La Finca de Susana is a restaurant 100% with its elegant space, good food and reasonable prices
A while ago I discovered a restaurant that made me take notice, given that it was rather elegant and perfect for a celebration, but the prices were very reasonable. Since then it has become one of our favorites and we go there whenever possible.
La Finca de Susana is located near the Puerta del Sol and more exactly near the subway stop of Sevilla, on Arlabán street, which runs parallel to the Carrera de San Jerónimo. The restaurant is owned by a group of Filipinos who had a good idea and wound up opening different restaurants of a similar style but with different names in cities like Madrid and Barcelona.
The place is pretty big and the decoration makes you think that you could be in a fancy restaurant, at least as long as you don´t analyze everything too closely. On the other hand, they use the New York philosophy of putting the tables really close together so you can look at what your neighbor is having before making your own choice. Apart from that and having taken a good look around, you can enjoy a nice evening.
The food is fantastic, I always try to choose something new on the menu but I wind up ordering the glazed duck with turnips and plums which they really do well. My girlfriend always gets the salmon, so we can assure you that those two dishes will be great every time. Other things we have had the chance to try are the carpaccio, the octopus and the fillet of beef with soy sauce, all of which we totally reccommend.
Essential to any good meal are the drink and the dessert. There are many different kinds of wines from different places and with a range of prices, so there is no problem finding one that we like. The house wine is the only one that you can order in a smaller bottle, and it is passable. For dessert there is an ample variety, among which a stand out favorite is the chocolate Sacher cake with vanilla ice cream, the lemon sorbet with cava and the chocolate cake with English cream.
I think the service is the key to this business because every time I go, I wonder where they find so many good waiters. The majority are asian and maybe filipino, like the owners. The fact is that they are rather dry and very efficient. They pride themselves on speed and a constant pressure to take your plate away as soon as you have finished eating. One table leaves and the next one enters. Its something that I´ve gotten used to there, but if you finish eating and you want to relax while you finish off a bottle of wine or rest a bit, the waiters are soon annoying you about the dessert and then the check. If you ask one to wait, they will pass your table off to another waiter who will repeat the same process. The answer is easy, don´t get stressed out, no pressure and they wait.
And finally the price is a strong reason to return. The dishes are at most 10€ (the price of the duck) and normally cost 8€. The desserts are about 4€ and the bottles of wine are normally about 13€. In all, the dinner this time cost us 31€ for two main dishes, a bottle of the house wine and a dessert to share (they charge 1€ for the bread basket.)
I will conclude saying that we reccommend this restaurant 100% with its elegant space, good food and reasonable prices. The only problems that you might find are the closeness of the tables (you could take food from your neighbor´s plate with no problem) and the waiters who sometimes don´t allow you to calmly enjoy your meal. But if they were trained to hurry you along, I was trained to remain calm, so in that, we are both right. We ruskommend La Finca de Susana with 4 boquerones.
