Mateo Bar de Tapas — Restaurant in Durham

I just needed to get that out first, in case it gets buried in every other thing I say about this place. I came here on a Friday afternoon for a work lunch -- boss's choice. As a fellow Yelper said, this place gives off the cool, classic vintage feel as soon as you walk in. It's like a nice little boutique restaurant and bar. We got sat right by the window as soon as we get in. We actually saw Jay Leno taking a stroll outside the restaurant while we ate -- he was performing at DPAC that night. But that was only the second best part of the experience. Now, onto the food...

I never thought any place could make a ham and cheese sound so good... excuse me, Jamon y Queso, which was Spanish ham (Serrano) and goat cheese. I took one look at the menu, and immediately thought, "Alright, I've gotta get this." But at the same time, my boss is firing all these suggestions for different tapas on the menu -- "We definitely gotta get a few orders of Croquetas and the Patatas Bravas, and the Spanish ham on its own. And then let's get an order of short ribs... and who here is going to have a deviled egg?" Clearly, he frequents this place and knows what's up, so I just went with all that. I've never ordered this many appetizers in my life, and am usually not a big appetizers/hors d'oeuvres kind of guy, so it was going to be interesting.

All the food comes out relatively quickly, and the six of us just have at it. The Croquetas were the first to go, and for good reason -- it was essentially a hush puppy with BBQ pork STUFFED INSIDE OF IT. Y'all, think about that for a second. And then drizzle white sauce and a dash of hot sauce all over it. Yep. Take that all in.

The Patatas Bravas were really good too, just fried potato wedges with a slightly spicy tomato sauce, but they hit the spot. The Serrano was really good served over a slice of toasted bread with goat cheese, tomato and jelly. It was like a thick bruschetta. The short ribs, or Costillas de Puerco, had a really good flavor to them as well. I can't stop giving praise to everything we had, it was all great and unlike anything I've ever eaten before!

We ended up getting a second round of tapas -- more Patatas Bravas, more Serrano... and we wanted more Croquetas, but they were all out. Understandable. We ended up getting Calamares Fritos (calamari) and Gambas (shrimp) as replacements, which were great as well. I think we ordered every tapa on the menu when it was all said and done, other than the clams.

I really cannot stress how good this place is. I can see the common complaints on price, and I guess I can't really relate since I didn't have to pay for it this time, but strictly speaking on the food, it's worth it. I'd say at least experience it once -- I'm really glad that I did. Now, to figure out when I...

We really enjoyed Mateo!

The Atmosphere It was evening, we walked through the extra tall wooden double doors off from the chilly wintery streets of Durham and are greeted by not only the warm swankiness of the joint, but the staff as well. The lights are turned down low and the place is abuzz with laughter and good food.

The Service In a word: excellent. From being seated to walking out of the door, we felt well-taken-care-of. The server was very attentive, knowledgeable about the menu options and specials and had that air of, "I want to be here", something failed to be realized in so many service providers. She was warm, welcoming and helpful as well.

The Food Well, it was wonderful! It was an experience as well. It had been a minute since I had anything Iberian or tapas and I had forgotten the joy of the experience; it was restored to me! I think we tried six or seven plates:

Paté - rich with a sort of reduction jelly on top that made a sweet and fatty-rich combo pop on top of a yeasty, tasty toasted bread.

Datiles - "a surprise, but a welcomed one to be sure" (Emperor Palplatine). The sweetness of the fruit paired with the clean richness of the goat cheese was a masterful foreground to the savory romesco and ham in the background. Truly delightful.

Sauteed Pea Shoots - bright, citrus, oily (in the best way). We had this midway through as a palate cleanser of sorts and it did just that, providing a notably plant-based brightness that served its purpose well.

Gambas as ajillo - Can you really go wrong with shrimp and garlic in any combination? These were as tasty as you'd hope. The shrimp were perfectly cooked and tender, bathing in a garlic sauce that would make you say, "ay Dios!".

Pulpo - Maaaaaaaaan, I love some well-done octopus and they nailed it. It was PERFECTLY cooked. So tender and paired with the potato espuma, which was a revelation, there was a good balance of a perceived fattiness (which was really starchiness) and protein. This was my second favorite.

Pato y Arroz - this was my favorite favorite! I'm not ashamed to say I've been having dreams about this one. The savoriness is unparalleled. It was so full of poultry flavor and wonderful textures of the rice (I'll call it congee) and the braised duck. This one make me salivate to date.

Beef Tartare - this one was a late addition, but I'm glad we did! I don't get this is often for obvious reasons, but I gorged myself on it! The beef has a light presence that was accompanied by it's best friends who were deeply charming herbs, mushrooms and who doesn't like a good egg yolk?

Before we even left, we decided we'd be back. A great time was had by all and I can't wait to make an excuse to come back! Well...

This restaurant, Mateos Bar de Tapas, gave me food poisoning. I am never going back to this restaurant even if you paid me.

The cons (which are many):

1. I made a reservation for the Valentine's Day pre-fix menu at $75 per person, which was fine. What wasn't fine was that I made the reservation three weeks in advance with one simple request: "Please give me a quieter table if possible." With three weeks out, especially for a special event with a pre-fixed number of reservations, this restaurant's management easily could have planned ahead in terms of seating arrangements, and give me a quieter table with such an advanced reservation, and the fact that this restaurant didn't do that is very troubling to me.
2. The atmosphere was bad. I expected the restaurant to be loud and crowded, but the way the restaurant was designed made it impossible for me, from where I sat, to have a decent conversation with my other guest without having someone else at another table hear my conversation EASILY. I felt self-conscious the whole time, and uncomfortable.
3. and now, the food: We were served six tapas in between us (two guests) and the flavors were mostly delicious, I'll give them that. However, after our reservation around 8pm - 9pm, I suddenly woke up seven hours later in the middle of the night (around 3:30am) and vomited out all the scallops, duck meat and vegetables that I ate at Mateo's.

Did I contact the local health department about this? You bet I did! The best part is that at least Mateo's already provided a copy of their pre-fixed menu on their social media account that I saved on my end that I will share with the health department!

Good luck to anyone else who got sick...