La Cuchara — Restaurant in Baltimore

Everything was amazing. The food and the ambiance was very nice. The service was extremely good. The red sauce under the fish was so tasty. The shrimp was also so good with the preserved lemon and garlic. The dishes did not make us feel heavy afterwards. The tuna was cooked rare and extremely delicious. The desserts was also so nice, churros with black pepper and the bitter chocolate sauce was matching really well. The olive oil ice cream on top of the pear tart was out of this world. The experience we had there made us feel in Spain without buying a plane ticket to Spain. It was our first visit and will definitely not be the last. [Update, March 2024] We came here again and the quality of the food was amazing again, the service and atmosphere were also complementing the whole experience. We had the anchovies, fries, shrimp, tuna, churros and beignets. They were all top notch. They have changed the dishes slightly. The shrimp was cooked on the grill, from which you can taste the grill taste. It is serve with tomato sauce and some kind of mayonnaise, which was delicious. However, if you ask my opinion, I liked more the previous version with preserved lemon. The tuna was also extremely delicious and tender, it is cooked rare and the bed of green beans was also extremely delicious. The fries were also good. The bread and butter served at the beginning was also very nice and satisfying. You can also get some brea to go if you want to. For the dessert, we had churros and it was so good, especially with the black pepper and chocolate sauce. The espresso chip ice cream served with beignets was super delicious. The banana cream filing was also adding another layer of flavor to the dessert. We combined the chocolate sauce for the churros and the beignets and it took the dessert to another level. The service once again was amazing. Just to let you know they add 22% service charge by default. Overall, the quality and prices are really satisfying. The prices are extremely reasonable and not so expensive for such high quality food with an accompanying high quality service and atmosphere. It is a must try place if you are...

Excellent food, service and atmosphere! Full disclosure, I know the owners, but I didn't know they opened a restaurant until yesterday, because I have not seen or talked to them in 15 years. We went to high school together, but had my experience been less than great, I simply would not have written a review.

Now that the disclaimer is out of the way, rarely have I had this great of an all around restaurant experience. First, it is a high end restaurant with a parking lot. Is this a big deal? Of course not, but it was just nice to not have to valet, or hunt for a space.

Second, the place has a gigantic bar, that is inviting and comfortable. If my wife and I were not there to meet friends for dinner, we gladly would have sat at the bar for hours, eating and drinking the night away. Don't get me wrong, the rest of the place is beautiful and well laid out, but I am someone that appreciates a well executed bar space.

Third and perhaps most important, the food was awesome. I am an educated man and I enjoy nice things, but I can admit I needed some of the menu interpreted for me, so we just picked things and went with suggestions from our waiters. It was fun and delicious. I had at least two things I never would have picked on my own, and they were so tasty that, as stupid as I am fully aware this sounds, I felt like I had somehow become a better person after eating them.

Finally, the staff was super nice and helpful. This is no surprise because the owners are great humans and the kind of people you are happy for when good things happen to them, and employees tend to feed directly off the example set by leadership. The owners didn't know we were there until the end, so I trust that despite having a "connection," we got the same great treatment you will get when you decide to visit.

I am happy for old friends realizing a dream, but I honestly recommend this place to anyone that wants to happy hour, grab a drink and a quick bite, or sit down for a full blown meal like we did. We had an absolutely great time. We will...

I had been to this lovely but cavernous restaurant three or four times when it first opened, but last night was the first time in at least a year. It being a Monday night, the crowd was not big and conversation was much easier. The place is very loud when it's crowded. Service was good. The menu is delightfully Basque and Spanish with some nice frills, the first of which comes to the table within a few minutes of your arrival.

It is a breadboard with 4 kinds of homemade slices. Last night's version included a garlic sourdough, a pumpkin seed bread, a pumpernickel and a baguette. They were accompanied by several dishes of softened unsalted butter sprinkled with smoked salt. OMG, that was a big highlight. Pinxtos were in abundance - Spanish olives and peppers, Spanish sausage with manchego cheese on sourdough rounds, sardines and more. An appetizer of mussels was so large that it became an entree for one in our party, she was even considering taking part of it home, but with that bread, she finished them off! My entree of mutton paella was superb, and I was forced to bring some home. Mutton can be tough but this was flavorful and soft, some of it lightly shredded. The rice was so yummy that I was scraping the bottom of my plate pot! A rockfish entree was tender, moist and beautifully tasty along with hari coverts and my companion thought it was close to the best she ever had. A mushroom and noodle casserole entree was less succesful but nonetheless also made the trip home.

La Cuchara has a large wine list and we selected a 7 year-old rioja that was every bit as good as my favorite sangiovese and much less expensive. We all loved the two bottles we consumed. This place will hopefully keep Mondays on its schedule. We went at 7:30 so just as the entrees arrived, the crowd had thinned. Perfect for quiet conversation, good food and fine...