Flamin' June
Basics
Location
On the net
Per Person €25-30 for a massive meal. Gratis:** clams, digestives
Reservations Essential. Sitting for Sunday lunch is at 1345.
In Short
Hopes? Good seafood. Lots of it.
Reality? Lots and lots of it.
First Impressions? It's a busy labyrinth.
A USP? Unequalled Seafood Prospects.
The food in three words? Welcome to Galicia.
Can they get the staff? Traditional. All male. No shortage.
Service with a smile? A friendly bunch. **One was known to one of us.
Would you take your friends? If they really want seafood, you have to.
Rating for a dating? Smashing shells with nutcrackers mood music might not make.
Tip? Yep. 5%
Change one thing? Desserts are patchy.
Going back? Yes. Roughly annual visits.
In Pictures
On Google Images
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Classic Spanish food at Casa Maruja
In Depth
Basics
Location
On the net
Per Person €25-30 for a massive meal. Gratis:** clams, digestives
Reservations Essential. Sitting for Sunday lunch is at 1345.
In Short
Hopes? Good seafood. Lots of it.
Reality? Lots and lots of it.
First Impressions? It's a busy labyrinth.
A USP? Unequalled Seafood Prospects.
The food in three words? Welcome to Galicia.
Can they get the staff? Traditional. All male. No shortage.
Service with a smile? A friendly bunch. **One was known to one of us.
Would you take your friends? If they really want seafood, you have to.
Rating for a dating? Smashing shells with nutcrackers mood music might not make.
Tip? Yep. 5%
Change one thing? Desserts are patchy.
Going back? Yes. Roughly annual visits.
In Pictures
On Google Images
Compare & Contrast
Classic Spanish food at Casa Maruja
In Depth
No point mucking about here. This is as authentic a Galician place as you'll find in Madrid. It's meat and seafood and the photos reflect that.
RdM is no spring chicken. Decades old, it's one of several "do Miño"s around, so check carefully you know which you're trying. Some are stronger than others.
With this food it's less down to the construction of dishes, more the freshness and quality of the ingredients and the skill in what are, mostly, one-step cooking processes. This is elemental dining. We're talking Earth, Water and Fire.
Earth
Take one starter: Lacon, grelos and chorizo. This is the standard size. For 2 or 10 diners, it's what you get. It's huge. And, you might be right, it probably looks like nothing terribly exciting. Four things, boiled. It comes with oil and a shaker of pimentón/paprika.
So what's it all about? It's about chorizo fresh enough that you can still taste the paprika. It's about the - seemingly - overcooked greenery or potato balancing the meatyness of the pork. It's about the taste of the oil and or paprika adding something distinctive. It's your job to use the six flavours available to create combinations. It's actually quite fun.
It's not all seafood. There are colossal steaks of one sort or another. This T-bone was nominally medium rare, but there was no pink left. I'd have gone rare if I'd known. A sirloin 25cm long, further along the table was much pinker although nominally the same.
Water
Predictably, pulpo/octopus a la gallega is a thing of simple beauty. Seafood platters come in two options. Boiled or grilled. The boiled ones turn up like a tower of red and pinkness. Crabs to the bottom, prawns, langoustines and things English doesn't name well to the top. Hidden in the middle are other goodies (for the keen) or horrors (for the nervous).
The grilled/plancha version tends to be all arthropods. Finger-burningly hot when it arrives, a smidge of oil and garlic really makes this sing and it's unhesitatingly h:m recommended. Giant wodges of galician bread are on hand and are essential for sauce moppage and finger-licking avoidance. The sweet butterflied cigalas/crayfish/crawfish are probably the highlight.
Fire
Desserts are not a speciality here. Don't bother with most of the cakes, except the Tarta Santiago, which you must try. This is absolutely superb. It doesn't need sauce or alcohol or anything. It's as fresh as can be.
But if you're feeling bold, the option to go for is the de facto dessert substitute. Someone call Arthur Brown. It's queimada time!
This is not for the faint-hearted. A big fireproof bowl of aquavie/orujo and sugar, plus a couple of bits and bobs floating in it. Set alight. Stir with a big ladle and watch it burn, baby!
After a few minutes fizzing and flaring - accompanied if you wish by someone reciting the exhortation - a waiter will rock up with a huge kettle and add a load of coffee to it. With the flames out, it's off you go. It gets a place on the h:m recommended list as it's top stuff. That said, Good night Vienna potential? Very, very high.
Whole bottles of digestives were forthcoming today thanks to a little inside connection, but chupitos/shots are standard, as you'd probably have expected.
Simple stuff, high quality, seafood prepared perfectly. It's very Spain.
Try it.
