El Manchego Restaurant — Restaurant in Doral

My husband was excited to go for Tapas last night, he chose this place because it has 4 1/2 stars. We were in Spain this summer and he really wanted to get the beer that he had. They didn’t have the beer he wanted but he did like the beer he got. I got the white wine Sangria which was delicious. They serve it in a large wine glass and it was sweet but not to sweet, but not a lot of fruit. We weren’t too impressed with the Tapas list, but got the fish croquettes which were delicious. We also got the chorizo in apple cider which neither of us liked. They serve you bread and olive oil that was ok, the bread was a little hard. For dinner we ordered a seafood Paella which you have to order for 2 people, not terrible, and was told it ours take 30-35 minutes, also not terrible. The appetizers came fast, then after about 45 minutes we still did not have our paella. When we asked the waiter, an older gentleman, he apologized and said he didn’t put the order in yet since we had the Tapas?? We never told him to hold the order. He said it will take 25 minutes. Ok. Well 45 minutes later we still didn’t have it. He said 5 more minutes. I said if it not out in 5 minutes we didn’t want it anymore. After another 5 minutes and we didn’t have it I told another waitress to tell him we don’t want it anymore to just give us the bill for what we had. Sure enough after a few more minuted he came out with it. At that moment we were so mad that we couldn’t even enjoy it, it was definitely too fishy tasting for me and my husband who usually loves paella didn’t like it either. They also have a Flamenco band that comes on at 9:30 and if you are in the restaurant they automatically charge $10 per person, although on line it says $8. Well we didn’t want to have to pay for that since if the food was served on time we would have been out by then. The place isn’t too big and the band is very loud. First the waiter did charge us for it but we got him to take it off. The waiter kept apologizing, said he felt bad, but we ended up having to wait way too long for our dinner and it was his fault. They automatically charge a gratuity charge, even for only 2 people, so we didn’t give anything more, where we would usually give a little more. I would have given one or two stars, but the wine and croquettes were good so I gave 3. We will Not...

My last criticism was 11 months ago. After having visited several times I find myself obliged to comment again. First of all, I would change the name of the restaurant. THE MANCHEGO "BOUTIQUE" Restaurant. I know 99% of all the restaurants in this city of Miami and with the SUPPOSEDLY SPANISH flavor but really 90% of them lack the raw material brought from the land or the Mediterranean and not to say with the true touch of a SPANISH Chef with experience of that land.

WHEN THOSE TWO THINGS COME TOGETHER .... Chef and Raw Material. IT IS A TRUE SPANISH GASTRONOMIC SCANDAL.

That said, I will start not by criticizing others but by explaining my experiences and knowledge about MANCHEGO BOUTIQUE 😉.

A SEPIA is an SQUID family but maybe 1 o 2 restaurants offer in Miami. (Very famous Spain). A Mediterranean or Cantabrico Sea Fish is not the same as a Caribbean Fish ( but Similar ) like a LUBINA very famous and delicious from Spain. VIEIRAS is family of Clam but not every restaurant has it. (very famous and delicious from Spain). A SERRANO HAM is not the same as an IBERIAN HAM or one fed with ACORN. A black bean stew is not the same as a Galician Broth or Fabada with material from Spain. A local beer is not the same as 6 or 7 Beers from different regions of Spain. And I can go on and on.

Now if what one is used to what other restaurants offer in this great city of Miami and what you are looking for is chistorras, a tortilla, a table of Serrano ham, a 3-month cured Manchego cheese, a guitar and a dancer. THIS IS NOT THE RESTAURANT YOU SHOULD VISIT but if you are looking for a excelent or as I CALL IT A BOUTIQUE with local products from spain and authentic Chefs who know the point of cooking those products. I RECOMMEND IT 110%. Remember the menu you have before visiting them on the web and they are prices at the height of any restaurant with the best raw material from mother earth like no other in this great city of Miami. MY RECOMENDATION ARE: Grilled cuttlefish, a whole filleted grilled sea bass (2) or a grilled sole, RABBIT to the huntress, a Fabada or Galician broth, some Manchego mushrooms, a Santiago cake and a Bombon coffee ..... ahh and that they give you A CHIPOTO on behalf...

Great food we also had the marisco paella. We lived in Miami for over 15 years and never I have experienced the stares we got from the patrons. Yes my husband is not of Spanish descent but I am. The restaurant is intimate and cozy not many tables and was not busy on a Sunday evening. We were greeted by the host and was given a choice where to sit. The server mentioned that bread would be brought out, we waited and waited. Another server came and asked if we were ready to order but I mentioned we hadn’t received our bread, we got it but without butter after a while we had to ask for it. Now you may be asking why such petty comments….hold on I’ll explain. There were 3 servers in total with a party of about 10 for a birthday party. But we felt like unless we had food coming to the table then the attention was lacking. The server was packing up some to go food for the big party of 10 and commented laughing, “don’t take the food ok” I was like why was that comment even necessary ?! The youngest of the servers noticed we were trying to get the attention of our main server while folding linen napkins at the table next to us. After a few minutes she decided to ask us what we wanted, my spouse speaking the Spanish he can asked and she repeated very loudly and super fast the order. I glanced at her and said yes that’s what he ordered. We often had to flag down any server to ask for something. We also noticed that the servers packed up to go boxes for their customers but we were not given that choice. Gestures as I have described really are noticeable when you take note how other customers are served. I understand that everyone has their own opinion on how things may have been handled but this was our experience. We loved the tapas and the main course, oh and the cortadito was great! The live entertainment was lovely. But we have to say unfortunately we will not be returning to this...