España Restaurant — Restaurant in Vancouver

I had a terrible experience at this restaurant last night. While dining, a waitress (not the one serving my table) kicked my chair hard by accident as she walked past, which startled me. She kept walking without apologizing. The second time it happened, I turned around, our eyes met, and she said sorry. I told her it was the second time already. She came over and told me my chair was sticking out too much and that I was in her way. Then, in a demanding tone, she asked me to push my chair closer to the table which I did, even though I was sitting normally and not blocking the aisle. For context, I’m 5ft and 100 lbs, I don’t take up much space.

When I mentioned that I was upset because she didn’t apologize the first time, she told me she wasn’t going to apologize because she’s the one who was going to trip. She also bumped into the chair of the person next to me and dropped a spoon, while no other staff seemed to have the same issue. If she’s prone to tripping, perhaps slowing down a bit would help.

To make things worse, she told me twice that my “vibe is very weird.” I couldn’t believe I was being spoken to like that as a paying customer who had done nothing wrong except speak up after being kicked twice. I chose not to argue further and finished my meal, though it was no longer enjoyable.

At the end, she brought the bill and said she understood my frustration, apologized, and removed the churros from the bill. While I appreciated the gesture, it didn’t undo how uncomfortable and disrespected I felt.

For fairness, our actual server was very nice. The mushroom toast was great, and the squid in the paella was perfectly cooked, though the dish was a bit salty. I can’t comment on the churros since they came after the unpleasant incident.

Overall, I left feeling disappointed and shaken by how unprofessional one...

España is a moody tapas restaurant off Denman Street and within a stone’s throw away from English Bay. It is a great spot for date night if you want to go for a walk by the beach before/after dining in. To impress your date, you could even take a punt on your ordering skills with the Spanish speaking staff.

While some dishes were seasonable, the tapas menu was easy to follow. A few different dishes to share go a long way. Between my wife and I, we shared three tapas dishes and one main. In addition to the tapas menu there was a dedicated menu for cured/smoked meat platters if snacking and chatting is your thing.

To start, we ordered a fresh Zucchini and Pine Nut Salad, a plate of Clams, and the Hummus with Roast Eggplant and Kale. For our main, we had their Daily Paella, which was a seafood paella made from scratch and took about half an hour to arrive after we locked in the order.

In fine dining style, the food is presented immaculately, some with good symmetry and others with eye-catching colour. Everything is well seasoned which made it irresistible to lick the fingers.

The meal did not disappoint as the best was saved for last: the Paella came with great sizzle and smell. The big roasted chilli peppers were a special feature and packed a powerful kick to gave the seafood and rice base a bit of a ‘roulette wheel’ experience every few bites when we down a pepper.

As the table for two was small and each dish took up a lot of space, the food came staggered and experience felt more like a multi-course meal. Anticipation builds with each dish as we chat the night away. We are sure it will be a lot of fun in large groups as the jovial vibe and dim lighting makes for a...

To clarify, this rating is based on how my experience compared to my prior expectations, rather than the food necessarily being 2-star worthy, but I was underwhelmed with dinner here.

I came here to celebrate the Sant Jordi festival with some good Spanish food. The food however didn't live up to the price tag. The paella was quite expensive ($58 pre tax), but was quite small. It was also undercooked compared to how I've had it in Barcelona and Valencia. Usually, the rice is partially crispy, nicely caramelised all over the bottom of the pan. Here, it had started to crisp in the middle of the paella, but nowhere else, so it felt more like a rice dish, than a paella (if that makes sense). Also, it tasted as though all of the additional paella components (the pork belly and prawns (which were delicious) and the clams) were cooked completely separately, then placed on top for decoration. I wasn't able to taste the flavours of the meat or seafood in the rice (if anything, some spoonfuls tasted more metallic like the paella pan than meaty). It didn't taste awful, but it just wasn't great.

The daily (classic) tortilla tasted okay, but I would've hoped for a larger portion, and for it to be served hot with it slightly soft in the middle. I know tortilla can be served cold or hot, but it was still a bit disappointing.

The service was also kinda just fine. It wasn't bad, but also it felt like the servers' attention was elsewhere at times.

All in all, for the price, it was disappointing. Not sure I'd come again.

Also, it should be noted that the menu prices on the website are outdated. It needs...