Iboo

[Rogelio]

It seems like all the starred chefs are opening fast food restaurants in Madrid, last week El Mundo had an article talking about Adrà's Fast Good (also debated here), Juan Pablo de Felipe's La Paninoteca (a sandwich and rolls bar) and now Coque's Mario Sandoval has just opened Iboo, a new place where as they say you can have Alta Cocina in a short time.

So we went there yesterday. The place thet is suposed to be the first branch of a chain, is very modern and more confortable than a fast food place but far away from the standard restaurant comodities. The service was inexpert and the restaurant still needs to reach it's cruising speed. But details like ofering four diferents breads and waters, two kinds of vinegar for the salads are promising.

The menu was divided in first courses: mainly pasta, salads and vegetables and sadwiches. The second courses are divided in fish: Maki sushi, carpaccios, baked fish, and the meats: Carpaccios again and some poultry dishes.

It's said that once you order your meal it takes three minutes to get to your table, but in the end it's a bit more. Then there are a few desserts, mainly fruits fith foams.

For 20 euros it is a good option if you are a businesman who doesn't want to eat a sandwich or a burguer every day, but in the end is just another daily menu restaurants but giving modern food instead of traditional dishes. Nice try.

Edited June 29, 2004 by Rogelio (log)

[vserna]

Clumsy stuff right off the bat. I dropped by the other night, 11 PM. A sign said 'open to 12 midnight'. Got in and a fellow tells me the kitchen's closed, and they can't serve me. I point out the sign, and he says, "Oh, this means that midnight is when we close the restaurant." I told him that restaurant opening hours mean that anyone coming in during those hours must be served. He looked at me, somewhat puzzled: "Yeah, that's what someone else already told us. Must be a mistake we made."

Professionalism is crucial in the restaurant business. So I don't think they're off to a glowing start.

[pedro]

I don't totally understand the reason why a promising chef like Mario Sandoval, whom many already consider more than promising, having so much room to develop a successful career in high-end cooking and possibly lead the post-Adrià generation, chooses so early to devote what I presume are significant efforts to an area like fast food. Because is fast food, no matter how much they try to dignify it, what we're talking about here. Franchising as the ultimate goal.

Money could be the reason, I guess. That's understandable. Whether he will be able or not to continue with his excellent work at Coque, which IMHO still requires heavy and close supervision, time will tell. I hope he will.

Leaving service issues aside (and the hot temperature in the restaurant), the food is not bad. They offer a total of 35 dishes in the usual categories (salads, starters, meat, fish, dessert). In fact, some of the dishes are quite good. I enjoyed a few bites I took from a carpaccio dressed with a strong sauce made of oil, paprika and rosemary (this as the dominant ingredient). The hot dishes (in terms of temperature, not of spiciness) were perhaps the most disappointing. The effect of the microwave oven was clearly noticeable in the dishes we had. Pasta, for instance, was overcooked.

Let's see if the concept is well received among madrileños. I see they run the risk to fall in a dangerous middle ground, where the people who are likely to eat at fast-food joints don't appreciate enough the food to pay more for it and the people who would appreciate the food simply don't want to have it in that kind of environment.

Oh, they have a web site: IBOO

[Bux]

I'm among those who consider Mario Sandoval more than promising. He certainly delivered when we had lunch at Coque with Victor. In a two week trip when it almost seemed as if every two days we hit a new high, and we began on a high note with our first meal, Coque, in a nondescript town about a half hour from Madrid was a highlight of our trip. That restaurant was full and everyone came from Madrid. He couldn't make more profit by moving that restaurant to Madrid and his rent would be higher. It seems few chefs are content to suvive with one restaurant these days. So whether it's money or the idea of a new challenge, chefs drive themselves in new ways. On paper, or in this case, on the web, the idea looks good. It seems he's interested in offering fast, good and healthy or at least the appearance of healthy with whole wheat breads and salads, but Madrid is full of places where one can eat well and quickly. Tapas is a way of life and it serves to provide quick tasty snacks and even meals in quick time. Both Iboo and Adrià's projects seem better suited to France or America, where bad fast food is already well entrenched. What the are offering is modernity however and that should have some appeal as long as Spain's economy does well. Overcooked pasta and and the absence of a proprietor who cares about welcoming his guests is going to work hard against the concept and as Pedro says, the middle ground can be a treacherous place where you please no one.

[pedro]

I see a major difference between Adrià and Sandoval projects. Whereas Adrià is focusing on providing the same products you could find at any fast food venture, burguers, sandwiches and such, with the twist on the quality of the ingredients, which is supposed to be better, Sandoval has taken a riskier approach. He intends to deliver more ellaborated dishes (remember the motto: "Alta cocina Mediterránea sana y rápida", Fine Mediterranean cooking healthy and fast) at an equivalent price to Adrià's Fast Good. That's debatable, looking to Iboo's menu.

[Bux]

I suppose "alta" is relative, but the essence of haute cuisine or alta concina is one of very labor intensive work and it can't really be both the highest quality and cheap. There is a lot of cooking that can be done in advance and that can be described as "fine," but there's always some small loss when it's done in the quantities that are necessary to see a real savings. Soups lend themselves well to mass production, but I was looking at a dish of mixed vegetables on the Iboo web site. To produce that dish in a fine state is not going to be easy in a franchise set up.