What does every child need to eat at least once a week? PIZZA! So, on a recent overnight layover, we had the opportunity to try kosher pizza in Madrid.
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As a rule of thumb, I generally have my kids try “local cuisine” whenever possible. But, on a recent overnight layover in Madrid, paella and gazpacho weren’t available. And, besides, being right after Passover, everyone wanted pizza.
Layover Tips for Jewish Travelers
Rimmon Pizza & Pasta
Rimmon Pizza & Pasta offers take-out and delivery, but we opted to dine-in. The restaurant itself is quite small and tight, but it was packed with tourists–most of whom were also enroute home after Passover. I don’t think we met any locals while we were there–and we were there for quite a while. (My husband and son left to go to mincha/maariv and then came back to order.) However, I think we may not have met locals since we were probably about 2-3 hours early for a standard 10PM Spanish dinner hour.
Pertinent Details
Kashrus Info: Chief Rabbinate of Madrid; Cholov Yisroel
Address: Calle Viriato, 37, 28010 Madrid
Tel: +34 917 554 277
Reservations: +34 639 749 319
Delivery Zone Map: Click Here
Hours: vary slightly by season but generally open at noon and close around midnight Sun-Thurs and until 4PM on Fridays
Make sure you pay attention walking down the street, or you might end up walking right past the restaurant.
The Menu
The menu itself (available in multiple languages) has a lot of what you would expect at a typical pizza shop, but it also has a few surprises–at least from an American vantage point.
The “Starter” section is where you’ll find your salads and focaccias (including Hummus and Babaganush versions), but also includes items like shakshuka. It has a large Pizza section, with some interesting topping combinations. Or you can always come up with your own pizza or calzone recipe. The Pasta section has a wide variety as well.
Atypical of US pizza shops is the Risotto section of the menu. However, this was a pleasant surprise since risotto is often associated with much more of a fine dining experience.
The alcohol available might surprise you if you’re not accustomed to dining outside the US. Not only is bottled beer available–alcoholic and non-alcoholic–but you can order beer and wine (red and white) by the glass. This is fairly common in most of the world, though. Don’t worry, there’s also a wide selection of soft drinks.
Review
Ambiance
It was crowded. As in waiting on the sidewalk and then climbing over people to get to a table crowded. But, everyone was friendly and understanding of the situation–in multiple languages.
In full disclosure, we were there on the first day they re-opened after Passover and I’m not sure they were aware of all the tourists to anticipate. And, it is a small space. I don’t know whether that’s indicative that they typically serve a small demographic or that much of their business is take-out and delivery related.
But, I have read rave reviews online from customers who are not [shall we say] confined to kosher-only options. So, sounds like their demographic is not limited to the kosher consumer (local or tourist).
Food
Ambiance aside THE FOOD WAS REALLY GOOD! Everyone seemed to be enjoying the food–and they all had just come from 10+ days of near gluttony on various Passover Programs.
I spoke to people who were enjoying wonderful salads and focaccias and all sort of pizzas, pastas, and risottos were being passed around. My kids had really enjoyed a 3 cheese pizza in Mexico, so I ordered them a 4 cheese pizza. They weren’t so into the flavor of the goat cheese, but it may just be an acquired taste since I liked it and so did most of the other adults. However, even my pickiest eater couldn’t get enough of the Rose Pasta. We also ordered the Porcini-Mushrooms Risotto. It had much more of a soupy consistency than what I’m used to, but, nonetheless it was delicious.
Another family ordered the Chocolate Braid for dessert, and it smelled amazing and looked quite decadent. However, when we ordered it they said they had just run out of dough! Like I said, I don’t think they were prepared for the influx since this was still hours before they were supposed to close.
So, unfortunately this also meant that we couldn’t order extra pizza for lunch the next day at the airport.
One thing to note is that the pizzas all come in personal size only, but it is quite a generous personal size.
Orthodox Jew with an Overnight Layover?
Service
The people working behind the counter were friendly and spoke English quite well (and Hebrew too). The food came relatively quickly. However, I think they were somewhat overwhelmed since we did wait quite a while for the aforementioned Chocolate Braid before they told us that they were actually out of dough. My kids had a great attitude about it, though. They said that we were only missing out on dessert and felt bad that others might actually miss out on dinner. 😍
We stayed and socialized for a while. But, it was still somewhat crowded by the time we left. However, we walked by a bit later and the crowd had thinned. But I think it may have just been a lull between a more typical American dinner time and the Spanish dinner time.
Even though local cuisine is my go-to when traveling, it’s always nice to find familiar food with a local twist. That was exactly the case with Rimmon’s kosher pizza in Madrid.
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