Moscatel, from a cloistered convent converted into a cooking school with a vegetable garden and restaurant

It is paradoxical that the convent that Queen Isabel II of Bourbon donated to the cloistered Franciscan Conceptionist nuns in 1859 in the municipality of El Pardo (Madrid) has become a bustling cooking school over time. In a modern complex equipped with training classrooms and a student residence whose most striking face is occupied by Moscatel, a restaurant with its own vegetable garden whose management is not in charge of the students but by hospitality professionals in independent facilities. The entity that acquired it in 2020 has spent three years fine-tuning its facilities.

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At the helm of Moscatel is Carlos Ruiz, who could hold up his soft and original Russian salad as a calling card, second best in Madrid in the contest organised by Acyre in 2023 (Association of Chefs and Pastry Chefs of the Community). In the rest of its menu, with a traditional profile, croquettes, salpicones, marinades, sautéed, fried foods and salads. Suggestions that precede the trunk of its most relevant specialties: paellas over the olive flame and grilled meat and fish. Why isn't there a spoon dish on the menu? Any reason to marginalize legumes in a cooking school?

Mountain rice, with rabbit, black pudding and mushrooms, from the Moscatel restaurant. Image provided by the local. Fernanda Garnica

The fried foods of the appetizer (ham and prawn croquettes; cod and Idiazabal cheese fritters), pass with more sorrow than glory; grilled artichokes with lamb sweetbreads and orange peel lack grace and have bitter notes to spare; The seafood salad is satisfactory, and the mushroom sautées are irregular: the chanterelles and mushrooms are pleasant: the one with cow's tongue with squid and octopus, and the one with boles with egg yolk is not at all stimulating.

Tripe from the Moscatel restaurant. JOSÉ CARLOS CAPEL

Not to be missed are the tripe, which are particularly tasty. Neither do grilled red meats such as T-bone steak or low loin, where only garnishes, chips and piquillo peppers are detracting, which can be greatly improved. And their rice dishes are worth it. They are made in open sight on rectangular steel trays, according to the model developed from 2008 onwards by the great Alicante chef Kiko Moya of the restaurant l ́Escaleta in Cocentaina. Dry rice dishes, of the Albufera variety, with loose grains and marked flavours: the seafood and monkfish tail is successful, and even better the mountain rice with trotters, rabbit, black pudding and mushrooms. With the desserts, of homemade range, the slide of the entire menu is maintained. They got the flan and the cheesecake, and their alleged whiskey cake in a glass was pitiful. Adrián de la Rosa, a great professional, tries to bring order to a noisy room that tends to be too noisy.

Interior of the Moscatel restaurant, in El Pardo, Madrid. Image provided by the local. Fernanda Garnica

Muscat

• Address: Avenida de la Guardia, 21, El Pardo (Madrid)
• Telephone: 915 466 041
• Hours: Closed: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights
• Price: Between €50 and €60 per person

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