La Maruca - Velázquez

Sadly, my camera did not do proper justice of the food served. It was tasty, well-presented and, well, did I mention - tasty. The price was adequate for the food and derive offered. Some of the staff speak fluent English, and they have menus printed in English. The place is modern-elegant, and suitable for both a casual evening out with friends or a more special occasion. The suggested wine was nice but nothing special. Still, I enjoyed it. To sum it up, definitely recommended.

I would recommend making a reservation. When we arrived at 8pm, about half the restaurant was occupied, mostly in the bar area. Because we had a reservation, we were seated immediately. By the time we left, 2 groups were waiting outside. Make sure to check the bill because they double-charged an item on ours, but since we noticed, we got it fixed before paying. Atmosphere: The ambiance was cozy, with dimmed lighting and both indoor and outdoor seating. You enter downstairs to be seated, and the bar is also located on the lower level. The bathrooms are downstairs as well, and the door to enter the bathroom is automated. They were clean and not smelly, though they could be better maintained. Service: Dining at this restaurant is strictly timed, with only 90 minutes allotted per table. Our experience was marred from the start: my cup was dirty and had to be replaced, and my plate also needed wiping. We ordered hot black tea, but instead of loose-leaf, we were each given a pot of hot water with a single packet of standard black tea — the same one you’d get at a casual eatery. While I understand most diners opt for alcohol, the lack of readily available non-alcoholic options felt surprising for a Michelin-starred restaurant. Not all servers spoke English, so the manager had to take our order. Part of the service felt rushed: during the appetizer course, I was still finishing my last bite when my plate was removed to make way for the main course. Food: We were given one basket of bread — not complimentary, as it does get added to the bill. We ordered the Spicy Patatas Bravas, and they were seriously so good. The dish came with three different sauces, and I could’ve eaten a ton of it — too bad there were only eight pieces of potato. The grilled octopus with potato and chorizo purée was also delicious. My partner had the Iberian pork shoulder with mushroom stew. We expected a stew, but it actually came as sliced pork (like a neatly cut steak) with greens and onions on top, and mushrooms with sauce underneath. The mushroom and sauce at the bottom were a bit too salty on their own. The dish also included two small dipping sauces: BBQ and what was probably the mushroom stew, which was also on the salty side & quite oily. Dessert: We tried the Cheesecake and the Lemon Cake. The cheesecake had a lovely texture, was very creamy & soft. But it was excessively sweet — to the point of being cloying, that I couldn’t eat another bite, especially the crust. By that point, we had no tea left to balance it out. There was caramel drizzled underneath, but surprisingly, it wasn't as sweet as the cake itself. (My partner loves sweets, and even he thought it was excessive, so if you're not a dessert-sweet person, this one might not be for you.) The Lemon Cake had a meringue top that wasn’t sweet at all, but the bottom half was, which sort of balances it out. Overall, the food was good, but the dessert was a huge disappointment. We would still consider returning to try the other dishes while skipping dessert. If it weren’t for these small details, and primarily because of the dessert, I would have given this restaurant five stars.

Such a lovely spot in Madrid! La Maruca Velázquez is the perfect place to enjoy time with friends over delicious food. The atmosphere is warm and inviting, with a nice balance of casual and elegant. The food was absolutely delicious, beautifully presented and full of flavor. Every dish felt thoughtfully made, and the dessert was the perfect ending to the evening. Overall, it was a really enjoyable experience — great food, nice ambiance, and the perfect setting to spend quality time with friends. Definitely a restaurant worth visiting in Madrid!

Unfriendly staff and very underwhelming food. We ordered six dishes to share, but not a single one stood out. Everything tasted blended together, as if mashed into variations of the same dish. Creative idea, but it fell flat. Luckily, we had a reservation and didn’t have to wait, but honestly, I don’t understand the hype. Definitely not worth lining up for.

We came to this restaurant during lunch time Saturday without any reservation so but thankfully managed to get seated at the bar. All the food that we ordered were very delicious. The menu was in Spanish so we were served by a brilliant Filipino bartender named Danson, who has been with the restaurant for 11 years and he gave us a EXCELLENT service. The place was packed with locals but still comfortable. All the boxes were ticked but it was the service that really stood out. Will come back when we visit Madrid next time as this restaurant is conveniently located in Salamanca district - around shopping and etc.

I absolutely love this place. I went there once and had to go back to celebrate my birthday. The tortilla and croquettes here are so good, that it’s hard to stop eating. We also ordered the patatas bravas, rabas, pluma ibérica and they were all amazing too. I highly recommend this place. The atmosphere is very nice and the service is very good too. I also recommend to book a table as it always gets full!

It was a great experience, we havent taste main dishes but salads starters and hot starters was perfect. Salads and sauces was amazing you have to try chicken and tomato salad, asidity level was great. Cheesecake has to be ordered as desert

Exquisite! Had the best cheese cake in my life. The codfish bunuelos were divine. The octopus was good. The solomillo was excellent.

Food is awesome, do not miss : the tortilla , the pulpo nor the pluma ibérica and the tarta se queso !!!

It's a beautiful restaurant in the heart of fancy shopping district of Madrid. Just make sure they don't sit you downstairs which is not very pretty. We sat by the outdoor patio in the middle of August and there's a nice breeze so it was not too hot. The dishes were well made and creative. The only one I didn't care for was the fried squid which was not seasoned and tasted very bland. The service is typical of European culture, "ask then you shall receive or I will not come by and bother you".

Had an absolutely AMAZING experience at La Maruca yesterday. It is my first time visiting Spain and my friends brought me here to try some classic Spanish dishes. We were able to walk in for lunch which was great considering this is such a nice and busy restaurant The food and drinks were absolutely amazing. I would recommend getting a tinto de verano (classic Spanish drink made with red wine and fruit juice) to drink. The burrata salad was delicious and croquettes are something you must try. The restaurant is two floors and there is a covered outdoor terrace as well. The downstairs lighting is great for taking photos of the food. We sat on the lower level. The vibe for lunch is upscale casual. I can not recommend this restaurant enough!

Horrible experiencia..desde que llegas y te dicen que tienes la mesa por 1.5 horas y te tienes que ir. Lugar totalmente abarrotado sin el personal suficiente para atender. Nos sentaron en la sala VIP y rara vez vinieron a atendernos. Hicimos nuestro pedido de entradas y principales y todos los platos fueron servidos al mismo tiempo de una manera burda y muy poco educada. La retirada de los platos fue otro acto de terror poniendo platos sobre platos haciendo fuertes ruidos. Eramos 10 personas . Ademas pienso que es imposible atender correctamente una cena para 10 en 1 hora y media.

As vegetarians, our meal was amazing. The highlights: - The mushroom tortilla - The cheese and tomato salad - The cheese and honey flan Simple ingredients prepared extremely deliciously. The interior is lovely and worth a visit but on a beautiful day, sit outside if you can! The overhand shields from the sun. Excellent people watching and service.

Wow. Amazing. Easily the best meal I had in Madrid. Almost lost a star for the server who took our drink order and brought water. Not sure what the attitude was for, but the other servers made up for it, and the experience merits a five star reviews. Started with the roasted peppers, which were great. It could have been an entree, it was so much, but it would be good for sharing. Awesome flavor - a great grilled flavor with the peppers. My main was the Hake with red sauce, clams, and shrimp. Super awesome. I usually don't order fish, but my colleagues were having fish and I went for it. Wonderful atmosphere, busy place, terrific food- again, the best I had in Madrid. Make a reservation and go.

We went to dinner and found everything to be overrated. The waiter couldn't explain the dishes and didn't know what scotch was. He took the food order and never came back. The fish dishes was very greasy and broken up with bones. Not tasty unable to eat it. The pasta and the meatballs were not great . I would stay away from this expensive but not good restaurant . On top of this we were rushed . Overall not recommend to anyone. I give a two only for the nice food runner who helped us.

We came here on a friends recommendation and I am glad we did. This was without a doubt my favorite meal in Madrid. It is located in a pretty upscale neighborhood, but the prices are very reasonable. This place was busy, but they were able to get us a table with about a half hour wait. The wait we well worth it. Everything that we saw coming out of the kitchen looked delicious. After some debate about what appetizer to get we decided to skip the appetizer and just get an extra entree. My wife had a fish dish that I don't recall, but I do remember that it tasted great. Other tables around us had ordered the baked pasta dish with a bolognese sauce that just looked so good we had to order it to share. It was really quite delicious and left my mouth wanting more. I ordered the roasted glazed lamb and it was simply amazing. I made sure to get every bit of that sauce. We normally skip the dessert at restaurants and go someplace different for that treat, but the food was so good here dessert was essential even though I was stuffed. I am a big fan of lemon meringue, so that is what I decided on. It did not disappoint as it was a perfect ending to a great meal.

I had a wonderful experience here. We made a reservation to come here for a special celebration and it was good that we did. It fills up quickly and we were lucky enough to get a table last minute. The interior decoration is very chic and modern. The restaurant itself is much bigger than it looks, covering too large floors. The decor is a bit eccentric, but very nice. The chairs at the tables are not your average dining chairs, instead they are these designer, egg-like chairs. They're surprisingly comfortable. The waitstaff was attentive and very friendly, even though not everyone spoke English very well. We were sitting in view of the kitchen doors and I could tell that this place runs like a well oiled machine. There were lots of people working and everyone seemed to have a specific role, which they performed seamlessly. I was very impressed. As for the food, well... it was phenomenal. I ordered the Poached Eggs with Truffled Purée and Mushrooms and was completely blown away. It seemed like a small portion at first, but the dish was so incredibly rich that I couldn't have eaten another bite (since I wanted to try their dessert too). The purée, whatever it was made from, was smooth as silk and the egg was poached to perfection. The taste had the perfect balance of truffle, not overpowering, but still strong enough to really taste it. I wanted to savor every bite. My companions were equally happy with their dishes and we finished off the meal with a large slice of their Lemon Pie. It's more of a lemon meringue pie, but with a top layer (as thick as the pie slice) of meringue. It was superb! I have to mention how outrageously well priced everything was, because I was a bit surprised. It's a gourmet meal at bargain prices. I would recommend this place highly to anyone visiting Madrid!

My real rating is somewhere between 3 and 4. Atmosphere: 4.5 Music: 4.5 Food: 4.5 Service: 2 Wine and Spirits: 2 We found the patatas bravas and the short rib to be delicious. Both were unique and demonstrated a great deal of skill and experience in their execution. The environment is very relaxed yet upscale, with one part feeling like a living room and the rest modern minimalist but displaying a very cool graphic of silhouettes extending the length of the space. The music was perfect--the only improvement would be for there to be a live musician, maybe a pianist or jazz guitarist based on the style of music they chose. The real problems were the following: First, they had a full bar yet were completely incompetent when it came to utilizing it. They claimed they didn't know how to make any cocktail except a mojito. I proceeded to try to tell them how to make a very simple cocktail, and they sent someone from the bar to our table who set up a little table and proceeded to completely butcher it. (This of course was a very expensive process and ended up being one of the worst cocktails i've ever had--it was reminiscent of freshman year of college). Second, the overall service is astonishingly bad. They don't have you taste your wine before doing the full pours, they come abruptly and grab the plates from you without asking if you're finished and even after indicating you aren't finished they still proceeded to pull them away from me, making me feel like a beggar or something lol... There is no manager in sight, and the whole time our waiter was walking around aimlessly, appearing to be texting on his phone openly for everyone to see. He didn't look up ever, so we had to flag him down any time we needed attention. Overall, I would go back, I just would hope to see better service and I'd bring with me a precise recipe for the bartender to try to follow to make a proper drink at their beautiful bar that has completely gone to waste.

This place was so delicious. The decor and ambience was upbeat and classy. I loved the beef croquettes, salmon tartare, patatas bravas, and grilled octopus. The quality of these items were phenomenal! I highly recommend coming here if you're ever in Madrid. Keep in mind you should try to make a reservation if you're coming after 9pm because it gets busy.

Chic looking space, service was fine, food presentation was good, however, the food was very mediocre. Given the price level in this neighborhood perhaps not surprising. The fried squid was the most expensive on that side of the menu, and it came out as street food, which was a bit shocking. ( or maybe just way we eat, that's normally a street food type) While sometimes you over pay, but around areas like this in Madrid, so we got what we paid for I guess. (Price reference: 2 drinks, 3 appetizers, 2 main dishes, total €85)

I ate here and the service was absolutely horrible as both servers were rude. They charged us for bread repeatedly but then said it was for service/silverware. They never asked us if we wanted bread and repeatedly brought out baskets. I don't even eat bread as a matter of fact. Waitress refused to explain or take it off. We had to speak to a manager who finally removed it. Food was ok but nothing super amazing.

The best meal I had in Madrid. Classy, modern and fun atmosphere. It looks chic and in a very fancy neighborhood (we felt underdressed) but the hostess was very friendly and welcoming. We went at peak lunchtime on a Saturday and were told a 30 minuted wait. It ended up being 45 minutes but we didn't mind as the hostess kept us informed that tables were on dessert or were paying now. And there's a nice bar to wait. The food was amazing. I had the hake fish in a red sauce with clams and shrimp and it was so delicious. The fish was cooked perfectly and the sauce was the best part - extremely flavorful. We also had the macaroni with bolognese - it came in a piping hot ramekin and looked like a cross between macaroni & cheese and a baked lasagna - fantastic. Normally I never eat dessert at the same restaurant I have my main meal because I like trying a new place but because my main dishes were so so good, I knew dessert would be wonderful. It did not disappoint. I highly recommend La Maruca for a nice elegant (but not snobby) meal in Madrid if you want a break from casual tapas. It was probably the most expensive meal I had there but still very reasonably priced (each entree about 15 euros).

Great Spanish restaurant in the Salamanca district of Madrid. Excellent tapas which is dispensed free at the bar during happy hours!! Great idea which Americans should try. Had the Hake for dinner which is a delicious white fish. And the lemon meringue pie was incredible. Best I've ever had. Great spot. Very hip and lively

Went there for a birthday meal, we shared the artichokes, croquetas de cocido, canelones and the rabas de calamar. Everything was very good and nice big portions! For dessert we had the cheesecake that was delicious and the lemon meringue pie.

La Maruca's food deserves five stars. Had the lamb, which was recommended a by the server and did not disappoint. Service on the other hand did not match the food quality. Service was rushed and standoffish.

The lamb was good. The octopus was very bad quality and had a fishy taste. The croquettes were ok.

Great decor and atmosphere, and excellent food! Only 4 stars for slow service after first being seated... most likely because we are english speakers, and the waiter needed the manager to take our order. After that it was smooth sailing and a great time.

Slow service, who also gave some subpar recommendations. Average food relative to other similar restaurants nearby. No AC downstairs. Atmosphere and wine were nice.

One of the best Callos ever! And the Huevos Rotos con Patatas are awesome, as well. Great place as usual!!!

Good food, pricey compared of what you would pay going to the noth of Spain for it. Too noisy...

Great place. Right near our hotel (Hotel Unico). Very clean a modern Spanish cuisine. They spoke some English too so it helped us make it easier with our limited Spanish skills

BEST DINING EXPERIENCE IN A WHILE! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! At the beginning I was skeptical about this place... your know, it was full of snobs. I saw there the kind of snobbism that one can see in DC in the States. But when we finally got the table and ordered the food, my opinion about this place completely changed. EXTRAORDINARY SERVICE, awesome food, very nice decoration. It was perfect! We got the prawn pudding (A MUST!), the foie (excellent) and the tuna (superb). We also ask for a recommendation, and they served us the fried calamari (it was a little chewy). The wine was excellent. We paid 50 bucks (including 3 wines and 1 beer) for a excellent dinner in one of the best neighborhoods of Madrid. Highly recommended!

DO NOT COME HERE! I never write review. Husband and I ate all over the world, from local food to Michiline Star restaurants. This place have snobbish, ignorant and rude people! We walk in at 1:30pm and the restaurant was literally empty. They seated us at the worst table, basement next to the kitchen door. We asked to change and they refused to do so and responded rudely with "no" and turned away from us. We walked away immediately.

One of my favorite restaurants so far in madrid. Super cool atmosphere. Incredible food. Don't be put off by the awkwardly translated menu. For example, the waiter recommended that we get fried squid sticks which sounded pretty weird but were actually amazing. The potatoes dish was incredible. The rice with squid and black ink was also really good. This place is super reasonably priced for the cool decor/ quality of the food.

I loved trendy La Maruca and its seafood and fish dishes. But I dont like sitting in the lower floor (very pretty but I hate eating in windowless lower spaces). Upstairs is bright and fun and one can see all the trendy madrilenos having fun --seeing and being seen...Reservatioms are a MUST!!