Cordova Tapas & Wine — Restaurant in Winnipeg

My partner and I visited Cordova years ago and decided to give it another chance yesterday evening. The experience echoed what I remembered: adequate but nothing stand-out.

Wine selection is a little disappointing for a place with “Wine” in the title, some are quite low end and marked up almost 3x. The French Malbec went decently with food though. We didn’t try any but saw many nice looking cocktails go by.

Food was not bad but not memorable. Olives were lightly smoky and citrusy with a good texture. Escargot had a mild butter sauce but the bread served with it was chewy enough to conflict with the texture of the escargot. The Chorizo Mac was creamy and indulgent but also quite mild, lacking any stand-out flavours. Nothing was offensive but it was just all kind of bland.

Service was some of the worst I’ve had in a while. I arrived five minutes before my partner while he looked for parking. The server introduced herself and I got my first drink right away but then we never saw her again. My partner waited almost 20 minutes to get a drink when one of the cooks finally came out to take a drink and food order. Finished glasses and plates piled up on the table and no one stopped by to check in on us. I tried to get the server’s attention but she very carefully avoided looking at our table every time she went by. Eventually I went to request another drink from the bar, with three servers chatting idly behind it. Poor service sort of killed the vibe of indulging in drinks and snacks together.

I could maybe see coming back for a quick bite and drink if you’re already downtown but it didn’t feel worth it as a...

edited I really enjoyed the charcuterie I had. For non alcoholic options they have San Pellegrino with different flavors such as limonetta, blood orange, and pomegranate. The atmosphere is beautiful, though the chairs not necessarily the most comfortable. The service was friendly, when you got it. My dining companion was very unhappy with the service. Our waters were left unrefilled. The charcuterie was dropped off originally with no explanation. They did explain when I stopped a waiter to ask. Thankfully we sat at the bar so we could stop people... There was no quality check, and my dining companion could not get anyone's attention to pay for the bill. We did feel a bit ignored by the staff. I still gave them 4 starts because I'm hoping it was an isolated case, as they weren't rude. I would go back to try it again and give it another chance. I enjoyed what I ate, I just hope next time the service is better.

Edit On my next visit everything was corrected. I mean everything when it came to their service. They were on top of everything. The restaurant was 3/4 fiull. We had the charcuterie again. The standard remained. Tried the squid. It was a very nice change, an item I don't see often, cooked perfectly so it was not rubbery at all. Sad we didn't have room for dessert, but there is...

Started with waiting almost 2 hours for 2 plates of food.

Saying that the service was nonexistent is an understatement. During the 2 hours of waiting, the server did not come once to ask if we needed any more drinks, or how we were doing. Probably lost at least a few hundred dollars of drink sales for our table.

Once the food was being brought to the table, one of the servers asked "Who's asia?" (very loudly in the midst of the music blaring in the background, that almost everyone at my table heard it), to which another server pointed at me (the asian). I don't think she realized that could be offensive to some. Seemed like the customer service training is nonexistent at Cordova. I guess the sensitivity training also does not happen at all, contrary to the hipster appearance and decor.

I would be very surprised if anyone at our table will ever return to Cordova, as I definitely will not be returning, OR recommending this place to any of my friends in the food blogging community.

I feel very bad for the owner of this establishment, if this is the regular trend in a small city like Winnipeg, they could be facing closing...