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| - I blame my disappointment on myself, honestly. I should have expected that an establishment like this would be severely overhyped, but I couldn't help but want to try Pittsburgh's own James Beard-nominated "best new restaurant."
After waiting 4 weeks for a Saturday reservation at 5pm, we arrived at the restaurant 6 minutes before our reservation time to find the establishment closed to the public with a sign on the door. A small crowd of hopeful diners gathered outside the door as the team within just stood there and watched us. I understand that many restaurants do this--refuse to open their doors a minute before "opening time"--mostly just because they feel that they can get away with it, and I just find it to be extremely poor customer service. I'm here a polite few minutes before my reservation, and I'm not trying to disrupt your pre-service ritual--I'm just trying to get out of this 34 degree April snowfall.
Once we were allowed inside at precisely 5, service was decent enough for our party of 6. Our server made recommendations for how much food to order and was honest what we should expect for plate sizes.
My SO and I ordered the OXTAIL Montadito, the PIMIENTOS DE PADRONES, PUERRO A LA PLANCHA, and the BACALAO Plate. We both liked the oxtail--the meat was super tender, and the funkily fragrant Mahon cheese was a wonderful complement. The padrone peppers were tasty but nothing very special, while the spring onions were delightfully sweet and nicely charred. The bacalao was nice and tender but had little flavor by itself--my favorite bite on the plate was the cauliflower. My fiancee disliked the lemony notes in the green sauce on the plate, feeling it to be rather dissonant against the fish, or, in his words, "This tastes like cheap lemon-lime jello."
Overall, nothing was UN-tasty, per se, and the oxtail could even be called excellent, but nothing blew our minds. I enjoyed the flavors of the vegetable dishes, but they were both so oily that it was a bit repulsive. My green onions' romesco sauce sat in a moat of grease. Our friends who ordered the ALCACHOFA A LA PLANCHA felt the same way about their dish--their artichokes came with oil pooled in the hearts.
While I appreciate Severino's take on a tapas restaurant, I feel that $6 for 3 bites of oxtail on a baguette chip is complete departure from the spirit of a true Spanish tapas joint, which offers small bites as a free complement to ordered drinks. I'm not suggesting his entire menu should be free of charge for a glass of the (pretty decent) red or white sangria--I'm only speculating whether the astonishing high prices for very little and non-lifechanging bites is taking advantage of a PIttsburgh food scene that jumps at anything new and fresh in this town. My thoughts are, sadly, yes.
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