Today we braved the cold and had a delightful Fish Bowl Festive Menu del Día, which we had pre-booked.
What We Had
We both ordered the Fish Bowl Festive Menu del Día, plus added a pre starter of the warm bread. For our drinks, I had a Coke Zero and Soph had a mocktail, the Safe Sex On The Beach.
Drinks
I was driving so I had just a Coke Zero, this was the large bottle size and was served with a glass with crushed ice. Soph had a mocktail.
Food
We shared a portion of Sourdough Bread with Artisan Butter. This was really good ‘proper’ bread, which came warm, seasoned slightly with rocksalt and with truffle butter. This was so good we could have quite happily munched through a loaf or two and headed home!
Starters
I went with the Smoked Mackerel Pâté, Pear & Mustard Seed Chutney, this was served with brioche toast and I really enjoyed it. If anything, I felt that the chutney wasn’t needed, as I found the mackerel had plenty of taste as it was and was strong enough taste wise to stand on its own.
Soph had the wonderful Cochinillo Bao Bun, Asian Slaw & Sriracha Mayonnaise. This slow roasted suckling pig was excellent, the slaw and Sriracha mayo just added to this dish to give an amazing combination of flavours.
Mains
Soph had the Lamb Rump with Parsnip Purée, Garlic Kale & Sautéed Potatoes, while I went for the Turkey Ballotine, Sage & Chestnut Stuffing, Cranberry Purée & Jus which came with baby roast potatoes.
Good quality lamb, you could actually taste what it was when so often you’re delivered a plate of meat and it’s a struggle to know what it is.
The Turkey Ballotine was a good sized portion, full of flavour and again, a proper meaty taste to it.
The potatoes too, were really nice, with my baby spuds being cooked in the meat juice and seasoned to perfection. The sauteed potatoes which came with the lamb were also seasoned to compliment that particular dish which was a nice touch and again not something you often see.
Desserts
I like cheesecake and I like Xmas pudding, so this was my choice, the Christmas Pudding Cheesecake. Also Soph had decided on her choice first, this being the Sticky Toffee Pudding with Vanilla Ice Cream.
My dessert was ok, it didn’t blow me away, I think in part as I was unsure how this would be made and thought it would be cheesecake which tasted of christmas pudding rather than it being cheesecake atop the pudding. It was nice, but Sophie had the better dessert.
Her Sticky Toffee Pudding was sublime,it was rich, it was sticky you could really taste the black treacle in there. The Vanilla Ice Cream with it took a little of the sweetness off, in a good way.
This dish was one of those where at home you’d be cleaning the plate with your finger, it was that good. The portion just needed to be bigger!
What We Liked
The food was top quality, freshly prepared and it all was very enjoyable. The guy serving us was friendly, spoke excellent English and the service was very efficient.
It’s small things like being asked how you want your lamb cooking, or would you like to wait a little before the next course that make a big difference to the dining experience.
What Could Be Improved
On the whole, nothing of importance. A couple of tiny things though we did comment on.
Before our starters, we had the really good warm bread with truffle butter. When the server came to take the plates, we’d both left our knife we had used on the plates. He asked us to remove the knives, thus taking just the plates away.
At this time, there were just us as a couple and a table of 5, so it wouldn’t have been an issue to take the used knives and bring clean ones for the starter, especially at this price point.
The second tiny issue was the size of the sticky toffee pudding dessert. To be blunt, it was very small. Yes it was rich, yes it was very good, but there needed to be more.
What It Cost For The Fish Bowl Festive Menu del Día Lunch
Our Fish Bowl Festive Menu del Día Lunch bill came to 79€ in total. This was broken down as 5€ for the warm sourdough bread which we shared and then the 3 course lunch itself was 30€ each.
For the drinks, my Coke Zero was 4€ and Sophs Mocktail was 10€.
Would We Return
Yes, indeed. We said back in September when we visited, we’d be back.
The place is spotlessly clean, the staff are on the ball and the food is restaurant quality, prepared by a chef, not reheated by a cook.
How To Find The Fish Bowl Restaurant
Their address is: C. Calderon de la Barca, 6 Dehesa Campoamor. They are easy to find via Google Maps and they have an active Facebook page with contact details and opening times on.
