Ultramarinos Quintin

Madrid, Spain – Goya/Serrano District

Lunch with friends – Spring 2024

Final Score: 2.8 — Not Recommended.

Great location, poor delivery.

You walk into Quintín expecting something polished. It’s situated in the chic Goya/Serrano area of Madrid which is all boutiques and manicured dogs, and its name carries weight. The space itself is charming in a curated way. Downstairs, there’s a cave-like dining room with exposed brick and soft ambient lighting, and the entrance floor, where we were seated near the stairs, has that upscale farmacia-turned-bistro vibe.

The room is attractive. But it’s all front. Quintín is the kind of restaurant where the vibe is curated and the service is forgotten. We had a reservation for five. We were seated 20 minutes late, which is not a problem. But then... nothing. No water, no menus, no check-in. For nearly an hour. Just us, our table, and a growing sense of awkwardness.

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The Service

Eventually, a server came not to welcome us, but to inform us that we had nearly reached our 90-minute time limit and needed to place our order immediately. We hadn’t even been offered a drink. From there, the pacing felt rushed and transactional. It’s one thing to have time limits. It’s another to enforce them when the restaurant has kept you waiting for the majority of it.

The staff was polite in the most technical way. There was no attentiveness, no sense of rhythm or hospitality. To their credit, the manager did take the item I sent back off the bill. But by that point, the experience was already unsalvageable.

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The Food

I ordered the Hamburguesa Especial Quintín, which turned out to be just the beef patty alone on the plate. No bun, no garnish. It arrived nearly raw. Not rare — raw. I sent it back, and it was quickly returned, clearly microwaved: hotter, but not more cooked. You could still see where I had cut into it the first time. The texture was destroyed.

Other dishes ordered by my colleagues range from pheasant fried rice to goat cheese-stuffed duck rolls and spider crab cannelloni. There’s ambition here. There's octopus with ají, monkfish a la Bilbaína, and a wide array of tapas, pizzas, and stews, but very little of it seemed well-executed. The menu looks like a Mediterranean crowd-pleaser filtered through Instagram trends.

The one thing that did go right: the drinks. Quintín’s drink list is solid, with a smart mix of local varietals and elevated Mediterranean pairings. Pricing is fair, and the selection is strong. It’s just a shame we weren’t offered them sooner.

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The Experience

For a restaurant so frequently recommended in a neighborhood that expects more, Quintín falls far short. It’s a classic example of a place riding on its postcode. The menu is bloated and the service robotic at best. The bones are there. The room is beautiful. The drinks are decent. But if you’re in Madrid for even a short stretch, your time is better spent elsewhere.

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The Dane Standard

Category Score

Palate 2.5

Atmosphere 3.4

Service 2.0

Identity 3.2

Final Score 2.8 Not Recommended. A disappointment in disguise.

Quintín is all surface. The setting is lovely and the reputation is... loud. But it’s a disorganized and disappointing operation. One of the worst meals I’ve had in five years in Spain, not for what was served, but for how little they seemed to care.