Could it be magic?
Bill
€
Per Person
€11.65, three courses. Coffee not incl.
Lunchtime booking needed.
Location
Bazaar's Website
Access 5-6 steps up from the street.
In Short
Hopes?
A lunch with something to say.
Reality?
Quietly spoken, not shouting.
First Impressions?
It's very,very white. Smart.
A USP?
It's a decor-location package. And giant windows.
The food in three words?
Unchallenging, but satisfying.
Can they get the staff?
Plenty of very alert people, very efficient.
Service with a smile?
Engaged, positive, welcoming.
Would you take your friends?
It's all a bit conservative.
Rating for dating?
That USP is probably in its favour.
Tip?
Rounding up, only.
Change one thing?
Heated plates.
Going back?
Huge choice makes it less than likely, but no reason not to.
Compare & Contrast
Check out our Set Menu experiences.
In Pictures
On Google Images
In Depth
The Four Corners, Part 1
A reliable lunch with some interesting flavour choices.
Bazaar has a theme, of sorts. Shelves decked with foods and a handcart are meant to make you think corner shop. It doesn't work too well. Hardwood floors and white leather are more airport business lounge than 7-11.
It's a wet Wednesday lunchtime and the Chueca smartset are spending their Ticket Restaurant credit. €11.65 rounds up easily to €12 and we wonder - does that 35c pay the commission...?
How's lunch? Well, the daily menu, with half a dozen options in each course, arrives embedded in the a la carte so you can see what you're missing. We're talking contemporary Madrid. Modded-up Iberian dishes mingling with incomers and interlopers from across the planet. Chueca in a nutshell, then!
We kicked off with green salad and some saucy beans. Green salad? Everything was perkily fresh and the tomato hadn't had to escape a fridge. Not a lot to add, but, you try reviewing a radish.
That said, the beans were a proper granny's favourite. A generous portion and lots of pisto-ish sauce. I liked the flavour and texture. The beans still had bite - proven by the decent colouring. What it did need was to arrive hotter. Bonus points for the bread garnish, which was on top of the delicious roll/panecillo which, excellently, had appeared the instant we sat down.
The mains reflected those culinary bases we mentioned. Solomillo-in-soy was a decent 250-odd grams of pork, sliced and very quickly cooked. Tender and very tasty with, well I'd have to call it sort-of soy sauce gravy, really. The rice portion wasn't stunningly generous, but the bread sorted sauce moppage issues. No major spicing was going on, but the soy gave this some flavour interest.
And going local? Let's call the other main what it is - egg, black pudding and chips. No knocking the fresh cooking, but again, a hot plate was really needed. As soon as egg yolks breach, they're on porcelain, leaving them cold and not fun. The morcilla was modern, its reddy colour down to paprika, not undercooking. Decent winter comfort food then, and a shame we couldn't marry it with red vino, but that's a working day for you. The remaining bread got good usage on yolkage dippification. And while we're on the subject;
Table Manners Maketh Madrileñ@s
Huevos Rotos rule: Knife and fork for cutting, bread and fork for eating.
And what would we pud? Set menu desserts are the big unknown. Sometimes they're well thought out, often dull industrial affairs. On occasion a chef can't be arsed at all and sends the washer-up to Dia. The dining equivalent of Robbie Williams' career, decent surprises can happen, but major disappointments jump out too. For every Kylie duet, there's Nicole Kidman or a Frank Sinatra tribute.
Bazaar treads the middle ground. Not super, but not supermarket. A nothing-wrong-with-it flan with chantilly (which had a bit of weight, so a half a bonus point) and two scoops of icecream that probably wasn't the cheapest available. Hardly remarkable, but serviceable, in the end.
Service was extremely efficient, partly as staff keep a close eye on things, but I suspect also because they saw a chance to resit our corner window table, doubling the covers on it. We don't begrudge restaurants profit, and we didn't feel pressured or rushed. If visiting, see if you can bag the far left corner of the main room right as you walk in - it's a top spot for people watching.
Nothing to actively stop a return trip, but not much to tempt us to an evening visit.
Bill
€
Per Person
€11.65, three courses. Coffee not incl.
Lunchtime booking needed.
Location
Bazaar's Website
Access 5-6 steps up from the street.
In Short
Hopes?
A lunch with something to say.
Reality?
Quietly spoken, not shouting.
First Impressions?
It's very,very white. Smart.
A USP?
It's a decor-location package. And giant windows.
The food in three words?
Unchallenging, but satisfying.
Can they get the staff?
Plenty of very alert people, very efficient.
Service with a smile?
Engaged, positive, welcoming.
Would you take your friends?
It's all a bit conservative.
Rating for dating?
That USP is probably in its favour.
Tip?
Rounding up, only.
Change one thing?
Heated plates.
Going back?
Huge choice makes it less than likely, but no reason not to.
Compare & Contrast
Check out our Set Menu experiences.
In Pictures
On Google Images
In Depth
The Four Corners, Part 1
A reliable lunch with some interesting flavour choices.
Bazaar has a theme, of sorts. Shelves decked with foods and a handcart are meant to make you think corner shop. It doesn't work too well. Hardwood floors and white leather are more airport business lounge than 7-11.
It's a wet Wednesday lunchtime and the Chueca smartset are spending their Ticket Restaurant credit. €11.65 rounds up easily to €12 and we wonder - does that 35c pay the commission...?
How's lunch? Well, the daily menu, with half a dozen options in each course, arrives embedded in the a la carte so you can see what you're missing. We're talking contemporary Madrid. Modded-up Iberian dishes mingling with incomers and interlopers from across the planet. Chueca in a nutshell, then!
We kicked off with green salad and some saucy beans. Green salad? Everything was perkily fresh and the tomato hadn't had to escape a fridge. Not a lot to add, but, you try reviewing a radish.
That said, the beans were a proper granny's favourite. A generous portion and lots of pisto-ish sauce. I liked the flavour and texture. The beans still had bite - proven by the decent colouring. What it did need was to arrive hotter. Bonus points for the bread garnish, which was on top of the delicious roll/panecillo which, excellently, had appeared the instant we sat down.
The mains reflected those culinary bases we mentioned. Solomillo-in-soy was a decent 250-odd grams of pork, sliced and very quickly cooked. Tender and very tasty with, well I'd have to call it sort-of soy sauce gravy, really. The rice portion wasn't stunningly generous, but the bread sorted sauce moppage issues. No major spicing was going on, but the soy gave this some flavour interest.
And going local? Let's call the other main what it is - egg, black pudding and chips. No knocking the fresh cooking, but again, a hot plate was really needed. As soon as egg yolks breach, they're on porcelain, leaving them cold and not fun. The morcilla was modern, its reddy colour down to paprika, not undercooking. Decent winter comfort food then, and a shame we couldn't marry it with red vino, but that's a working day for you. The remaining bread got good usage on yolkage dippification. And while we're on the subject;
Table Manners Maketh Madrileñ@s
Huevos Rotos rule: Knife and fork for cutting, bread and fork for eating.
And what would we pud? Set menu desserts are the big unknown. Sometimes they're well thought out, often dull industrial affairs. On occasion a chef can't be arsed at all and sends the washer-up to Dia. The dining equivalent of Robbie Williams' career, decent surprises can happen, but major disappointments jump out too. For every Kylie duet, there's Nicole Kidman or a Frank Sinatra tribute.
Bazaar treads the middle ground. Not super, but not supermarket. A nothing-wrong-with-it flan with chantilly (which had a bit of weight, so a half a bonus point) and two scoops of icecream that probably wasn't the cheapest available. Hardly remarkable, but serviceable, in the end.
Service was extremely efficient, partly as staff keep a close eye on things, but I suspect also because they saw a chance to resit our corner window table, doubling the covers on it. We don't begrudge restaurants profit, and we didn't feel pressured or rushed. If visiting, see if you can bag the far left corner of the main room right as you walk in - it's a top spot for people watching.
Nothing to actively stop a return trip, but not much to tempt us to an evening visit.
