BITTERSWEET SYMPHONY…read more Mesón Sabika is a truly beloved restaurant with whom I have a complicated history. ______________________ ***REVIEW #1,300*** ______________________ As hundredth milestone reviews go, this one is deeply personal -- I was supposed to have my wedding & reception here in March 2020.  That never happened due to things far beyond my control (damn pandemic) and I've been not-so-secretly pining for that moment ever since. I wound up tying the knot with the love of my life at a nearby park but without any of the fanfare, guests, food, liquor, live band, florist, or photographer.  We had already placed a sizeable deposit on a food & bev package, so when Mesón management abruptly raised the prices on us by 20% due to "volatile market pricing", we accepted a buyout in the form of gift certificates. Between dine-in and carryout orders, over the next 18 months we ate here a LOT.....I'll admit it was fun treating family & friends to dinner with reckless abandon.  Each experience was great, from the service and ambiance to the small plates and sangria.  We did get pretty ill following one visit, although I suspect it came from another guest in the vicinity, rather than a bout of food poisoning. The picturesque mansion - built in 1847 - is elegant but cramped inside, so I recommend dining on the gorgeous patio if weather permits.  Prices for tapas are the same regardless of lunch or dinner, although they do have entree specials unique to both meals (and their delicious paella is exclusive to dinnertime). Without going into crazy detail about each cold dish (of which there are 15) or hot tapas (of which there are 23), I'll call out a few highlights: the bacon-wrapped dates ($14), the duck confit ($16), the cold garlic potato salad ($15), goat cheese w/poached pear ($15), cured salmon in dill cream cheese ($14) and grilled skirt steak ($19). Their paella is great and feeds 3-4 people; I recommend the 'campesina' ($25 with chicken & chorizo) unless you're big on seafood, in which case the 'mariscos' ($42 with shrimp, mussels, clams, scallops, and octopus) might be up your alley.  Desserts are splendid, especially the crème brûlée ($12) and the pear tart ($12). The servers are all male (it's a Catalan thing) and very attentive.  Order a pitcher of white or red house sangria and let all your troubles melt away until you're set adrift on memory bliss.  Or until they kick you out. * TL;DR * Just like the 'tarta de chocolate' on their dessert menu, Mesón stirs up feelings in me that are poignantly bittersweet. On one hand, I've been here 10 times and have nothing but praise for the kitchen + atmosphere.  On the other hand, whenever I see the staff prepping the adjacent event space for a wedding, I get wistful and cry a teeny bit inside.  Couldn't the COVID outbreak have waited one more month, until after my nuptials? The restaurant biz is tough with plenty of overhead, but Mesón is still chugging along and serving the same excellent tapas since 1990.  Anyone who's ever dined here can attest it's a gorgeous venue with spectacular food and professional service. I highly recommend Mesón Sabika for lunch or dinner, and if you're considering having a wedding here, do it.  Hopefully you'll have better luck than me.

Let me start with the setting because it genuinely earns its reputation. The grounds are stunning…read moreand you can immediately understand why people book weddings here. It's a beautifully converted old mansion with manicured outdoor spaces and an elegant interior. The white tablecloth atmosphere delivers on the promise of a special night out. That said, if you're coming expecting a transportive Spanish dining experience, temper those expectations. A few decorative plates on the walls aside, the space reads more traditional Southern manor than Iberian escape. Charming, yes. Spanish, not really. Now the food, because that's where things get interesting. The cream of rice soup was a genuine highlight. Buttery, brothy, deeply comforting. The kind of dish that makes you lean in after the first spoonful. The baguette served alongside it though? Stale. Sliced too far in advance and the butter arrived ice cold, straight from the fridge. At $100 plus per person, that is a detail that matters. The Queso con Pacanas had beautiful individual components but suffered from what became a recurring theme of the night: strong flavors competing rather than collaborating. The pungent cheese steamrolled everything else on the plate. The wine soaked pears showed up again later on the Chuleta de Cerdo, and while the idea is lovely, serving a pear half unsliced in a fine dining context means you're asking the guest to do compositional work that the kitchen should have already done. The Jamón Iberico is the most expensive item on the menu and the meat itself is worth every penny. Nutty, buttery, exceptional on its own. But the parmesan blanketing the flatbread crisps overpowered it completely, and a lone raw garlic clove sitting on the plate with no instruction is not fine dining. Our server was sweet enough to explain you're meant to rub it on the cracker yourself, and she handled it with grace, but that explanation should not have been necessary. The Patatas Bravas were well seasoned with a solid aioli but landed mushy rather than crispy. A miss. The Gambas a la Plancha was the clearest win of the evening and not by coincidence. It was the simplest dish. Well seasoned shrimp, bright lemon butter, nothing fighting for attention. Sometimes restraint is the whole answer. The Chuleta de Cerdo had a beautifully cooked, smoky and peppery pork chop and a mushroom sauce that genuinely complemented it. But then the cinnamon heavy root vegetable puree pulled the whole plate in a completely different direction. Our server was genuinely wonderful, funny and warm and attentive even while training a new hire. She was the clearest bright spot of the service experience and the one thing we left talking about fondly. We left the rest of the meal a little baffled. The head chef hails from Valencia, and we were told that influence shows in the food. Maybe it does and our palates just weren't reading it. But between the confused flavor profiles, the inconsistent execution, and a cuisine identity that felt more scattered than intentional, we walked out laughing and scratching our heads more than satisfied. Beautiful place. Lovely server. The food just never quite found itself.

Cute little place with amazing small plates at a great price too!…read moreService was really good as well! They were attentive but not over bearing which was very nice! Great prices as well since we had maybe 4 plates that we shared along with a bottle of wine and the bill was under $100 which is hard to do nowadays!

Came to this place few days ago to celebrate…read more We came a little late, but yet we could try the dates with bacon, the octopus, the patatas bravas and the lamb. Amazing food and enviroment! Will come back again to try the paella, they ran out since we came late, but will try go earlier for that! Great to talk the manager and the story of this restaurant and will come back again for this hidden gem in barttlet.

My husband and I went here for lunch, it's been awhile since we've been here and we remembered it…read morebeing decent. It was pretty empty when we got there and we couldn't get a hold of anyone to seat us for awhile because she was in the patio area and didn't see us. It wasn't a big deal though. The elotes were way too acidic for us, too like forward. The mussels were decent, but the sauce was very strong tomato flavor...and nothing else. The pork tacos were very tough and dry. We were not fan of that one. The shrimp tacos were pretty good. The sauce was good and seasoned well. The steak tacos were super cheesy! I liked the tomatillo avocado salsa for it too. The churros were okay haha nothing too crazy special about it really. We didn't know it was raspberry flavored though, it didn't say on the menu.

This location closed. There is another Altiro in downtown Geneva!! On 3rd street but sure why it's…read morenot listed here on Yelp. It's great!! 507 S 3rd St Unit B, Geneva, IL 60134

Food 5 stars, service so fun and fresh ( Spanish style) they have have live music on the weekends…read more Elena and Carlos (the owners) always come to say hi to you,loved it.

Well, unfortunately, the only thing I can rate this restaurant on is poor communication with their…read morereservation system online. I followed the directions on their website to request a reservation for my husband and I and I never received an answer from them. They sent me a message saying that my reservation request is pending and they would get back to me within a couple hours. Never happened. We heard absolutely nothing from them. Crickets We ended up giving our business to somebody else. Poor business method of communication. Of course we would've called but the business is closed during the day and opens at 5 PM during the week. By then it was too late. Being from Spain, I was looking forward to this restaurant after just moving here from another state.

I ordered a side of rice to go with some soup I had for lunch! This little bit of rice cost me $4…read morealmost what a small bag of rice cost and the container is barely filled! This isn't the first time I order to go and they end up packing the bare minimum, never again!

Colombian food in the suburbs is not easy to find. Taste of Colombia is excellent if you don't want…read moreto drive into Chicago, though the parking lot is sometimes reminiscent of something in Chicago. Everything we had was perfect, from the bandeja, the mixed grill, to the mini empanadas appetizer. The service was friendly, and the food came out quickly. I had been here once before when it was at a smaller space in the same strip mall. This new space had several more tables.

Based on waitress's suggestion that 2 taps per person, 4 of us ordered below 8 tapas plus Pitisu…read morefor dessert. Filete con Patatas $17.50. Grilled rib eye served with potatoes and onions, drizzel with red wine sauce. Salpicon de Mariscos $13.50. Southern Spain-style seafood ceviche. Aguacate Con Cangrejo $12.00. Fresh crab meat with avocado, cucumber and tomato. Jamon con Pan de Tomate $12.75 Serrano ham with Catalan style tomato bread, olive oil, manchego cheese. Gambas al Ajillo $14.25 Casserole of garlic shrimp, olive oil, and chiles. Empanadilla de Cordero $14.00 Puffed pastry filled with lamb, and chorizo, drizzled with honey mustard mayo. Farfalle con Pollo, Setas y Tomate $11.75 Bowtie pasta with chicken, mushrooms, sun dried tomatoes, tomato cream sauce. Pisto Manchego $11.25 Slow cooked seasonal vegetables with garlic, olive oil, served with or with out egg. We loved all tapas except Pisto Manchego because my wife did not like eggplants. Wish better quality of beef in Filete con Patatas, but the sauce was great. All others tasted awsome.

Came here with 4 friends on a Sunday evening right when they opened at 5 PM. It was quiet for half…read morean hour and then groups started trickling in. Attentive and friendly service. The men's bathroom is straight ahead, the women's bathroom is on the right. There's not clear signage so it caused some confusion for my friends. We ordered a variety of dishes but the stars of the show: - Cabrillas Barcelona - Pulpito a la Plancha - Mero con espinacas al Limon The patatas bravas has a small kick to it. This was my first time having this dish smothered in the aioli. I prefer the aioli on the side so I can dip my potatoes.

I absolutely love Olde Madrid. They are easily one of the best restaurants in all of southeastern…read moreWisconsin. I forgot to take a photo of the Argentinian steak with chimichurri sauce because when it hit the table, it went straight into my mouth lol. Mama Chuey's Bistec is also beyond delicious. They don't take reservations but they have fabulous staff, everyone is friendly. If you order paella, make sure you get that order in right away because it takes 40ish minutes because it's made to order individually. The paella is phenomenal too! I haven't had anything that wasn't good! Just remember that these tapas are meant for sharing. And you'll most likely order too much.

Food was good. Service was horrible. We had to track our server down every time we needed anything.read more

Went alone to grab a bite after work. Sat at the bar and the service was great. I like to try fun…read moredrinks the. Bartender had some very good recommendations. I am glad I tried it. I had a sangria and dates in bacon. And shrimp. Thai was perfect for me an easy meal to cook. Oh wait I did not cook it was not loud tbe day I was there but ca. imagine that on the weekend it might be loud. Definitely go for a taste and stay for a drink. Had a nice time. I love tapas it's definitely a fun food and I think it's something enjoyable because you get to sample little bit of everything which is my favorite way to eat

I really enjoyed La Tasca. I had never been to a Spanish restaurant prior to dining here. I love…read morethe idea of tapas, and I was excited to try Spanish cuisine. I was not disappointed. They have a nice variety of tapas to choose from, and all were delicious. We tried many on the menu. They also have full dinners/traditional plates. Trying the different tapas was more fun. Service was awesome. Our waiter was attentive and helpful. I also really enjoyed the ambiance and Spanish decor and overall feel. The drink menu is great as well. I had the raspberry sangria and it was really good. I attached photos of a few of the tapas we tried.

What a cozy little restaurant with so much attention to detail on interior decor. There's plenty of…read moreseating indoor and outdoor. Waiters/waitresses are super friendly and helpful. All of the food was excellent and extremely delicious, cooked to perfection. My recommended dishes: Bacon wrapped dates: Your typical sweet baked dates wrapped in bacon but with a unique creamy tomato sauce that takes it to the next level! Free tuna salad on bread: Dont actually know what this is but it was on the house and I enjoyed this very much. It was light, flavorful, and so refreshing. Gambas A La Pancha: Extremely soft and juicy shrimp with much roasted garlic in lemon garlic Platanos con Helado: Ugh so good! Sauteed banana thats fragrant and soft, drizzled in caramel served with a side of vanilla ice cream. In love with this dessert, would come back for it. Overall had a wonderful experience and 10/10 would come again and recommend!

Excellent service excellent food this is a must do kind restaurant it was amazing and everything…read morewas absolutely delicious. nothing was really bad. There was just a few things that were out of this world.