Aarde

fifteen

• Kitchen

  Remarkable

• Service

  Approved

• Cellar

  Approved

• Decoration / atmosphere

  Outstanding

• Madrid
• Average price: 70 to 80 euros
• African cuisine

The last bet in the capital of Grupo Paraguas is a dining room, located next to the Puerta de Alcalá, of decoration and kitchen with African reminiscences

Some suspect that Sandro Silva and his wife, Marta Seco, have a pact with some supernatural force - we will not say that diabolical, because their business consists in giving pleasure and joy to the clientele - and all their initiatives in the field of public restoration are they translate into brilliant successes from the day they began in El Paraguas - heir to the Asturian tradition of Trascorrales, that great restaurant from El Salvador where the Hispanic-Brazilian Sandro started as a click - and continued with Ten con Ten, Ultramarinos Quintín, Amazon and Numa Pompilio. It has been said that Jorge Juan Street today is actually Sandro Street , and its premises are always full to overflow with that beautiful clientele that is always said to "see and be seen", but to which These entrepreneurs have managed to give more than atmosphere and decoration: a truly attractive kitchen in each of their restaurants.

Well, the last jewel of his Madrid crown has already arrived, because from now on his company expands abroad and will open branches or versions of his Amazon in other countries . The latter's tropical success may have influenced the last opening, nothing less than in the Plaza de la Independencia: Aarde, which in the Dutch Afrikaans dialect means land. An African restaurant - the decoration, always so important in this group - and ... African cuisine, they tell us . The concept escapes us completely, because in that immense continent there are one hundred kitchens, but the game consists of introducing touches and products with African reminiscences to a menu with the international and pleasant style, suitable for all tastes, typical of the group's restaurants .

So we tried an okra green curry (okra, they would say in the Caribbean) with herb paste and brown rice; a very tasty tartare that assured us that it was springbok, the South African antelope, with wild blueberries and juniper ; the kamba-wamzi , presented as tiger prawns (but they were not: it was the frequent shrimp today, crustacean of the southern seas that arrives frozen in Spain) to the wok with chilli and coconut; An outstanding chicken picantón in South African piri piri sauce (not as spicy as other piri piri we have had in Portugal) and orange juice. Good pita bread, more roasted, apparently West African style. And the pistachio and pear baklava with pistachio ice cream that is more Asian than African, but sea hair.

Conclusion? Rich and fun, and it is clear that nobody is going to ask for an African culinary authenticity that does not exist. Prices are severe, but naturally we are at the door of Alcalá, and those things are paid ...

The service is filming and responds a little to pulls. And an incomprehensible failure in the infallible Silva-Seco is that its wine list does not offer a single African, when there are so great in South Africa , easily obtainable in the Spanish market. It would be a wink without difficulties and effective.

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