. "4"^^ . "2"^^ . "Carmen, carmen, carmen!\n\nThis newly opened Spanish restaurant on Queen W had set some high expectations for, as I had heard nothing but amazing things, and Carmen definitely met those expectations!\n\nMy party and I tried a large arrange of the tapas, as well as a couple of the desserts & paellas. \n\nThe standouts for me were:\n\n-Fried Artichokes with salt & aioli. Mmmm. Incredibly delicious. Fried yet still not too greasy like many fried foods can be.\n-Jicama con Aguacate: bite sized jicama shells filled with creamy avocado. Little bites of avocadoey heaven.\n-Paella de Montana: rabbit, escargot, artichokes, & tempranillo. The rabbit was cooked to PERFECTION - asbolutely amazing. The rice in the paella had those nice & crispy delicious bits like you can find in a really good paella. The flavours in the paella all worked so well together. A++\n\nThe Carmen Paella with shrimps, clams, mussels, scallops, chorizo, chicken & saffron, was good, but fell a little flat for me in comparison to the Paella de Montana. I think it may not have been cooked long enough as it was more runny than the other Paella we had. \n\nI'd say the Paella de Montana and tapas were on a different level than the desserts & way outshined them. We had the creme caramel, which was okay, but nothing special, and the Amole (sugar and milk infused with saffron, with pine nuts and an almond-pecan biscuit) which was yummy, but again, not on the same level as the rest of our meal.\n\nThis place is pretty loud, so if you want to sit and have a conversation with a group of friends during peak hours, be prepared, you'll be shouting a bit.\n\nAll in all, we had a GREAT experience here. I want to come back to try all of the delicious tapas. Om nom nom."^^ . . "2013-05-12T00:00:00"^^ . "0"^^ . "2"^^ . .