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| - If you walk in the door, don't expect to walk back out with a full belly unless you're dropping a least $40-$50 per person before drinks. Do expect to get a delicious variety of very well-done Spanish classics like tortilla, chorizo or chicken in sherry.
Embrujo, and I suppose the tapas concept in general does well with groups. Our cast of about 30 was well-taken care of and I feel like our servers earned their auto-gratuity (something that usually grates me because it removes the incentive to actually do a good job). I wouldn't recommend trying this yourself, but our guest of honour was close to an hour late and we got no grief for it from the staff, at least that I know of. The only point of contention was with the wine service - they carried 3 house reds the night we visited, and one of the guests noticed at the end of the night that our server had been pouring the ~$10/glass house red instead of the ~$7/glass option. Better communication on the server's part could easily have avoided leaving a bad taste in at least one guest's mouth (so to speak).
Since we tried a rather large sample of the menu, it's worth running through the list with a few points on each. Foodgasms erupted occasionally around our table as some of these dishes were tried for the first time:
Olives
To snack on before dinner, dishes of green olives in oil were brought to the table. Perhaps the most delicious plain olives I've ever eaten - beautifully soft, fall-off-the-pit olives.
Tortilla $6 (a cross between quiche and frittata)
Spanish tortilla shares only its name with the Mexican variety. This is a baked mix of eggs, onions and potatoes and was surprisingly flavourful even before I topped it with a bit of the aioli-type spread that came alongside it (which added more than a hint of creamy goodness). One of our party grew up in Spain, and swore by both the tortilla and the olives as being the next best thing to home.
Champanones al Ajillo $7 (Mushrooms in garlic olive oil)
More then one guest was raving about the mushrooms, saying they were the best they'd ever had. I wouldn't go that far personally, but they were fantastic for sure: tender, juicy and dripping with garlic oil.
Patatas Bravas $7 (Homefries, sort of)
I found these a bit salty, as did many in our group. Basically, we're talking about home fries topped with a tomato-based sauce. Nothing to write home about.
Pechuga de Pollo al Jerez $9 (Chicken in Sherry)
I was fortunate to have been seated with several vegetarians, meaning it was open season for me on the meat dishes. This worked beautifully with the chicken and chorizo (up next), and I think I may have eaten a plate of each myself! The chicken was cut into perfect bites if you're looking for something more than a delicate nibble, but the flavourful coating was rich enough to overcome the low surface-area-to-volume ratio that arises with larger chunks of meat and can lead to poor flavour density.
Chorizo Seco $14 (Diced Chorizo)
Surprisingly skinny sausages, thinly sliced and served in oil (again with the oil!). The menu says it's served with cheese, but I didn't detect any. No matter - still delicious. A little spicier than I would have expected for Spanish food, but wouldn't scare away anyone but the wimpiest of diners.
Croquetas de Bacalao $8 (Codfish Croquettes)
Beyond the potatoes, this was the only other miss of the night. I suppose there's something to be said for nodding at tradition, but the fact is that cod is bland, and the sauce it was served with didn't do much to help. I wouldn't bother with this one again.
Generally, we were very happy with the meal and the experience, though value-for-money was a concern, notwithstanding the quality of the food we enjoyed. The flamenco show wasn't overly exciting, but the live music that accompanied it made a nice backdrop.
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