance if your diet's not omnivorous. But, if poss, you really should have the experience of sitting in a naturally cool wine cellar, eating fresh tomatoes by candlelight and listening to Cilla. Step inside...