Tasca De España — Restaurant in South Miami

Dear Tasca de España Management,

I’m writing to share feedback about our visit to your restaurant today, hoping it helps improve future guest experiences.

We came in for dinner at 7:30pm as a party of nine, including young children, and unfortunately, the experience was quite disappointing—mainly due to the extremely high noise level. My advice to families is to avoid bringing small children here, as the environment feels more like a nightclub than a restaurant. The music was so loud that my kids were covering their ears and complaining of pain. Even the adults at our table were left with ringing ears. While the live band had talent, the volume increased even more when they began performing, making it impossible to hold a conversation.

As for the food, most of the dishes were decent in taste, including the dessert. We ordered a variety of items:

Garbanzo, Croquetas, Camarones al Ajillo, Calamares Fritos, Papitas Fritas, Pulpo a la Parrilla, Rabo de Toro, Filete de Pargo con Camarones, Churrasco, Paella de Mariscos, and the postre Almendra Turrón.

However, we were very disappointed with the Paella de Mariscos. We ordered three of them and patiently waited the 45 minutes required for preparation. When they finally arrived, the rice was completely undercooked and inedible. We sent the dishes back, and though they were returned to us after additional time in the kitchen, the rice was still not properly cooked. We barely ate more than 1/8 of the dish due to how hard the rice was.

What made the situation worse was that we were still charged full price for the paellas, despite the fact that they were inedible and had to be sent back twice. It wasn’t about the money, but about the principle—waiting nearly an hour for a dish that came out in such poor condition, not once but twice, and then seeing it fully charged on the bill was extremely disappointing. The manager was aware of the issue, as we clearly voiced our concerns both times.

I truly hope this feedback is taken seriously. With a few changes—especially addressing the volume level and ensuring quality control on signature dishes—your restaurant could offer a much more...

-The food did not taste bad. The rating scale for spiciness was off, so warning to spice lovers, order one star less than your usual! It’s hard to enjoy the taste when you feel like your body is put in fight or flight mode. -The service was awful. For a friday night, they decided to only put one man to attend all the tables. (There was plenty of staff floating around, doing what, i dont know) He was very sassy and disregarded the younger side of the party (youngest being 21, mind you). He neglected to bring a PLATE for a friend to use to eat, even when it was brought to his attention multiple times. You had to wave your arms around like a mad man to even attempt to get service. Veeeery long wait time. Also would like to bring attention to the fact that we arrived at 7:30, and got served food at 10. -Be warned, a 20 percent tip is included automatically, but as a customer you are not shown that, as he clicked past the section that showed the bill to rush to the extra tip area. So basically we left a 40 percent tip for a less than mediocre experience. -Worst but not least, the music. I am all for live music…. but not at the volume that it was performed. I believe in these places what you are paying for is the ambiance, but it does not need to be played at such a level that leaves you with your ears ringing between breaks. The performers had some talent, but they should understand that volume does not equal skill. A party goes to a restaurant together to also enjoy each others company, but thats hard to do when you cannot even hear the person sitting next to you. It was also shocking when one of the performers grabbed a tip left in the jar and said “A 10 dollar tip for a table of 5, let me do the math” Who says that??? How would that make anyone want to leave you a tip of any sort? Unfortunate experience....

We are on a personal quest for the best paella around, and remembered that Tasca de España was one of Abuela Mama's favorite restaurants.

Since paellas take a little bit of time to cook, we ordered samosas, garbanzo fritos and frituras de bacalao just to try them out. All good, however the frituras were my favorite! Our paella arrived on a big black pot, piping hot! Taste was excellent, with lots of shrimp, fish, calamari, and two huge gambas! It's supposed to be for two-three people but I'm sure our whole family could be fed with it. We'll definitely be eating leftovers for a few meals.

Liana was our service staff and we are sure this is one of the reasons our meal was so enjoyable. She's friendly, answered all of our questions on the dishes, and made suggestions that were on point, including the awesome turrón and something dessert. All with a smile and excellent demeanor! ❤️

People have written comments about the oddity of a joint Spanish and Indian restaurant. The simple answer is that the owners decided to keep the original Spanish menu when they bought the restaurant, adding an Indian menu. It's a simple "if it ain't broke don't fix it" decision on their part that I'm pretty sure paid off in the long run.

There is a store on one end of the restaurant with imported Spanish products, baked goods, and a beautiful boutique with Indian clothing and jewelry. All beautifully made by the designer there and fairly priced. She talked to me about the origin of the materials, how she designed them and how to alter the seams if I wanted the top to fit looser.

Great gastronomic and cultural experience! We are sure Abuela Mama is smiling down knowing how much we enjoyed our meal...