Area: La Latina
Category: Lightweight, you can expect to spend 15-20 euros per person
Madrid is often considered a bit of a vegetarian-unfriendly city, and it's true that veggies are not exactly all over the place at traditional tabernas and bares: most dishes served in these venues de toda la vida tend to be meat or fish based. In the lunch place next to my office your only pseudovegetarian option would be a sandwich that actually includes tuna :).
On the other hand, this gap in Madrid's food market is happily filled by various alternative places featuring an interesting and usually rather eclectic form of cocina sana (healthy cooking). So it would probably be more correct to say that there are many vegetarian-unfriendly places in Madrid, but the city still offers valid options even if you don't feel like eating animals. Just to be precise.
The place
Viva la Vida, like other fashionable green restaurants, deploys a sort of tree-hugging-chic look in its decor: low lights, happy colors, ethnic stuff hanging here and there, and some nice touch like the head of a plush lion placed on the wall. Overall the atmosphere is pleasant and rather cozy. There is no menu here; instead you take a plate and head to the buffet, where you can grab the food that you want. Once you are done amassing all sorts of stuff you go to the counter; the bill is determined by the final weight of your plate - a funny concept, no? and the fact that you can basically get in and start eating right away is somewhat very rewarding.
Now, in terms of food quality vegetarian places can pose a bit of a dilemma if you are a restaurant reviewer, I think, as you can fall in different psychological traps. You might end up giving a grade that is higher than deserved, as you think that the food is meh but you should somewhat reward the place for being vegetarian/ecological/green; or the opposite, you might give low grades just because secretly you are convinced that no restaurant that doesn't serve animals can be REALLY good.
Doing my best to maintain an absolutely objective attitude, I'd say overall food here does not disappoint, and it's good enough to satisfy non-vegetarians (like me).
Again like other fashionable green restaurants, Viva la Vida does two interesting things:
1) it tries to mimic traditional meat and fish dishes - as if to demonstrate that vegetarian food can be just as good. So we have soy burgers, croquetas de avena, champiñones y queso (oats, mushrooms and cheese croquettes), meatballs actually made of cereals, funny stuff like the chori-tofu (fake chorizo);
2) it fills you up quite a lot, with dishes that tend to be rich - as if to fight the stereotype that associates vegetarian food to meagre meals and strict dietary restrictions. See the epic desserts section, with abundance of chocolate.
The general style of the food preparation shows a lot of Arabic and Mediterranean influences, with dishes based on couscous, bulgur, the levantine tabulé et cetera. Sometimes inspiration comes from further east, with Indian curry and vegetarian sushi.
Anything bad?
Well, I found a bit odd that they don't seem to have a working website - although this is not really spoiling the eating experience, of course.
I'd say mainly I felt the lack of a killer application; meaning, the food is generally good, but I didn't find anything there that made me really scream with pleasure. But could be my non-vegetarian tastebuds, really.
Also, it doesn't seem like all the dishes are always really superfresh - maybe they are, actually, but they fail at conveying that impression to the user. And sometimes stuff that is supposed to be served really hot was just slightly warm: all little things that somewhat end up reminding you that you are still eating at a buffet (albeit an ecological one) and not at a "proper" restaurant.
Finally, I also believe they could state more clearly which dishes are ok for Vegans, as sometimes I imagine you might be left doubting.
Overall
But overall, pretty good! I should mention that the place works also as a tearoom; that they have some nice organic drinks (beer, wine and juices), and, last but not least, they have wi-fi. Oh, and if you really like what they serve, there is also a shop-only Viva la Vida in Calle Huertas.
Final grade: 7
Costanilla de San Andrés 16
913 663 349
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