Stopped by from a Funeral and wanted to have an enjoyable, gastronome experience, so stopped by Emilio's Tapas. My bride often heard me speak of the various business lunches enjoyed by Moi, Since she's been to Barcelona, Spain and enjoyed many of Tapas meals there. If you cannot get out to Spain for its meals, Emilio's the next best thing! Marta, was our Waiter, Please view our snapshots of our meal, words have no meaning to the enjoyable feat that waits for you...in the mouth! read more

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Johanna was my waitress. She was excellent. Very fast and attentive. I will definitely be asking for her when I return!

The shrimp was good. The free appetizer on the house is a little salty and the squash soup was also a little salty. Keep in mind that I barely eat any salt. The sea food paella was good with lemon juice. The rice is a little too mushy though. I was expecting authentic paella to be in the dry side. These are the only two drawbacks form the food. We had to actually walk out to call our server or get someone's attention. Service was not the best though everyone was super friendly. The store itself has lots of characters with cultural decorations. read more

Emilio's Tapas - Paella Sea Food - Spanish Near Me - Hillside, Illinois

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I love this place. The tapas menu is extensive and they always have specials. Emilio himself introduced tapas to Chicago when he worked for cafe Babareba. He is still the best! read more

My husband and I stopped by at Emilio's to have quick dinner without reservations. We were presently surprised by the quality of food that we chose from the "specials of the day". Although it is 'tapas', size of the dish is not very small - I recommend ordering 1-2 dishes at a time as your dinner progresses. read more

Emilio's Tapas - Smoked salmon open sandwich - Spanish Near Me - Hillside, Illinois

This is my favorite tapas place. The area is not the best but it is so worth going. I have a few very close and still drive to 30 mins for tapas. I have already recommended this place to others who have gone and loved it as well. Go here! read more

Emilio's Tapas - Goat cheese, bacon wrapped dates! - Spanish Near Me - Hillside, Illinois

Me and my girlfriend, we were on the way to a concert and decided to stop here for a quick bite. It was great from the service to the food and drinks. The only bad thing I wish we had more time to try more tapas. Lucy was great! We'll be back soon. read more

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Heard about this place for awhile and finally has the chance to try it. Walk in for party of 7 and about 35 minutes wait got seated at the outside patio area. Foods are totally up to my standard about tapas and ordered the usual and all are great. Not disappointed and definitely will come back some other times with wife and try the rest of the items read more

While visiting family this week, we were treated to a fantastic meal at Emilio's! The food was delicious, the service was superb and the ambiance made for a wonderful experience. We had an assortment of tapas, paella and sangria. The alcachofas a la parrilla and dátiles con tocino were my favorite tapas! Highly recommend Emilio's for the food and great experience! read more

Emilio's Tapas - Assortment of tapas. - Spanish Near Me - Hillside, Illinois

Emilio's is our go-to for a fantastic date night. We've been multiple times and always find something fantastic in the menu, to narrow it down to a few dishes would be a disservice to the place. Ask your incredibly friendly server for a recommendation and you won't be disappointed! Now stop reading and just go!! read more

I've had great meals here and I've had okay meals here. YMMV. Staff is always friendly and accommodating. Good for groups to share a meal.

Excellent food and a large selection of tapas to choose from. Plenty of vegetarian options. Our group of 4 shared 8 dishes and all were too full for dessert. Good wine list with some wonderful Spanish bottles. Service was solid but I would have preferred more water on occasion. The ambiance is slightly "Spanish kitschy" and It is very loud so be prepared. read more

Absolutely the BEST tapas in the Chicagoland & the Midwest! Don't miss this hidden gem! read more

The best Spanish restaurant in the area... and AXEL one of the waiter is the most kind and nice person.. you have to try this restaurant!!!

Amazing food (try the paella)! Friendly staff. One of our favorites for Spanish tapas/cuisine!

The food at Emilio's is always superb! The ambience is warm and cheerful, and the service is very efficient. Emilio's is a favorite place of mine for dinner and drinks, though live music can certainly interfere with good conversation at times. read more

Been frequenting Emilio's for decades. Never disappoints. Absolutely must have the garlic potato salad!!

Once again, Emilio's provided excellent service. Anna was wonderful and seemed to know exactly when to check in with me. I love trying new beers and she was able to describe the various Spanish beers they had on their Happy Hour menu. The 1906 Red Vintage was a great recommendation. I started with a couple of my "go to" tapas... Dátiles con Tocino (bacon-wrapped dates). HH $4.25 vs Regular $9.95. Anna let me know that the HH order only comes with 2 dates vs the regular comes with 5 dates. So, if you're sharing, the regular is a much better deal. My other "go to" was the Aceitunas Marinadas (marinated olives). I love olives and for $1.95...it's a tasty steal! Thankfully, I wasn't super hungry because my final order was the Caracol Emilio (sauteed escargot served on a crouton with tomato sauce and topped with aioli). It didn't have much tomato sauce on it, but was still very tasty. There was only one on the plate...so I guess that's why it was just $2.50 per plate. Lol I also happened to be there on a Friday where they had a Spanish classical guitar duet performing in the bar called "Montage". I'm not usually a fan of entertainment like that in a restaurant because they are usually way too loud. However, this was a surprisingly nice experience. Some singing, but mostly acoustical...very nice dinner music...and not too loud. Today's experience made me want to rate them a bit higher than the last time. I can't give 4.5 stars, so they get a 5! Well done, Emilio's! read more

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Emilio's served our group of 50+ with professionalism and delicious food. It was a bright spot on an otherwise gloomy day. Our group took over a side room, and Emilio's served all of the food family-style. And even more fun, each of the dishes was plated beautifully. The showmanship definitely came through. We started with the Ensalada De La Casa, which featured giant slices of tomatoes and eggs over mixed greens. It was a step above other house salads, which seem to always feature the cheapest greens and not much else. We also shared the Garlic Mashed Potatoes. I wish these had a bit more garlic to them, but they were still comforting and delicious. The paella was my favorite -- as it should be at this Spanish restaurant. The restaurant first brought it out in a giant plate so we could see it all together. And then they separated it onto smaller dishes for each table. The paella had yellow rice, squash and other vegetables. It was full of flavor, warm, sumptuous. The Solomillo Con Pimientos (grilled beef tenderloin) rounded out the meal. This came out in large bites, and you could taste the pepper and sauce on it. This was also tender, which I liked. For dessert, we got flan with blueberries. Light and fluffy, this was a great end to the meal. I noticed that Emilio's also has a check-in offer via the Yelp app (see my pics!). This restaurant came across as very authentic. It has several tapas to choose from. For groups big or small, I would definitely recommend it. read more

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The food is excellent and served quick. We had several plates but I felt rushed by our server. All the other staff was extremely friendly and helpful but ours seemed to push ordering more and more and when you didn't acted irritated and over our table. I definitely would not want to be at his table again...very disappointing for our first visit and it was a birthday celebration. He also rushed our plates where you felt like if you didn't grab it he was taking the plate away. Very rude. Dishes ordered were the bacon wrapped dates, garlic potato salad, stuffed mushrooms, garlic butter shrimp, scallops, fillet and chicken served with grilled peaches. All absolutely delicious and cooked perfect. The garlic potato salad was to die for...intense on the garlic if you are not a fan. Large wine selection to select from! Food was delicious...restaurant was beautiful...server unfortunately was the only negative part of time spent at Emilio's-I wish I knew his name to post here. read more

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The food and service is always impeccable here. They celebrated my aunt's birthday really nicely as well.

Emilio's is great! I recommend trying at least 5-6 tapas to really get a feel for the menu. It's a little pricey. Between myself and two friends we each had 3 tapas and a shared sangria and my bill was about $60. There's also always a wait unless you come at an off time. The parking lot gets packed and you could be waiting up to 2 hours or more. The atmosphere is nice and the staff is super helpful and welcoming! I've never had a tapas I didn't like. There's plenty of options as well for the picky eaters out there like me lol. read more

This is the best tapas restaurant I have experienced. The food is fabulous and the service is great. Even the dessert was delicious. The mango sangria is awesome. From the host, busboy, waitstaff to the owner- all friendly and helpful. It's also decorated nicely and appropriately for the type of restaurant/food they offer. Great outside patio and live music. I would highly recommend it. Definitely worth the drive in Hillside. read more

We picked this spot for a double date dinner + our kid, haha, and were pleasantly surprised. The place actually has a really cute patio and transports you to somewhere that's not right off a busy road! The food was excellent and the portions large. I'm not a seafood fan but my husband went to town on a large selection of seafood options. I on the other hand really enjoyed their skirt steak and chicken paella! It's a great place if you want to share and try a bunch of different dishes. read more

The food is always superb; we order a mix of favorites and new specials. A beautiful restaurant with excellent service

Great food and warm, welcoming atmosphere. Honestly my one negative is that the format of the menu is a bit difficult to read because there are so many options for dishes that it's overwhelming to go through all of the descriptions. We ordered 6 tapas to share for our table of four and some sangria along with it and it was the perfect amount for us. They start you off with a basket full of small pieces of bread which you can eat with butter, or use to sop up the delicious sauces from the dishes. One of my favorites was the cheese platter, which came with four cheese and jam/preserve pairings that was a really great way to start off the meal. Everything we ordered was delicious, although I will say that the patatas bravas, which I've always had with crispy potatoes, were covered in sauce so that they weren't crisp anymore. I'm not sure if it's a style from a different region that I've never had before, but it wasn't quite what I hoped for, even though they were still good. Service was great. Our server was very knowledgable and friendly, and the food came out promptly. We had an early dinner reservation on a Sunday night and by 6pm, the restaurant was pretty full, although I'm not sure if that was because of the holiday season. Still, I'd say it doesn't hurt to make a reservation. The prices aren't cheap, but not overly expensive either. Each plate is between ~$10-20, but per person you'll definitely need to order more than one plate, even with eating family style. Overall, really great place for tapas in the area. read more

TAKE OFF YOUR TAPAS Let's get wild and pass some plates around! Emilio's has hosted several family gatherings for us over the past decade, and on every instance the visit has been met with the consistent quality and friendliness we've come to expect from them. I should mention, though, that my mom's social circle of restaurateurs and foodie acquaintances allows me to say that I know the owner.....by a few degrees of separation. As it turns out, our good friends Jeff G & Janet G knew the namesake proprietor back when he first opened this Spanish eatery back in 1988. They dined here nearly every week and my parents joined them on many occasions, so my family's affinity for Emilio's runs deep. They pride themselves on a kitchen that offers plate after plate of delicious share-able food. While main entrees are available, I highly recommend getting a bunch of smaller items to split amongst the table, as this allows you to try a greater variety of unique and delectable dishes. Most recently, we came here for Sunday night dinner and once again enjoyed some of the best tapas in the Chicago area. I arrived late (what a shocker!) but was happy to sample a small dish of garlic potatoes and another of chicken curry. Following that, our table ordered a carne asada which was cooked medium rare and served with potato shoestrings and mixed greens. Dessert is what impressed me the most, though. The five of us ordered a tasty trio: molten chocolate lava cake, caramelized banana, and a blueberry bread pudding. The latter got rave reviews, which was the perfect amount of sweet/tart and came served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Molten choco cake was on-point, and I'm told the banana was great (I missed out, because I'm slow & clueless). Our server did a nice job, whose mother had apparently been the first employee Emilio ever hired some 27 years ago. So that's a pretty cool snippet of history. Bread = 4.5 Circuses = 4.5 Out of 270 reviews, a 4.5 aggregate rating for Emilio's is pretty damn good. This indicates user opinions are "very favorable" and nothing I've experienced here would lead me to say otherwise. Food's great, staff is great, and chances are your experience here -- be it a birthday celebration or casual dinner -- will also be great. This family favorite in Hillside has been around for decades, and I'm very happy to hear that they're reporting great revenue figures for 2016. One would hope that they'll be around for many more years to come, and if they keep serving up such tremendous tapas, my thought is that they will be. read more

Emilio's Tapas - Carne asada, served with shoestring potatoes and mixed greens - Spanish Near Me - Hillside, Illinois

We recently visited the Chicago area and were looking for a non-chain restaurant offering a little something different. We found Emilio's Tapas and were pleasantly surprised by the service, atmosphere and the food. We arrived without a reservation but were offered a high top table near the bar. As soon as we sat down we were given a complementary plate of tapas which were delicious. The rest of our meal did not disappoint. We ordered several plates and each one was as tasty as the last. Our server was attentive and made sure we never lacked anything---fresh plates, tea, water, etc. We will definitely return when we are back in the area. read more

My first experience with tapas and has set my bar. I've been disappointed at the four other tapas restaurants I have been to. Delicious selections and can't recommend enough, will take pics and post next visit! read more

This place knows how to do dinner! They are very well versed in the fine art of service. The food was outstanding, the drinks finely crafted, the desserts so on point! It was nice that they were attentive and didn't rush us at all. It's not easy to balance being attentive without being overbearing, but these guys had it down. Very much looking forward to my return. read more

I really enjoyed our recent trip to Emilio's. We'd tried the location in Wheaton a few years ago and it was good. A recent Saturday evening spent in this cozy spot which is in a great location-accessible from just about anywhere in Chicagoland within 40 minutes. Red Sangria was tasty-good balance of sweet and alcohol. Food was really good with one great item-the bacon wrapped dates, which were perfect-larger and better cooked bacon than at the best tapas restaurant in Chicago and the entire area-hint, it's in Naperville. The garlic potato salad was excellent and the baked goat cheese and tomato dish with toast points was as well. Meat items were tasty-well cooked tender selections with great sauces and vegetable garnish. I'd go back any day and recommend it highly for a mix of a nice restaurant in a laid back atmosphere where it's all about the food. read more

Emilio's Tapas - Bacon...Wrapped...Dates! - Spanish Near Me - Hillside, Illinois

My wife and I made reservations looking forward to a great dining experience. The service was very good. We ordered 6 different tapas over the time we were there that were average at best. Nothing stood out as being excellent. The paella mariscos was very skimpy with seafood and was missing flavor. Sangria is not a difficult drink to make but here it is. Overrated. read more

Found this place on DoorDash because they expanded the serviceable area... and WOW! I have thoroughly enjoyed my dinner, even though it made the long drive to Burr Ridge! The menu is very easy to navigate with gluten free and vegan options clearly marked, which made my life a whole lot easier. I ordered the bacon wrapped dates and the chicken with grilled peaches, and all I can say is muy delicioso! We'll plan to come in person for dinner. Highly recommend! read more

Emilio's Tapas - Bacon wrapped dates, chicken with grilled peaches. - Spanish Near Me - Hillside, Illinois

This was a great meal, all around! The service was great, friendly and efficient and very helpful. He made great recommendations and was very careful to help with suggestions and checking for us as one in the party is GF. We ordered chicken paella, marinated olives - ACEITUNAS, goat cheese with tomato sauce - QUESO DE CABRA AL HORNO, mushroom caps -CHAMPINONES RELLENOS , sausage and potato stew -CAZUELA DE CHORIZO A LA SIDRA , traditional omelette -TORTILLA A LA ESPAÑOLA CON ENSALADA, plus Puff pastry with ice cream and dark chocolate sauce and creme brûlée. Everything was so good, tapas spread over an hour and a half, never felt rushed by the waitstaff. And for those who are GF, the number of options is amazing! And even without asking when he found out one of the party was GF he brought her GF crackers so she could eat while we enjoyed bread. read more

Awesome food and experience Service is fantastic. Food and sangria were excellent. Would highly recommend beyond a doubt. read more

This place has a 3 drink max at the bar. Kinda strange. I'm not sure I've ever been at a place like this. Oh wait, I came a few weeks ago and had 4 drinks no problem..maybe the rules have changed. I probably won't go back...wouldn't suggest to others either. read more

Food is below average for tapas. Some things were just downright not good. Service was excellent though. The same tomato base sauce was used in many of the dishes and it's just wasn't that great of a sauce to begin with. read more

Hands down my favorite restaurant in the area and I order from here probably every week. I like almost everything on the menu. Can't believe this place is in Hillside.. it's awesome. read more

Very disappointed in the quality of the food. The paella was the worst I've ever eaten. We tried 7 different tapas and I can honestly say all were terrible. I was anticipating a great meal but Emilio's really let me down. Note: The owner contacted me after this review and was very accommodating to my concerns. I appreciate that type of service. I realize that any restaurant can have an off night and, since this was the first time I dined there , I'm uncertain that our experience was common so I raised my rating to 3 stars and removed a negative comment. read more

Stayed at a hotel nearby for a conference. We were looking for a nice place to eat and came across Emilio's Tapas and I am so glad we did! The food and service here is outstanding. So great, we came back here the following month during another conference. For starters, you get some bread and butter. You also get a bite size dish for each person as an appetizer that varies per day. Things to try: Calamari con ajo y limon (grilled calamari with garlic, lemon and EVOO) - This dish is possibly the best calamari I've ever had. I got this on two separate occasions. The calamari is so soft! The garlic, lemon and EVOO goes perfectly with it and is so good, you'll be tempted to lick the plate! (Just use the bread instead!) Paella - Very delicious! Lots of flavors and textures. There was a lot of it even for a single portion. Sangria - You can get a great sampler trio of these. Overall, a great place for a meal. Excited to go back! read more

Emilio's Tapas - Spanish Near Me - Hillside, Illinois

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