Perhaps the strangest, most interesting dining experience I have ever had. DiverXO is a three-star restaurant, but very different from any restaurant I have ever visited. But, let me set the stage first.
I arrived at DiverXO the evening of my last night in Madrid. I had made a reservation a couple weeks before, which in retrospect was strange, as the place has a 4 month waiting list. Well, I used American Express to make the reservation, which was a mistake. Their concierge is awful, but if I don’t want to do something I leave it to them. If you have an assistant, a bad assistant is better than American Express’ concierge. Anyways, my dining companion and I show up to the restaurant around 9:15, a little late of our 9:00 PM reservation.
They have someone who’s name is similar-ish to mine, but no reservation for me. Not a good sign, as this is my last night in Madrid. After some confused looking, we figure out that my reservation was never in existence, in fact it was canceled. The system did not accept it. Great. But since American Express made it, they did not tell me. So…here we are in a 3-star Michelin restaurant without a reservation.
This has never happened to me. So I am thoroughly confused. And even weirder, a table of 4 had not showed up to their reservation, almost 30 minute late at this point. They tried calling the group several times to no avail. So guess what, we somehow have a table.
And after all that, we sit at a nice table for 4, even though we are just two people. We start with our drinks, but something about the whole situation is terribly unsettling to me. Right as we are about to start our meal, guess who shows up.
And then, we get up. They promise us we will be able to eat. But we have to walk back out of the dining room to the nonexistent bar area and awkwardly stand…unsure if we are going to be able to dine. They serve us the first course, as we awkwardly stand around. At this point, I thought they were going to serve us the first course, then kick us out. The dining room simple did not have space.
A few terribly uncomfortable minutes later, they seat us. We’re actually going to eat. I’m scared they are going to poison our food or something – this really was a debacle. We are seated basically 45 minutes after arriving. Somehow…somehow they made it work.
What’s even better, a few minutes after taking our order…I BROKE MY CHAIR. As if things couldn’t get awkward enough. I was so embarrassed by the whole thing. But…but it worked.
Now, onto the food.
I can’t describe it. DiverXO is, without a doubt, the most interesting meal I have ever consumed. I had the pleasure of visiting a 2 – Michelin star restaurant earlier in the week; DiverXO was an entirely different level. The food was so unique, so delicious it was incomprehensible. If it continues on that trajectory, I have no doubt it can take over the top 10 restaurants in the world – it was simply that good. I have posted the “menu” in Spanish and English – it reads much better in Spanish, but the English version for the 3 people that read this on occasion.
Best meal in my life (outside of Chick-Fil-A, of course).
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