I went here for a casual birthday dinner recently and was very impressed. We were almost in Charlotte that day so we figured it would make sense to continue on to the city and get dinner a explore a bit. I had done a bit of research on dinner options beforehand and this place really caught my eye as I love most things Spanish and virtually all things Barcelona.
Anyway, the restaurant is tucked into a little shopping center away from downtown. It's a bit of an odd location, but the restaurant itself is really nice. A very nice bar divides the large dining room while the open kitchen is on the left side of the restaurant. The interior is feels both upscale yet laid back - it's a nice blend of refinement and casualness that seems like it would be hard to pull off. Lots of Spanish flags and bulls everywhere.
We began with a couple glasses of wine that were good and not too pricey. We also ordered a variety of tapas: fried goat cheese with honey, chicken & Serrano ham croquetas, grilled octopus, beef short ribs, potato omelette with spinach & manchego, and patatas bravas.
We received all our tapas in a staggered fashion throughout the dinner, which was nice. The goat cheese came first and was very tasty and pretty light so a good starter. I think the octopus came next - I generally have really loved grilled octopus when I've had it in the past, but this was terrible unfortunately. It was really tough and chewy and did not have a good flavor (plus it was $11 or so). Next was the croquetas which I thought were very solid. I would get those again. The beef short ribs were pretty tasty and the omelette was decent but maybe just needed some more seasoning. The patatas bravas were disappointing - too much pimentón in my opinion and they were pretty heavy. I know it is fried potatoes so heaviness shouldn't be a big surprise, but they could have been lighter and, unfortunately, they were also served at the very end of the meal. It would have been much nicer if they were at the beginning so you could have a few bites of them as you go and to avoid having a huge load of potatoes to eat at the end. We finished the meal with a piece of tres leches which was quite good.
The service was really good as well aside from the order of the tapas - our server (Bradley I think?) was one of the best that we have had in a long time. He was down-to-earth, very helpful and just generally an affable person.
The restaurant just really impressed me in general. If I lived in the area, I would certainly be here a lot. If they showed the Spanish soccer league matches that are broadcasted at 4pm on Saturdays, I would consider moving to the area. Well, not really but it would be amazing. I'll definitely be back here the next time I'm in Charlotte.
4.5