Cubatas — Restaurant in Great Britain

Went here for an anniversary dinner and was delighted by the food, the service and the atmosphere.

The measure of a restaurant is how busy it is at 8 pm on a Saturday night. When you're somewhere that's dead even at a peak time, you expect to be disappointed. Cubatas on the other hand was completely full, with people waiting on tables when I visited. This was a great first sign, especially compared to the Indian restaurant they used to be at this location a few years back. The bustling atmosphere was further livened up by the live music which was audible but not so loud as to kill conversation. Low lighting made for a more intimate feel and bare brickwork for a casual setting.

On to the most important part, the food. To sum it up, outstanding. Highlights include the gambas pil pil (which is the best I've had in any tapas restaurant), the pork fillet in red wine and the goats cheese and spinach. Even my least favourites that I tried (omelette and the seafood paella) were still good. Portion sizes were decent, bearing in mind it is tapas after all. Prices were very reasonable. Menu was varied and had a bunch of vegetarian and/or gluten free options for those so inclined.

As mentioned, this was an anniversary and I'd booked in advance and asked for a nice table (nothing kills the mood like being next to the toilets) and they delivered, with a lovely two seat table at a window. There was a couple of complimentary shots of Licor 43 as well, which I'd never had before but loved.

I rather like tapas and have visited most of the tapas restaurants in Glasgow. Cubatas is by far the best and easily trumps Cafe Andaluz, Arta, Barca and Mercado.

I've not posted any negatives because quite simply - on this night at least - there were none.

Round of applause...

Our experience here was truely awful. From the minute we walked in the service was chaotic to say the least. Really bad table management there was a couple sitting in front of us who had arrived before us however we were served before them which seemed very odd. The environment is also very claustrophobic. All the tables and chairs are so close together. I just can't see how this is not a fire safety issue! The furnishings are very tired to say the least. I get that the restaurant is going for an olde worlde Spanish theme however the tables, table tops and dining chairs were worn down to almost unhygienic levels. We really did not enjoy our experience. The only reason I gave one star was for the black pudding and quails egg tapas dish that we had as it was very tasty. The rest of the food was however bland. The paella was awful as it was watery and the vegetables in it had seen their day. There was also a big clump of vegetable bouillon amoungst my paella mix which obviously had not been stirred into the stock properly. I get that the paella I ordered was vegetarian therefore no fish stock was used however for a vegetarian dish it was tasteless and very bland. The Spanish chicken tapas dish that we had tasted more like tandoori chicken. Could not taste any Spanish flavours in this dish at all. Sadly we won't be back as this restaurant just did not meet our expectations, in any way, in respect of authentic Spanish food. Would...

We had booked a table for 5:30 and we were told we only had the table for 90minutes - we had to be out by 7pm. That in itself was not a problem. It took ages to take our order, and then we were told we were not allowed to order paella as it took too long to cook and we had to be out by 7pm. We were a bit annoyed but ordered anyway. The first dish came out after around 40mins and it was 1hr 20mins until the last dish arrived at our table. There were 12 of us, and ordered around 3 dishes each. I was finished my meal and 1 person at the table had only had 1 dish. Her second dish arrived burnt and she sent it back and told them not to bother replacing it or bringing her 3rd dish as she'd had enough of the place! It was after 7pm when the last dish was served and not long after we were told we didn't have to hurry anymore as they didn't need the table now. To say the people who wanted paella were annoyed is an understatement!!!! Nothing like kicking us while we were down. We were offered a 30% discount as we literally complained from the moment we arrived until we left BUT included in the bill were the 2 dishes we did not receive. When we pointed it out we were told that's just the way it was, and we had to pay for the dishes we ordered. Now I'm sorry, but surely it's illegal to charge someone for a meal they did not receive nor eat? We will not be back, and would recommend you steer clear as more than half of the table didn't even...