Review: the impressive Neptuno VIP Lounge in Madrid Terminal 4S (Priority Pass)

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• Josh says:

  13 Jul13 July 05:28

  I’ve been there a number of times and it’s one of the best priority pass lounges I have seen. The other madrid priority pass Lounges are also pretty good, but this is probably the best.

• Michael C says:

  13 Jul13 July 06:47

  I was wondering what time approx. you were there, @Rhys ?
  My consistent experience in Spain has been that they only bring out the “good” food at what they considered to be lunchtime – otherwise, it’s back to the olives and peanuts (and potentially dodgy mini-sandwiches)!

  • Rhys says:

    13 Jul13 July 07:36

    I arrived around 3pm and was there for around 2 hours!

• NFH says:

  13 Jul13 July 06:53

  We were there on a UK bank holiday Monday in May. It’s a very nice lounge, but the food was not as plentiful or with as much choice as in your photos. Maybe the food is plentiful only during traditional Spanish meal times, as is the case in the Iberia lounge.

  • Londonsteve says:

    13 Jul13 July 12:02

    I think this is correct. Despite regular visits to Spain over the last decade, I still can’t fathom when exactly are ‘Spanish meal times’. Seems to be all over the place and depends on where you live, what job you do (i.e. siesta or no siesta) and so on. Perhaps a Spaniard can reply and give us a rule of thumb of what’s considered ‘lunch’ and ‘dinner’ in the context of lounge dining?

    For some reason I’m consistently travelling through Spanish lounges when it’s clearly not meal times and I’m relegated to eating light bites that were delicious when they emerged from the kitchen hours beforehand but are unappetising by the time they end up on my plate!

    • lgflyer says:

      13 Jul13 July 12:55

      I would say in restaurants standard lunch is 13.00 to 15.30 and standard dinner 21.00 to 23.00.

    • NFH says:

      13 Jul13 July 13:32

      When I was working in Madrid, typical lunchtime was around 14:00 to 15:30. My Spanish colleagues told me that 2pm lunchtime was introduced by Franco. I believe that it was a result of changing Spain’s time zone to be in line with Germany. So what was previously 1pm became 2pm. In restaurants in Spanish cities, it’s very common for them to be deserted before 2pm, and then there’s a sudden influx of diners at 2pm.

      • Londonsteve says:

        13 Jul13 July 13:47

        That explains why churros is popular for breakfast! You need sustenance to get through from the morning to 2pm! Odd mealtimes are one of the single biggest reasons why I decided against working/living in Spain, otherwise I adore the country.

        • Gordon says:

          13 Jul13 July 15:31

          When I had my house in Almeria a few years ago, There were plenty of restaurants and cafes that had a menu whatever time of the day it was, And freshly cooked to order. Albox and Mojácar among my favourites places to eat. Plenty of Lidl and Aldi supermarkets now for good priced BBQ food.

        • Mike says:

          13 Jul13 July 23:45

          I’ve done the opposite: raised in Spain, professional life in the UK. And, I have to say, having a light lunch at noon (after having had breakfast at around 8.30am) only to then have to wait until 7-8pm for dinner is far from ideal.

          Breakfast till lunch in Spain: 5-6 hours.
          Lunch till dinner in the UK: 7-8 hours.

        • Londonsteve says:

          14 Jul14 July 00:20

          I completely agree. The biggest issue I find with UK lunch is how insubstantial it tends to be. A sandwich and packet of crisps is inadequate to see one through to 7pm (or later).

        • Charles Martel says:

          14 Jul14 July 02:11

          Churros are probably the last thing you’d want to eat if having a large gap between meals. While delicious, they’re very sweet and likely to causes a blood sugar rollercoaster as the body reacts with a healthy dose of insulin.

    • Mike says:

      13 Jul13 July 23:40

      Siesta? What are you, a farmer…?

• Binyomin Adilman says:

  13 Jul13 July 07:23

  It should also be noted that near the entrance to the kitchen there are two small locked refrigerators with glass doors that contain selections of Kosher or Halal food. Decide would you’d like and a customer service person takes it out for you.

• Michael Jennings says:

  13 Jul13 July 07:56

  I went there one time last year and wanted to eat, and there was no hot food at all and a very small selection of not very nice looking sandwiches. (Sufficiently not nice looking that I didn’t have any, even though I was hungry). It may have been before lunch was brought out, or that period in the late afternoon /early evening when it is impossible to get food in Spain or something, but the nature of air travel is that you eat when it fits with your travel schedule / body clock rather than local meal times, and the owners of a lounge should know that.

  The drinks selection was fine, but the lack of food made it a poor lounge experience for me.

  • dougzz99 says:

    13 Jul13 July 11:31

    Spanish lounges seem very time of day specific around food offerings. It’s an odd feature in an international airport lounge where people are all on different clocks, and want to eat around what time of day it is for them.

  • Chrisasaurus says:

    13 Jul13 July 18:23

    The Iberia lounge has consistently upsetting food in my personal experience

    • Blair Waldorf Salad says:

      13 Jul13 July 19:48

      I agree. I never leave satisfied.

• Felix Flyer says:

  13 Jul13 July 08:16

  Am currently in the lounge, flying Club Europe as I write this. Agree it is a lovely peaceful lounge and capacity looks ample to allow Priority Pass. My only disappointment is that the hot breakfast items only consist of scrambled eggs, hash browns and tomatoes. No sign of any hot meats.

  • lumma says:

    13 Jul13 July 09:05

    Why aren’t you in the Iberia lounge if your flying Club Europe?

    • Rob says:

      13 Jul13 July 09:13

      It’s arguably nicer, that’s why!

      • TGLoyalty says:

        13 Jul13 July 09:30

        Looking at the pics and the food I’d say it is nicer than the Iberia lounge

      • Patrick says:

        13 Jul13 July 10:53

        That’s a stretch. The iberia lounge is one of the best business class lounges in the OW network and the do&co food is excellent (albeit with some less-impressive downtime between main meal times) – along with a more premium drink section. AENA lounges have upped their game in recent years but if I’ve access to both it’s got to be Iberia every time.

        • Londonsteve says:

          13 Jul13 July 12:09

          Personally I’d agree with you, but it mainly comes down to whether someone’s a drinker or not. I like a tipple so for me it’s Sala Velasquez, if someone is searching for grub and to relax in a lounge-like space, Neptuno looks better. I like the IB lounge but I have to confess it’s a big, featureless expanse and not conducive to curling up with a book to while away a couple of hours between flights. It’s surprising they didn’t make more effort to create different ‘zones’ within such an enormous space and the bar is virtually hidden at the far end. If you turn left upon entering and plonk yourself at that end, pouring yourself a drink involves half a mile walk!

• JohnM says:

  13 Jul13 July 08:57

  ‘Peaceful, quiet and relaxing’ Sounds idyllic compared to any of the BA T5 lounge hellscapes lately! Occasionally I get some degree of tranquility in the 5B lounge if it’s a quiet flight period, but that’s a rarity!

• SBIre says:

  13 Jul13 July 10:50

  I don’t know why, but MAD is the only airport I ever get lost at. I can never find my way around, never find the lounge, never recognise anything! I do like the Iberia lounge though – especially the Spanish wines from the Vagabond-style dispensers

  • Londonsteve says:

    13 Jul13 July 12:13

    I’m with you. The signage feels very ‘busy’ and it can be hard to differentiate direction signs from marketing-type comms like adverts and shop signs. The labyrinthe layout is bewildering, all those helter-skelter ups and downs that leave one feeling disorientated. It’s a beautiful building but so not ‘human’ in scale, or promoting a sense of wellbeing. Takes far too long to transit too; fine if you’re flying once a year to Latin America, annoying if you’re a regular to and from London and therefore need to use T4S.

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