DISAPPOINTING. AVOID except for the view, or the cozy seeming bar. Whatever they advertise about having cigars is a fallacy as we weren't allowed in this area. Also this place is an over 50 crowd, just FYI.
We literally got the last parking spot and there is truly nowhere else nearby to park. We arrived and were seated at a table that rocked so badly our water would have fallen if we shifted. We waited for 10 minutes before anyone came to greet us or say anything, despite watching tables get served or cleared all around us. Was it too hard for someone to at least acknowledge our presence and say hi? Catastrophic flaw in dining 101, don't leave your tables sitting wondering if they've been seen. It was also very, very cold in the dining room, and the lighting is so bright you can't see outside to the beautiful riverfront anyway, eliminating any hope of romantic ambiance despite being riverside. Oh and the music is mid 90's misery (Celine Dion.) Come on! Isn't this a fun, fancy, modern cozy romantic Spanish influenced restaurant? Try again...
We were moved to a new table that didn't rock, fine, and a nice waitress took our orders. The wine was great but the olive and cheese plate appetizer was mediocre for the price. The olives were cheap and pitted, the cheese was nothing exciting (one cheese was a cheap Roquefort style wrapped in even cheaper yellow party-tray cheese) and except for the bread the rest was far from the quality we'd been hoping for.
The wine list is fairly baffling. A mediocre Kendall Jackson goes for $7 and is spelled wrong anyway. No vintages are listed and the list is inconsistent in the information it provides. In some cases you are just offered the name of the vineyard, as is the case for the more expensive $100+ bottles. When I order an expensive bottle I want to know vineyard, grape and vintage at a minimum. Sometimes on this menu you get the name of the grape or blend listed, but not always. So, we ordered glasses of something we recognized given our inability to decipher what the rest were.
All entrees are expensive ($30 / plate.) My wife's fish was flavorful but clearly overcooked and rubbery. Her favorite part was the green beans. And what is an "evening potato" anyway? I have family in Spain and so when I order Paella in the states it's typically for a laugh, but they did a decent job here. It lacked characteristics of something authentic and the fish was overcooked (rubbery scallop, very tough shrimp, only 2 or 3 clams and mussels), but the flavor was still good. It is in mid to southern Spain style, not Catalunya / Barcelona (northeast) style as the restaurant's name would suggest. All of the food was extremely salty too, we guzzled our waters as a result. My Spanish family would have been universally insulted, but at least amused.
We heard someone at an adjacent table comment that their creme brulee was runny, like a pudding rather than a custard, so we avoided dessert. They do bring a complimentary small "shot" of a nice sweet almondy liquor similar to a Dorinha or Almendrado (kind of like an Amaretto.) The man who seems to be the proprietor is very friendly and claims to make killer bloody mary's.
Overall we like the concept and the bar and area around it looks cozy, but the main dining room and experience won't motivate our return until they can improve the wait staff, ambiance and quality of food for the value (two of us cost $115.)