I guess having had a fair bit of experience with Tapas bars, I came with loads of expectations. Some were fulfilled, some were not.
For example, the bread with the salsa on top that we had, merely had a smidgeon of salsa on top. Friend commented that its worst than his own ones. Seriously, if they can't get the bread right in a Spanish tapas bar and charged a high price (around $27-28 from memory), then they might as well give it out for free. Even plain bread with Olive oil here costs $18.
Also had the Spanish Iberico Jabugo Ham (cured for 36 months). This is quite nice compared to other ones you can get from high end supermarkets - with a bit of marbling and not too waxy texture. Went well with the sherry. Other dishes we tried include the Blood Sausages. This came with a fried duck egg. We liked the taste of this dish but ultimately it was too chopped up into little pieces, plus there really wasn't that much of it to taste the dish. The duck egg might have been better if cooked in another fashion.
Had an octopus dish that had a pleasant flavour and a soft yet crunchy texture - really lovely. Slow cooked pork were pretty tiny pieces (2) and was nearly melt in your mouth although the flavour wasn't too special, the crackling skin on top was slightly too hard to chew instead of crunchy, but getting there.
Don't recommend the Red Mullet though, it was pretty much flavourless and came with some type of white beans (canolli?) that would have been better if it was cooked with a bit more stock, but as it is the whole package didn't work too well. I think the wine list is aggressive, with some nice sherries to been an aperitif or to go with some of the charcuterie cold cuts, but not enough brands. The red wine section needed more varieties than Tempranillos in my opinion even though it best suited the food.
All in all, food wasn't too bad but it wasn't very Spanish in execution and taste, nor design, even though the menu and its descriptions say otherwise. Felt like eating some kind of modern British or Australian food with Spanish influence instead. The prawns, the fish or the tortillas for example were not readily going to announce 'I'm Spanish'.
Great idea - but, needs some more refinement, particular with the cooking methods and also the too simple menu. Its needs more attention to the small details. One could even see some simple spelling mistakes on the menu - for example, BRAISED was spelt something else like BRASIED or similar. Perhaps this carelessness reflected the quality of their approach to food slightly, even if a Tapas bar should be a relaxed environment. Although it probably suits the Hong Kong market as it is now, otherwise it will be too ahead of its time in this 'too easily satisfied' place.
Video
