Alejandra Pombo designs the Mena Restaurant in the LaFinca Grand Café shopping centre in Pozuelo de Alarcón.

The Mena Restaurant, designed by Alejandra Pombo, is located in La Finca Grand Café in Pozuelo de Alarcón (Madrid), a new shopping centre that opened its doors in 2023, with the aim of revolutionising the concept of a shopping centre and with a focus on gastronomy.In a spectacular setting, with an artificial lake and a pontoon area and views of the new golf course in the development, La Finca aims to ensure that its customers focus on living experiences and enjoying the services, especially catering.

Mena is a restaurant whose essence revolves around the elements of fire, earth, water and wind, both in its decoration and ambience and in its cuisine. The claim that sums up this approach makes it clear: fire&bar. Its offer ranges from the spectacular food of chef Juanjo Canals, in which fire plays a fundamental role, to the very varied cocktail and drinks menu designed by Gonzalo Fernández.

The restaurant is distributed on two very different floors: the ground floor, which revolves around fire and earth, is decorated with materials such as weathered wood, leather, plaster and marble. It also has a traditional wood-fired oven for making pizzas and a grill for meat.

Separated by a large central staircase, which helps to understand the distribution of the restaurant into two spaces, the upper floor is a space in which the movement transmitted by its shapes, the simulated water lilies on the ceilings and the spectacular lamp that welcomes customers from the top of the staircase express the inspiration of the space in wind and water. The decoration of this floor features a mural designed to measure by the interior design studio, with a chromatic range integrated with the rest of the elements of the space.

Alejandra Pombo comments on her obsession with facilitating the maintenance of the restaurant. The furniture and all the materials have been chosen with their behaviour in the hustle and bustle of a space that has to be transformed according to the events it hosts. “We have combined noble materials such as marble in those pieces where you touch the material, like the tables, with porcelain, washable, fireproof and stain-resistant textiles, which are very important in restaurants and hotels” explains Alejandra.

The lighting in the restaurant has been specially designed to enhance the experience of the space with the right light at any time of the day.

This floor is more focused on leisure, especially at night, with its VIP areas, areas reserved for shows and live performances. On the lower floor is the pergola, with a quieter and more romantic atmosphere for those who prefer to enjoy the Mena experience without the hustle and bustle of the rest of the venue.

Project: Restaurante Mena La Finca.
Interior design: Alejandra Pombo Estudio.
Location: Pozuelo de Alarcón (Madrid).
Interior surface: 470 m² en 2 plantas.
Outer surface: 470 m².
Finished: 2023.
Photography: Francisco Gallardo.

Source: Alejandra Pombo Estudio.

Alejandra Pombo

Coming from a family of pilots, Alejandra Pombo (Madrid, 1983) is closely linked to her mother, also an interior designer, who with her restoration classes and her close relationship with design, marked her future as an interior design professional.

Graduated in Interior Architecture from the Polytechnic University of Madrid, she worked for six years with the interior designer Pascua Ortega. In 2010 she set up her own interior design studio. Since then he has carried out all kinds of projects, private homes, clinics, restaurants and national and international hotels.

His main objective as an interior designer is to understand and mimic the soul of each project in order to capture and materialise it as faithfully as possible. He is aware of the responsibility he has in each project and thanks to this requirement, he has managed to create a chameleon-like studio capable of creating spaces with their own identity.

She has carried out projects for large national hotel and catering groups such as Grupo el Paraguas (Numa Pompilio), Grupo la Ancha (Fismuler), Grupo Azotea (Cuartel del mar) or Grupo Lateral and different international groups such as La Única or Fayer. In addition, chefs of the stature of Paco Roncero (Momculinary) or Jesús Sánchez (Amós Rosewood Villamagna) have trusted Alejandra for their latest projects.

Within the hotel sector, she has worked on numerous projects for major chains such as Vincci Hotels, Kaizen Hotels or Can Tres Formentera.

Project by Alejandra Pombo