June 16, 2016
Miami, Florida – We were going to be here in Miami for a couple of days and wanted to find a nice place for dinner. I looked on Google maps for someplace not too far from our hotel. This place looked very interesting. For some reason I decided to check out Restaurants.com to see if this place was listed. It was. That’s dinner solved then. No need to look any further.
The owners of Madrid Tapas y Vinos started out as a paella-catering business. That led to them opening their first full-on restaurant in West Flagler. It quickly gained popularity. The success of that first location allowed the owners to launch this place in 2010, just two short years after opening the first one.
My wife and I arrived late in the afternoon on a Thursday. There were less than 10 patrons inside. Something prompted me to stop in and make reservations when we walked by earlier in the day. That turned out to be a good idea. When we came back for dinner, we were seated near the stage, right in the thick of the action that was to take place later in the evening.
The entrance seems to divide the restaurant. To the left is the main dining area. Wooden tables and chairs frame the walkway. It is kind of narrow and feels a bit tight. The aisle ends in a small stage. To the right is the bar, sheltered by tile awning. A few well-worn wooden tables and stools sit near by. The bar features a very large collection of wines.
Windows face west and get full sun in the afternoons. They have wooden shades to control the intensity of the sunlight when needed, but can be opened later so you can catch the sunset.
Patio dining is available. The patio actually seemed more spacious than inside. Short hedges separate it from the sidewalk. Folding umbrellas provide shade. Madrid sits under glide path of the planes landing at Miami International. You can watch the planes descend overhead while you dine.
When our server arrived, I tried to speak Spanish to him. That started a conversation. Since there weren’t many other customers to take care of, we got to talk to him for a while, in between his other responsibilities. He talked to me in English and Spanish while I did my best to talk to him mostly in Spanish. We found out he was from Spain and wanted to come to the US. An opportunity to migrate came up and he took it. His intent was to improve his English but being here in Miami didn’t give him much of a chance to do so; most of the people he talked with spoke Spanish, especially his customers.
It took a little longer than usual to decide what I wanted to order given that this was my first time in a Spanish restaurant. I knew I had to order one of the tapas. Since the owners of Madrid started out catering paella, there is a separate section of the menu just for paella. My wife ordered one of those options. I finally chose:
From the Tapas Clásicas (Small Plates) section of the menu, Gambas al ajillo (Garlic shrimp) ($12.95). For the main course, Arroz Campesino (Campesino rice) ($20.50) got the nod.
I was completely lost on the wine list because it featured all Spanish wines. And they stock a lot of wines. I took our waiter’s recommendation of Paco & Lola ($36/bottle, $18 happy hour), an albarino white, and it was spot on.
While we waited for our meals to be prepared, the bread arrived at our table in a basket. The bread was kind of like sourdough bread with a hard crust. It comes with a garlic spread that was like whipped butter and garlic…or maybe the other way around. Fresh garlic made itself known. The bread itself was delicious.
The wine was from the renowned Rías Baíxas region of Galicia, on Spain’s southwestern coast near Portugal. The bottle arrived chilled in a clay wine bucket with a napkin tied around it. A taste of the albarino revealed it to be very smooth and not too sweet. A good compromise between dry and fruity. This albarino tasted great by itself and paired really well with everything else we ordered.
Our tapas arrived next. The shrimp is sautéed and comes sizzling to your table. There were six medium to large shrimp bathing in butter and garlic. The shrimp were sautéed just right. Kudos to Madrid for cooking this dish to perfection where the garlic enhanced, not overpowered the shrimp.
My Arroz Campesino was served in a skillet. Several meats are added to this dish, including sirloin, bacon, Spanish sausage, and morcilla.
The bold flavor of the rice surprised but pleased me. That may be due to the rice spending some quality time with the meats, absorbing their flavors along the way. The Spanish sausage looks like franks. Different spices give it a different taste. Almost like cocktail franks but with much more character. Lost in the rest of dish was the flavor of the sirloin. Maybe it had already imparted its savor. The bacon tastes like…bacon.
Is morcilla…an organ meat? Nope. It is a Spanish blood sausage. Ohhh-kay. In this instance I’m glad I did not know what morcilla was before I tasted it. Since its flavor was pretty much indistinguishable from the rest of the dish I couldn’t really taste it but you can definitely see it in the rice. Its consistency was like that of a bean burrito. That’s the only frame of reference I have for it. I added a few drops of lemon juice from the lemon slice on the side but found it kind of took away from the flavors of the dish instead of enhancing them. There was enough food here for a meal and a half.
By now, the sun was sinking below the horizon and the Flamenco show was getting 
started. More people had arrived by this time. I was very impressed by the show. I have heard Flamenco music many times and really enjoy it, but this was my first time seeing it performed live and seeing the dances that accompany it. The dancer was very expressive and energetic, really bringing life to the songs.
Madrid Tapas y Vinos is a very engaging place. Though solo diners are welcome, to me Madrid feels like it is enjoyed best by couples or groups or families. It seems to have the feel of the place in town where friends and family meet up to cap (or start) their evenings. The flamenco shows are infectious. I’ve heard they frequently get the customers up and dancing. The atmosphere is very friendly.
I have not been to Spain yet (the Madrid-Barajas Airport doesn’t count, does it?), but this is what I would imagine a bar/restaurant in Spain would be like. I felt like I was being immersed in Spain, even if just for an evening.
Madrid Tapas y Vinos – 5 forks. Very highly recommended. Fridays and Saturdays carry a $5 cover charge if dining inside. Don’t miss the Flamenco show!
Kanale Eats 