Taberna Alhambra @ calle Victoria, Madrid

I ate at Taberna Alhambra on my last night in Madrid. It was on of those classic Stanley moments; wandering around town looking for good food to eat. This restaurant looked fairly busy but I thought that it would be worth a shot. Speaking from experience, tapas tend to taste roughly the same wherever you go so I was not feeling particularly picky that day. Generalyl restaurants have a few special dishes but you can find the classic tapas dishes like the patatas bravas in every other tapas joint. It is like finding a Big Mac in McDonalds.

The restaurant is not far from the centre of town, Puerto De Sol. If you are just walking about aimlessly, chances are you will cross this place at some point. My was giving me the whole feed me now signal so I asked the waiter for a recommendation from the get go. He said something in Spanish while making some gestures using his hands.

"Yes, sounds great! Get me one of that...uno?" I said. The item wasn't even on the menu and I could not be bothered to find out more using the limited amount of Spanish that I've picked up over the past few days. I've actually surprised myself by how easy it was to learn the essential stuff like greetings, numbers and the ever important toilet.

The waiter placed a basket of fresh bread on my table. The Asian in me jumps for joy every time this happens. Free bread! It went really well with the olive oil and vinegar. Good stuff.

About twenty minutes later, the waiter presented me with this huge plate. It was a very generous portion of roasted lamb shank. Very well flavoured as well. I knew I was biting into lamb but the meat tasted like bacon. So good I nearly wet myself. The portion was huge so I took my time with it, savouring every bite. I would recommend this dish but I have no idea what it's called. I guess you'll just have to wander about Madrid, enter a random restaurant, order what the waiter recommends and hope that this thing, whatever it's called turns up.





Taberna Alhambra

calle Victoria, 9 

28012 Madrid, Spain