La Paella Real

Stumbled on this quaint place while looking for a place to grab some paella on Valentine's Day. The paella was absolutely delicious and was super glad that we found La Paella Real. Arrived soon as they opened and was able to get seated without a reservation. The timing was perfect as people started coming in afterward. Ordered the special which included starters (grilled squid, salad and olives), a chocolate dessert and a pitcher of sangria. Everything was superb including the service. Would've easily paid more but super great value!

My family and I enjoyed our time here. I leave this place with a nice memory. Staffs are all friendly and food was good. House wines are compatible with all their signature dishes. Reservations needed if you are coming in with large groups!

We had our early dinner here, started with break, served sanglia beverages and white wine. The squid was decent and the leftovers oil used to dipped into the bread. Mushrooms was a bit salty and the cheese ball not my favourite. The rice was flavourful.

This my first time in Madrid and the receptionist of my hotel, tip me to come to this restaurant to taste a nice paella! I saw some others reviews saying things that I think are not true. The waiter really professional and kind, gave us an exceptional service! The restaurant has a short menu, but it's because the plates you find are really nice! If you come to Madrid please visit La Paella Real!

I thought the portions were quite small. The paella is pure ‘profit’. Smashed rice in a pan which ends up being much less than what you ‘expect’. Also the paella is quite oily, you can feel the amount of oil they put in the food, not good for digestion 😬. Also you can see that 30€ for a pan which is for 2 persons. This to me is a complete ripoff.

We ordered the Chicken and Vegetable, Black bean and Prawn Paella and the grillef squid started...and watched it quickly disappear! Great introduction to Spain for my husband's first visit. I cannot remember the wine ordered but I'll tell ya...my husband is not a wine drinker but order plenty bottles! Lol thank you for finally making a Spanish wine lover out of him!!

What’s not to love about a pállela? This place came in recommended for pállela in Madrid. The ambiance is classy and clean, the servers are pleasant and friendly. For the food, too much oil in the pállela and expensive. Overall can try for the experience, however I am sure you will find better places in Madrid.

When we lived in Madrid years ago, this was always the best place for paella and great service. Sadly, this is no longer true. The service was horrible. We made a reservation for two of us. Upon entering, the servers rudely assumed we did not have a reservation and even when told there was a reservation, they did not really want to give us a table for two. They are only looking for larger groups from tour busses or their regular local customers, who I saw received excellent service. Their bill was much larger than our 60 Euro bill. The paella was really good, but not what you’d expect from La Paella Real! I ordered a glass of house white wine and it was not on par with what you’d expect from excellent Spanish Alboriño wine. Overall, if you’re looking for real paella, I’d opt to go somewhere else with much better customer service, wine, and food.

The best Paella pair with reserved red wine. Service top notch , like home Limited sitting, clean and have homee feeling.

While Madrid is not known for Paella, we wanted to partake in this traditional dish before ending our trip to Spain. One of the guides we utilized suggested this establishment, we wound up delighted! We noticed that we could order it as part of a "Menu" which included starters, a beverage and dessert. All food was presented in an outstanding manor, was well prepared and tasted very good. The Paella was perfect, not overcooked over-seasoned nor greasy. The service was also spot-on. In all, a wonderful experience on our last night in Madrid.

Paella wasn't great. Meh. Expensive for the quality. Great staff. Wouldn't go back though

Pro: best paella I had in Madrid, I tried 4 different paella in Madrid, the sangria is definitely worth getting This dish is 3 person portion. Service was great. And it's cozy restaurant Con: salad was a bit too oil for me and the meat got a weird taste for me as well. Not sure if it's the culture differences so I won't complain. Paella I had in Madrid was overall too salty. I'm a salt person still find it a bit salty

I have been reading some of the reviews and my experience was different than some of the others. I had a great time. The restaurant is really charming and cozy. My waiter was very helpful. I can see why some people could say they might be rude but they go straight to the point and give you good advice on what to choose. We selected the special menu for two (€30 per person) which offers you 3 starters, main course, dessert and a bottle of wine or sangria (see picture of the menu). On top of that my waiter offer us at no charge the expreso and the bottle of water. That is a very good deal. Every single dish was delicious and fresh. The olive are grown in the area and tasted so good. The grilled squids was the best dish. The tomato and red onion salad was good as well. Hands down my favorite. It was just cooked to perfection and with thee right seasoning. The croquettes were really good and not oily. The Paella has really great flavor. I could taste the seafood. I will have to say that it did not have socarrat. That's the reason of my rating. If you really don't care about the socarrat then you can increase my rating. But I have to say the Paella was awesoWe had the cheese cake. It was different than the cheesecake in the USA but it was so good. I really had a great time and will definitely recommend people to try this place for themselves and be the judge.

Can here for my birthday lunch and I had tomatoes and onions, croquettes, grilled squid and veggie paella everything was delish. I would recommend a visit here. Also the sangria was great! The dish I enjoyed the most was the grilled squid it was seasoned to perfection.

La Paella Real is a very very famous and historic paella restaurant so my crew and I thought the paella would taste like heaven when we tried it. After trying this place, I have to say I am truly sad if this is what "great" paella is. Even my airbnb host ( a native) said this place was the best place for paella but I am shocked! I give it all my respect for this restaurant having so much history and even culture but the paella was not as delicious as it was hyped up to be. I left this restaurant not even wanting to try any other paella spot in Madrid in fear of how the other paella restaurants compare. The seafood was frozen I think because the shrimps were really hard to take off the shell. The bottom also didn't have the yummy socarrat. There was no flavor in the rice that was a bit oily. Man it was sad. A party of three left 100 euros poorer and disappointed we spent so much on mediocre tasting food when that money would have fed us for a whole day. They serve good sized portions but the paella was sadly lacking in flavor. I'd pass.

The service is terrible and rude, the food is bad and not fresh at all , the price is way expensive. I wonder how the restaurant survived among all those fantastic restaurants in Madrid. The tall waiter at the reception makes you feel that you are kidnapped when you get in. No desire to order anymore. bad experience! not recommended! BTW, Paella is indeed a joke!

Terrible service. I am vegetarian and my friend is a carnivore. We went in since the name says paella and thought it should have a good one. The place is dark and stuffy. The bread is already sitting on the table and if you eat it you get charged $2. Then the waiter told us we have to order two paella dishes and they're $15-$19 range and they have to the SAME ones. We can't just order one paella or even two different paella's. We left and found another place around the corner.

This place is where you can get some amazing paella. Just don't make this mistake of thinking the portions will be comparable to the price. A no less than 16 euro per person, the 1 mussel, 1 shrimp, 1 langostino, and 1 chicken leg in my paella was about a good a value as selling your jewelry to Cash-4-Gold. Granted, it was really good, but just far too expensive for the aforementioned few ingredients. I'd not eat here again.

Truly a great experience. Completed my trip to Spain. 1st place there that wasn't over salted!

Great experience! One of the best Paellas I have eaten so far. The service was excellent. The price in the menu is per person, so don't expect to see the 16€ price on the menu and think you could share the plate. They will charge the "couvert". I ate "croquetas" as started ask Paella for 2 and a jar of "Sangria" and I can tell, was more food than I could eat it. I leave entirely satisfied with the food, the service and the price.

La Paella Real serves up a decent paella meal, but I have to say that I've had better. We ordered the menu de la casa with Paella Valenciana. The meal included 4 appetizer dishes (olives, fresh sliced tomatoes with a light dressing of olive oil, calamari and croquetas) all of which were good, though, there was a bit of confusion on the menu - it wasn't clear in either English or Spanish that all four appetizers were included, so we attempted to request our preferred croquetas, only to be advised by the waiter that all four were included along with bread - that was a tiny bit embarrassing, but it was in our favour, so we got over it. The meal also included a bottle of wine and two dessert dishes, all for 60€ per couple. While the bread, appetizers, wine and dessert items were good, and we were certainly full upon taking our leave, I have to say that the paella itself was a bit bland and a touch oily. The flavour of the ubiquitous saffron seemed to be absent from the dish along with any other seasoning. I tend to prefer a robustly seasoned paella, so this is probably more of a personal critique. Still, all in all, for the price, which was perhaps a bit high, but not totally unreasonable, it was a large and filling meal and though I would have preferred more zest in the paella, the experience overall was a plus. Being only a short stroll from the Palacio Real, this restaurant seems to attract mostly tourists which may deter some people, but again, it's not too bad overall. Just remember that as in almost every restaurant in the capitol, the dress code is more semi-dressy casual than t-shirt and jeans casual, but I can't imagine you'd be turned away if you elected to wear cross trainers and a hoodie.

Great experience, a few steps away from the Opera metro stop, great service, the sepia and mejillones were excellent, the paella was fantastic!!! See the pics! :) A bit pricey, but worth the experience.