The Ritz is the newest hotel and the newest res-
taurant in Madrid. It is under the management of
the company that controls the Ritz The Ritz, Salon
Hotel in London. The Ritz in Madrid del Prado
has a palm court, a restaurant, and a dining-room, with
a spacious terrace looking out on to the garden before
the hotel. All the ground-floor rooms are decorated
in pure Louis XVI. style. The restaurant can seat
75 people, the dining-room 150. The Ritz is on the
Salon del Prado, near the picture gallery and the
Bourse.
“ Go and dine at Lhardy’s ” is what everybody used
to tell me when I asked which was the typical restaurant
in Madrid, and passing through the capital on my way
to Seville I dined one evening at the restaurant in the
Carera San Jeronimo. On the ground floor of Lhardy’s
is a pastry cook’s and a charcutier’s Lhardy-S
shop. To reach the restaurant, which Carera San
is on the first floor, some narrow steps Jeronimo
have to be climbed. I found myself in a medium-
sized room with brown walls, crimson hangings to the
doors, crimson-backed chairs, and a desk on which
stood two silver-topped champagne bottles in silver
wine coolers. The grey-whiskered maitre d* hotel and
the clean-shaven waiter who were the only occupants
of the restaurant looked at me as though I were an
intruder. I had come an hour before any dinner was
expected, for though the dinner of the day at Lhardy’s
is supposed to be ready at 7 p.m., no one ever goes
there to eat it till 8 p.m. The waiter thought he
spoke English, but he was mistaken. I addressed him
2 '8 6 "The Gourmet's Guide to Europe
in French, which he indicated that he did not under-
stand, but he grasped the fact that I wanted dinner.
I was given weak consomme , a very thin slice of very
pale salmon, filet pique, foie gras au gelee , fowl and salad
and an ice. It was very much the dinner one would
expect as the 5s. table (Thbte meal of a London hotel.
The charge was 12 pesetas, about 9s. I drank a pint
of good Spanish claret for which I was charged 2s.,
and a vile glass of Spanish brandy for which I was
charged 9d. The service I must admit was excellent.
To the stranger in any capital it always seems a
pity that the principal restaurants always try to give
their customers a French dinner and not a dinner of
the dishes of the country. Below is the menu of a
banquet given at Lhardy’s in honour of Antonio
Fuentes the bull-fighter. It cost the guests 25
pesetas apiece. There is nothing to distinguish it,
except its lack of originality, from any like feast in
a French provincial town.
Consomme Printanier Royal.
Filets de Sole a la Normande.
Tournedos a la Chateaubriand.
Chaud-froid de Cailles.
Chapons de France rods.
Petits Pois a l’Anglaise.
Croute Groseille.
Biscuits Glaces.
Dessert.
VlNS.
Jerez.
Bordeaux.
Champagne frappe.
Cafe et Liqueurs.
The Cafe de Fornos in the Calle de Alcala is the
other restaurant, outside those of the hotels, in which
Spain 287
I have eaten a meal. It is quite a well-decorated series
of rooms on the ground floor, and looks more like a
club dining-room than a cafe. It seems cafe de Fornos,
to be asleep during the greater portion Calle de Alcala
of the day, a somnolent waiter in a cane chair being
the one occupant of the rooms, but it wakes to life at
meal-times and in the evening. The lunch I ate
there cost me about 10 pesetas. The house has a
Page 157
Presented as published in 1903. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
The Ritz is the newest hotel and the newest restaurant in Madrid. It is under the management of the company that controls the Ritz Hotel in London. The Ritz in Madrid, Salon del Prado, has a palm court, a restaurant, and a dining-room, with a spacious terrace looking out on to the garden before the hotel. All the ground-floor rooms are decorated in pure Louis XVI. style. The restaurant can seat 75 people, the dining-room 150. The Ritz is on the Salon del Prado, near the picture gallery and the Bourse.
“ Go and dine at Lhardy’s ” is what everybody used to tell me when I asked which was the typical restaurant in Madrid, and passing through the capital on my way to Seville I dined one evening at the restaurant in the Carera San Jeronimo. On the ground floor of Lhardy’s is a pastry cook’s and a charcutier’s Lhardy-S shop. To reach the restaurant, which Carera San is on the first floor, some narrow steps Jeronimo have to be climbed. I found myself in a mediumsized room with brown walls, crimson hangings to the doors, crimson-backed chairs, and a desk on which stood two silver-topped champagne bottles in silver wine coolers. The grey-whiskered maitre d* hotel and the clean-shaven waiter who were the only occupants of the restaurant looked at me as though I were an intruder. I had come an hour before any dinner was expected, for though the dinner of the day at Lhardy’s is supposed to be ready at 7 p.m., no one ever goes there to eat it till 8 p.m. The waiter thought he spoke English, but he was mistaken. I addressed him
2 '8 6 "The Gourmet's Guide to Europe
in French, which he indicated that he did not understand, but he grasped the fact that I wanted dinner. I was given weak consomme, a very thin slice of very pale salmon, filet pique, foie gras au gelee, fowl and salad and an ice. It was very much the dinner one would expect as the 5s. table d'hote meal of a London hotel. The charge was 12 pesetas, about 9s. I drank a pint of good Spanish claret for which I was charged 2s., and a vile glass of Spanish brandy for which I was charged 9d. The service I must admit was excellent.
To the stranger in any capital it always seems a pity that the principal restaurants always try to give their customers a French dinner and not a dinner of the dishes of the country. Below is the menu of a banquet given at Lhardy’s in honour of Antonio Fuentes the bull-fighter. It cost the guests 25 pesetas apiece. There is nothing to distinguish it, except its lack of originality, from any like feast in a French provincial town.
Consomme Printanier Royal.
Filets de Sole a la Normande.
Tournedos a la Chateaubriand.
Chaud-froid de Cailles.
Chapons de France rods.
Petits Pois a l’Anglaise.
Croute Groseille.
Biscuits Glaces.
Dessert.
Jerez.
Bordeaux.
Champagne frappe.
Cafe et Liqueurs.
The Cafe de Fornos in the Calle de Alcala is the other restaurant, outside those of the hotels, in which
Spain 287
I have eaten a meal. It is quite a well-decorated series of rooms on the ground floor, and looks more like a club dining-room than a cafe. It seems cafe de Fornos, to be asleep during the greater portion Calle de Alcala of the day, a somnolent waiter in a cane chair being the one occupant of the rooms, but it wakes to life at meal-times and in the evening. The lunch I ate
there cost me about 10 pesetas. The house has a