| rev:text
| - I really debated between 2 and 3 stars for this one. It's somewhere in-between. We visited a few weeks ago. Madison, WI is a very, very cold place. On this evening the wind was whipping and the temps were brutally cold. Sadly, the restaurant was also uncomfortably cold. We both wore our coats through the meal as did several tables around us. That should be something that gets noticed. When you see your customers sitting around with coats and scarves on, turn up the heat.
The space is pretty cavernous. It is divided into a large bar/tapas area on one side and a very large dining room on the other. One side of the dining room has an open view of part of the kitchen. Overall, it's an inviting place.
We tried several tapas including the Charred beets, Manchego, lemon, which really had no char on it at all and was pretty tame and boring. The standout of the tapas was Jamón Ibérico, tomato jam, relish. Jamon Iberico is a delicious, thinly-sliced ham-like product that may remind you of prosciutto or speck. These were both served in a crostini fashion.
We then moved on to grilled octopus. When it arrived it was an attractive dish with sliced, tender pieces of octopus thickly coated in smoked paprika. Each of us took a bite and looked at each other. It was insanely over-salted. We agreed it had to go back. The waitress declined to taste it, but happily replaced it. She then stated "can I get you a couple more tapas to fill the time?" Now, how would you interpret that? We both thought it was something like this "can I comp you a couple tapas while we fix the issue..." So, we say sure and she chooses a couple for us to try.
The octopus came and this one had no spice on it but rather had the spices on the side. That's not something we asked for, just something the waitress did. A couple issues. First, examining the spices in the little ramekin it was a mixture of salt and smoked paprika. This made me think that they are spinning these spices together then applying them. The problem was that the ratio was way off with entirely too much salt. The second issue is that anyone with even modest cooking skill knows that *when* you salt is very important. You can't just cook something then douse it with finishing salt. We spiced our own octopus, had a few bites and then called it a night.
When we get the bill - remember those "tapas I can get you...?" Well, they were on the bill.
One interesting thought. The very next night we tried another Spanish-influenced place in Milwaukee called Amalinda which was just plain amazing - like 4-star amazing. I got to thinking about the differences and developed a theory. It's clear that whomever designed the menu at Estrellon knows what he's doing. (This is another restaurant from a group owned by a prominent executive chef). I felt the same way about this place as I did about one of his other restaurants, Graze. It feels like the menu is designed, things are dialed in, and then it's turned over to staff. And from there, things go South. Conversely, at Amalinda, you can literally see the executive chef preparing every dish himself. No way is a James Beard nominee (or did he even win one?) making mistakes on how and when to salt a dish. The place where that is going wrong is with the staff. I think with stronger oversight, this place could really shine as the menu variety and design looks to be very strong.
I will give it another try and update here.
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