One of our happy discoveries during our FEBRUARY 2023 TRIP TO MADRID was a 3-minute walk from the MIL’s flat. A restaurant called EL ROBLE. We came at about 1pm & we were only the 2nd table. The cool thing that we noticed as it filled up is basically all the other patrons were locals & they all knew each other. They were also mostly seniors. That means it’s a good place to eat! And how cool to be the only tourist!

I love the art in the place… they were so vivid, they looked real.

The waitstaff JOSE was the friendlies & warmest I’ve encountered. He immediately made us feel at home.

The only thing I would not recommend here is the VICHY CATALAN sparkling water. It’s way too salty.

TAPAS

DiploBaby is a fan of the bread, minus the crust. The CROQUETTAS is not to my taste, but TD really enjoyed it. His theory is that the Jamon is too mature for me.

This is the only GAMBAS that DiploBaby ever liked. It tastes even better than it looks & is perfectly cooked.

Because of this, DiploBaby now eats gambas – YAY! He kept cleaning his plate!

MY MAIN DISH

I was still feeling a little sick from the football game, so I didn’t have much appetite. I ordered the MERLUZA A LA GALLEGA & enjoyed the fresh fish & super yummy salad with black sea salt.

TD & Yaya B opted to have the MENU OF THE DAY. By Madrid standards, 18.50 Euros is a bit pricey, but in reality it’s such good value for money because the servings are huge & it includes the bread & a drink.

YAYA B & DIPLOBABY’S SHARED MENU OF THE DAY

Yaya B & DiploBaby’s first course was this SPAGHETTI. It was so big that even if they loved it, they couldn’t finish it & had the rest of it wrapped.

Yaya B ordered a different type of fish to try. This one was the EMPERADOR A LA PLANCHA. The MERLUZA was better IMO.

For DiploBaby, next time we go back, we should order the DELICIAS DE BACALAO REBOZADAS because it looks crispy.

TD’S MENU OF THE DAY

He enjoyed a dish from his childhood – FABADA – & for the first time ever ate & enjoyed Morcilla.

For his SECOND COURSE, he had the FILETE DE TERNERA A LA PLANCHA. DiploBaby actually preferred the steak over Yaya B’s fish & TD was only too happy to share because it was a huge serving.

Btw an interesting dish we saw another table was pescadillas frescas de pincho enroscadas or fried whiting curled up & biting it’s own tail. I’ve never seen this dish before! At first I thought it was eel!

DESSERT

For dessert we thought we ordered a flan & a cheesecake but both turned out very similar to each other LOL.

The FLAN CON HELADO is very much like Filipinos’ beloved LECHE FLAN because we probably learned this dish from the Spanish. But we never serve it with ice cream in the Philippines. DiploBaby loved the ice cream & the adults enjoyed the flan.

We thought the TARTA DE LA CASA DE CUAJADA would be more like cheesecake but it’s very close to flan. Delicious, but we would have loved something else.

EL ROBLE was one of our splurges of the trip but it’s definitely a happy find. We will be back again for sure! And we will bring our appetite. Perhaps best to skip breakfast so we have space for the big servings.

The MENU EL DIA is always the better deal. Imagine my single MERLUZA was more expensive tan a 3 course meal?