Paco — Restaurant in Vienna

Let me preface my review by saying that Spanish food is one of my absolute favourites, I adore tapas, and I don't eat seafood, so if their seafood was incredible, I can't attest to that.

However, I can, and will comment on the drinks, the service, and everything I tried. The bill was ~$240 for 4 people ordering tapas but two didn't drink any alcohol.

Drinks: we tried the cava sangria, which disappointed. It was made with some syrup, the cava, and they threw a few berries in, which is for me a very safe and lazy way to make sangria! If you don't macerate the fruit, you won't have any waste, or fermentation, for sure, but you also won't have the real taste from the fruit. Also, no oranges?

Tapas: my daughter enjoyed the octopus; we ordered the cheese and the ibericos tables, and they didn't bring any bread with that, which for me, doesn't make any sense. When we ordered the bread, though, with some alioli, they were absolutely wonderful! The best of the evening was the bread with alioli.

The place was very busy, and for North American standards, the service wasn't very good, although the servers were very friendly. We just had to wait a lot, and ask for things that should be provided automatically, such as water refills, drinks and bread.

The boquerones were good (lemony), good sardines, the cheese platter I believe had just two varieties or was a bunch of manchego. I can't tell you. The ibericos were 3 sorts of chorizo, etc, a very small portion, and were cut extremely thin. Very tasty, though. The croquetas were good, but I have had much better.

All in all, I don't think I will be back. I rather try other...

Food was great (but expensive...) and generally there is a good vibe in the place. Service was overall okay. I had the unfortunate chance to assist AGAIN to an unfortunate event: one of the waiter has been extremely rude and verbally violent with one of the collegue and not just once, but several times during the evening. Even if there was a problem between them I do not think it is appropriate to have such a behaviour in a working context. I'm extremely disappointed from the human perspective, rather then the place itself. It was the tall waiter with long hair. It's not the first time that we are having dinner there and when it happened the first time I was thinking .. well, a bad day can happen to everyone.. but it happened again the other evening, so I'm extremely concerned about the working conditions...

Excelente local español en Viena, sin duda en el Top 3 junto al Lola y a El Hans.

Fuimos a cenar un grupo grande (de españoles) y tomamos diversos entrantes, un primer plato y un par de postres.

Entre los entrantes había: pimientos de padron, tortilla de camarones (++), chipirones a la brasa (++), espectaculares croquetas caseras (+++), mejillones en salsa de vino blanco (+), gambas a la plancha (+++) y alguna entrada más bque no recuerdo. Todos los platos frescos (segun parece traen el producto directamente desde Galicia) y mejores incluso que en muchos restaurantes en España! En cuanto a la presentación, sencillamente muy cuidada.

Como primeros hubo merluza (+), filetón de ternera (++) y tres paellas para dos personas (-). Éstas últimas fueron algo deceocionantes. Si bien no estaban mal de sabor, eran raciones muy escasas, una paella salió muy salada y las tres en general con el grano suelto pero muy duro. Fueron la única pega a una cena de bastante nivel.

Como postres una crema catalana (+) y una mousse de chocolate (++). Todos buenos.

En general las porciones son escasas en relación al precio, pero todas de gran calidad (!). En general se puede leer en varias criticas del restaurante Paco bastante sobre su relación calidad-precio, pero bien es sabido que en Centroeuropa los productos frescos de mar, se pagan. Si no, que pregunten a los que van en el Naschmarkt al Umar Fisch o Nautilus.

El local es bastante grande y cuenta con una agradable aunque pequeña terraza. La única pega, su cocina abierta: por un lado se puede ver en vivo lo que preparan y es un concepto moderno y cuidado, pero por otro lado huele mucho a la brasa/parrilla y se puede salir algo ahumado del local.

El precio: unos 40€ por persona (propina incluida) habiendo comido bien de cantidad y productos de primera calidad.

Un pequeño detalle adicional: a pesar de haber llamado para reservar una mesa para ocho, al llegar nos encontramos sin reserva. Los camareros en seguida se pusieron a buscar posibilidades para acomodarnos y nos montaron una mesa para 8 en la terraza. La primera ronda corrio, a modo de compensación, a cargo de la casa. Un detalle nada común en Viena!

En resumen, un local muy recomendable al que sin...