Santiago's Tapas — Restaurant in Wales

I have great joy in recommending Santiago’s, Whitchurch Village, Cardiff following our excellent meal and service there recently. We’d dined at Santiago’s in the centre of Cardiff a couple of years ago and had the same excellent experience. We chose a selection of five tapas meals and a bottle of Navara red wine. The five tapas meals were plenty for the two of us and tasted great. The red wine complimented the meal very well. From the booking of the restaurant to the menu and the first class service was perfect for our 33rd Wedding Anniversary. Talk about going the extra mile - I asked for a French 75 cocktail which wasn’t on the list. (Most restaurants would probably say. “We don’t do that one!” But not at Santiago’s. I gave them the ingredients and they took time out to make the perfect French 75 ! I would certainly recommend this restaurant. Also, they support the Blue Light discount card scheme for Emergency Services & National Health Service. 15% discount is...

We had booked a table on a Tuesday evening, expecting it to be quiet, but they were quite busy. I expect the staff were not the most experienced, which is why we had to wait. Then we had to flag the server down to get him to take our order. The starters were ok, nothing to write home about. We ordered paella, and I was expecting something at least faking Spanish, but what we got was like something out of the freezer. The rice was cooked, the prawns were overcooked, and the squid was soggy. There was almost no flavour either. The churro's were particularly disappointing, the chocolate sauce was more like watered down chocolate syrup that didn't coat the pastry at all. I don't think this was the fault of the staff, as they were clearly working hard, and very friendly. They didn't even kick us out when we over stayed our welcome, long after the kitchen had closed. Great staff, nice atmosphere, just a real shame about the food. Can't recommend for...

Lots of empty tables on arrival and offered a table for 2. Considering this is a Tapas Restaurant and all the food was brought out at the same time, I now appreciate what it must have felt like to be a T-Rex, elbows in short arms! Just enough room to keep the drinks on the table and not the floor 😱. Service was poor and very slow, minimal levels of engagement and conversation. Food was very poor and portions were really small. Chicken Skewers only had 2 chunks of chicken! All food was very bland and disappointing to feel the need to head straight to a takeaway after. Management maybe need to visit other Tapas venues in Cardiff to see how it should be done. In terms of the toilet facilities, when questioned when the last inspection of the toilet had taken place it was met with a stunned silence as evidence by their...