I chose to dine at Malabar on our last night here in Charlotte. I trusted the reviews and decided to give this place a shot. First off, let me start by saying that the service is bare minimum and our waitress barely spoke english. The complimentary bread that was given to us was not warm and neither was it fresh. It honestly tasted like I was eating 5 day old baguette with olive oil. As we were browsing through the menu, we realized that the paella had some fine print to it ( a minimum order of 2 ), $18 dollars per pax. Why would you state that pricing on your menu if it is basically required to order 2 portions, and of the same flavor? It almost seems like a scheme trying to make you order the Paella for $36.
Since we were in the mood for some paella anyway, we decided to order 2 portions of the Paella de Pescado. Wow. I'm no paella connoisseur, but this was by far the worst paella I have ever had. The only thing I'll at least credit them for is the generosity of seafood. There were at least 8 clams, 8 mussels, 2 huge shrimps along with many other seafoods. However, the seafood wasn't fresh and all I tasted was literally the sea. The sangria that I ordered was fine but the presentation could be improved. A solid 3/5 stars for that. At the end of our meal, we were given a complimentary chocolate mousse cake. That was nice surprise but I was really expecting better food at a restaurant with such a great reputation. An absolute let down.