Ministry of Foodies Review
Cuisine: Meat
Average price per person: >150€
Environment: 8/10
Food: 9/10
Service: 9/10
Other: Fine dining, gluten-free options, extensive wine list
Website: https://restaurantelana.com/
Lana is one of the best restaurants in Madrid serving meat and prime cuts. Set up as an Argentinian grill house, Lana has 1 sol from Guia Repsol. The Michelin guide includes it among its recommendations and also ranks 18th in the World’s best steakhouses.
I visited on a Friday night for dinner with a friend.
Location/Environment
The restaurant is in the Chamberi neighborhood. It has an elegant design with primarily wood tones and low lighting. Once you enter you can see the charcoal grill on your left. In front of the grill, the Lana team has on display the different cuts of meat available for that day.
On one side this enhances the experience as before you order you are escorted there and get a presentation of all the available options. However, since we were sitting close to the grill, there was a strong raw meat smell that took us some time to get used to it.
Lana – Menu
Obviously the menu has meat as its main star. All the appetizers have some sort of meat element although there are also a few salads and side vegetable dishes.
There are also several options in terms of the prime meat cuts, including those without bone like rib eye and entrecote. There are also cuts with bone, some of which are dry aged between 3 and 12 months.
Service
The service is professional and there was always oversight from the staff over each table. The sommelier was very attentive and helpful as there were close to 1,000 different wine options.
Although not everyone spoke English well, most of the team did their best to interact and explain.
Lana – Food
After a little plate of chorizo as a welcome, we got the Vitello tonnato. Nice acidity from the vegetables and a rich tuna sauce on top. The veal was sliced thinly and the overall combination was tasty.
Next, we got the suckling lamb croquetas which was probably my favorite dish. Very juicy inside and perfectly breaded and crispy on the outside.
The tartare was flavorful but in my opinion, the best part of the dish was the crispy potato cubes at the bottom. They added a great texture and elevated the dish.
One of the most famous dishes at Lana are the sweetbreads. Served either plain or with caviar on top, I was very curious to try them. We opted to add the caviar as well. The sweetbreads are very rich and served as different bites (one from the side that is more crispy, the middle without caviar, and the last one with caviar). The texture was very meaty but the saltiness of the caviar complimented the sweetbreads very well.
For the meat we got the Chuleta Seleccion Lana. This cut comes from Galician cows and has been matured for 8 months. The cut itself has a lot of fat and because of the maturation process, it has a very strong taste. If you will like it or not really comes down to personal preferences. The meat was perfectly cooked though which is extremely difficult for a chop that weighed 1.5kg.
We accompanied the meat with french fries in beef fat, grilled leek, and sweet potato puree. The french fries were not very crispy and also some of them were still a bit hard in the centre. The puree was a little flat in taste.
Finally, we got the flan, the chocolate tart, and the lemon pie for dessert.
The chocolate was tasty with different textures and cocoa on top so it was not overwhelmingly sweet.
The lemon tart had a crunchy pastry in between the lemon cream. On top, the meringue had not risen properly and was slightly flat. Nevertheless it was very tasty.
Although flan is not one of my favorite desserts in general, it had a nice flavor and presentation at Lana.
Conclusion
If you are a meat lover, Lana is one of the best restaurants you can visit. It serves a lot of interesting cuts and the cook of the meat is perfect. However, if you are not a big meat fan, you will struggle to enjoy the experience. I suggest going with a group of a minimum of 4 people so you can try different cuts and not feel overwhelmed. Although Lana has more premium cuts, Raza can be an alternative with lower prices and high quality.
Visit: August 2024