Spanish Tapas Bar

Last night we went out to dinner at the Spanish Tapas Bar (Brunswick St in the Valley) for Faye's birthday.

While the company was excellent, the food and service was not.

To start with, I tried to order a bottle of wine from the wine list, only to be told that only the house wines were actually available. When I asked what they were, the waiter had to go back inside and find out (black mark 1). They came back with a choice of two - of which we chose the Chardonnay, which was ok.

After about 45 minutes the staff decided it would be good if we ordered. At this point (after letting up look at the menus for three quarters of an hour), we were informed that we could only order combinations or banquets. Apparently this was best for us (after less than an hour in their restaurant, how could they tell??), as well as being 'easier for them". Black mark 2.

So, we order the $42 Tapas Banquet with 6 others, while everyone else chooses a combination. There's a bit of a wait for the food (about 30 minutes) which is ok (we are after all a big group), until it comes time to serve and the staff have forgotten who ordered what. Now, we are again told, we must remember what we ordered (difficult when they have taken the menus away, and allowed us to order by number, but are serving meals by english names when they are listed in spanish in the menu ... chaos). Black mark 3. Except for the banquet number 3 - which keeps coming and coming and coming. We even get some of other people's meals - very nice, but they were hungry. The worst part of this was that there was too much food to fit on the tables. Don't they serve this banquet all the time? Surely this shouldn't be a problem? Black mark 4. Also, the banquet didn't include any dessert / coffee, which I think was a little stingy.

The most disappointing part was that nothing was outstanding. It was all ok, but nothing was great. Nothing I would go back for.

Finally, it's time to pay. It's one bill per table which isn't unexpected, but then they try to overcharge us. I wasn't involved in this, but it looked stressful and by all accounts we won, so no black mark for that. However, black mark 5 comes from the $30 House Chardonnay. It was a $10 bottle.

So my recommendation - the Spanish Tapas Bar is a last resort place if you have some big eaters you need feed. You can get better food, better service and better value elsewhere. I rate it about even with Sizzler.