Paco Roncero has been let down by this pop up
Having heard that Paco Roncero was collaborating with Cafe Royal for a pop up 4 week stint we had to book as getting to Paco's other (starred) restaurants in Europe would be an expensive trip. However, sadly the whole thing was a bit of a let down. After having to ring up to make the booking as they didn't respond to emails they then sent an e-mail confirming the booking but deep in the text (which i missed) was a throw-away line asking for a form to be filled in to give credit card details to secure the reservation - despite it already being confirmed. Having then picked up their phone call saying they would give our table away if we didn't call back that day a few weeks later when I returned from abroad I gave them the details but still received no further confirmation that our booking was secure - until we arrived at the Hotel. (As an aside this is the first restaurant that has asked for an ID card or passport in order to secure the booking ... until I queried it and they realised we were english at which point they said the credit card details would be fine!)
The meal was ok - no more. Good service but the food was nowhere near as full of flavour as we are used to at this level - maybe as Paco had already returned to Spain. Sadly though this confirms that we would not want to visit his main restaurants as if he can't control the quality somewhere for 4 weeks what chance to his other longer term investments stand.
Don't get me wrong the food was ok - but not worth £150 a head that the bill came to and we had been to Madrid the weekend previously and had eaten far better (for no more) at one of Paco's peer's restaurants..
This disappointment was made worse by the fact that they knew it was my partners birthday but made no special effort (in fact at one point they asked if that had known ...which I confirmed and they said 'great' - despite having done nothing with that knowledge!) and moved us from our table (as they needed to turn one and we had eaten faster than an earlier booking) - something that we had agreed to on the basis that we got to see the kitchen but once moved we were clearly out of sight and therefore out of mind as the only other contact we had with the staff was 30 minutes or so later when we gave up and asked for the bill.
The ideas behind the food were great, execution was mediocre and overall I cannot say we would return - either to Cafe Royal or Paco's other restaurants - which is a shame as we are big foodies and eat out on a regular basis.