Enticed by the unique offering of a chef’s table experience and cuisine which combines Spanish ingredients and strong Japanese influences, we decided to dine at Smoked Room in Madrid. The premise of the Smoked Room intrigued us, as they describe their cuisine as ‘fire omakase’ where every dish has an element of smoke. Earning 2 Michelin Stars just 6 months after opening in 2021, and retaining those stars into 2024, it was clear they were doing something right.
Since there’s not a lot of information on their website, I’ll make some notes here. Making a reservation wasn’t difficult, but reservations open up on the 15th of each month for dates of the following month. There are 2 dining areas – the counter and the dining room; in our opinion, it is worth dining at the counter (there’s only 6 seats), so you get to enjoy ‘dinner and a show’ and can interact more with the service team and chefs. They offer 2 menus, Kõsei no Hi at 195€ and Matsuri at 250€, but don’t provide a sample menu or any details about what the difference is between the 2 menus. Upon confirming your reservation, they request that all guests pick the same menu (we chose the 250€ menu which ended up having around 15 courses), and you’re required to pay in advance. On our bill at the end of the meal, there was a credit noted for the pre-payment and you just have to pay for any drinks or add-ons.
Food (9.5/10):
The menu was seafood heavy with the only non-seafood savoury dishes being a tomato dish and quail dish. This was great for us as we love seafood. We greatly enjoyed their incorporation of Japanese techniques and flavours with local Spanish ingredients. We felt that the flavours were well balanced with good acidity and textures. It was fun to see their elevated takes on traditional Japanese dishes such as chawanmushi (steamed egg custard) and miso soup. We enjoyed all of the dishes and there were a few standouts being the Motril shrimp in brown butter, squid chawanmushi and lobster and rooster ‘salad’. As well, the brioche with roasted avocado yeast butter was one of the best bread courses we’ve had. Weirdly enough, the couple next to us was eating the butter by the spoonful without any bread.
One of their desserts was presented with the note that it’s a bit of a weird combination: sake, vanilla and soy. Because each of the 3 flavours were a separate component, it wasn’t possible to get the best ratio of all 3 in each bite – as a result some bites were great and some were just good.
Almost all of the dishes had some sort of Japanese element incorporated except for 1 course – the quail with mole and corn. Our server said that the mole is from the chef’s wife’s hometown, so it’s brought in as a paste and made into the sauce used for this dish. A great story to go along with the dish, but although it was delicious, we didn’t quite understand how it fit with the rest of the menu. Not exactly a negative, but just something interesting we noticed.
As well, while they say that every dish has a smoke component, we don’t recall this being the case. Perhaps there was fire used to cook some of the ingredients, but smoke wasn’t a prominent flavour in every dish. This may actually have been a positive as the same flavour of smoke in every dish may have been boring and overpowered the other flavours. That being said, the courses where smoke was clearly present were well executed.
Mid-meal, we were presented with the option to add a Wagyu beef course, but we declined given that we were too full.
Drinks (10/10):
As we chose not to do the wine pairing, we asked to see a drink menu. The menu offers several alcoholic and non-alcoholic options, reasonably priced at 10-15€ each. I ordered a cocktail while my partner ordered a mocktail (I think it was called the prehistoric, and was recommended by our server). The drinks were delicious and fruit forward, which met our preferences. Of note, it was my partner’s favourite mocktail of the trip.
Service (10/10):
This was the best service we had out of all the fine dining restaurants on our trip. The main reason for this was because our main server was exceptional. While being professional and attentive, he was energetic and talkative, making friendly conversation and cracking jokes with us throughout the evening. It felt like we could have been friends with him even though we just met. We feel this is rare to come by in any restaurant, especially in a fine dining establishment. The remainder of the service team was warm and professional, but didn’t meet the high bar that our main server had set for enthusiasm and friendliness. Luckily for us, our main server was the one interacting with us for ~80% of the meal.
The food was explained well, and additional explanations were provided for the techniques used. When we were presented the option to add on a Wagyu beef course, our server did a great job of balancing salesmanship while not being pushy. He was upfront about noticing that we were getting full and that it won’t be as enjoyable if we’re overstuffed. We appreciated his approach.
In our reservation we had mentioned that we were celebrating a special occasion, and the Smoked Room really came through on ensuring it was a special night for us. On our arrival, there was handwritten note congratulating us and thanking us for dining with them. As well, prior to the petit fours, we were given a bonus heart-shaped dessert and our special occasion was acknowledged again.
As an aside, for all of the fine dining restaurants we went to, we had put down on the reservation that we were celebrating a special occasion (because why not). Up to this point, all of the restaurants simply congratulated us on our arrival, except for 1 restaurant which made no mention of our celebratory occasion and 1 restaurant which provided a lit candle in our desserts, followed by applause from the restaurant team and offered to take a photo of us. Given our prior experiences, it was nice to see the Smoked Room go the extra mile.
Atmosphere (9.5/10):
An atmosphere befitting of the restaurant’s name, the intimate counter seating looks onto a small, open kitchen where a fire burns away, ready to see grilling and smoking action throughout the dinner service. Upon entering the restaurant, we immediately noticed the smell of a wood burning fire, and from our seats, we could feel the warmth of the flames. Dry agers filled with fish, quail and beef are clearly visible, and the kitchen is small but is equipped with the essentials. While we can see everything head on, an angled glass mirror hangs overtop the chefs’ workspace, giving us a top down view of the action. This was a nice feature as it helped us see what’s in the various pots and gave us a better view of dishes being plated without bodies in the way. The atmosphere is a perfect fit for the restaurant, but it is essential that you sit at the counter to get the full ‘dinner and a show’ experience. Notably, the dining room tables are off to the side in a dimly lit space with no view of the action.
Just being picky here but the only minor negative here was that the Smoked Room shares washrooms with a larger, more populated restaurant, which impacted our immersion of the exclusive and intimate dining experience.
Overall (9.5/10):
To our surprise, this was one of our favourite fine dining experiences in Spain, preferring this meal over some of the 3 Michelin Star restaurants we went to. From their excellent usage of Japanese techniques and ingredients to highlight the best of Spain’s produce and seafood, to the friendliest server of whom we had the pleasure of interacting with, and an atmosphere befitting of its name, the Smoked Room delivered on all fronts. We thoroughly enjoyed our dining experience and greatly appreciated the additional touches to make our evening extra special. At 250€, the Smoked Room is not inexpensive, but given our fantastic experience, felt the price was reasonable and agree that the restaurant is well deserving of its 2 Michelin Stars.
by gonehalohunting