Tapas Barcelona — Restaurant in Evanston Township

Well had a craving for true Spanish cuisine from Spain but prior and during the pandemic; The well known Spanish restaurants in both the city and suburbs are either closed temporary or they are expensive and overrated. An old childhood Facebook friend had posted about this place and I didn't know there was a Spanish resturant up in Evanston despite traveling to Evanston every now and then looking at quaint shops or one of a kind shops. Anyways, I decided to give this to try as a quick bucket list and so far I am very pleased about it. It was both traditional and authentic in regards to to following Spanish cuisine and it was not overrated and expensive on the menu prices like Spanish restaurants in Chicago and Suburb of Hillside Illinois like Cafe Ba Ba Reeba in Lincoln Park area Chicago, IL or Emilio's in west suburbs of Hillside, IL. The quality of Spanish dishes tasted more authentic of Spain than the other restaurants I mentioned as well as a 3rd Spanish restaurant in Naperville, IL called Meson Sabika. The "Datiles a la Sevilla" or dates wrapped in bacon with bell pepper sauce was not greasy like Meson Sabika nor expensive in price like Emilio's. The "Tapas frio" or cold tapas such as "Salmon Ahumado" which is cured, smoked Salmon with hard-boiled diced eggs and capers was phenomenally delicious and authentic since that is a staple when I went to Spain in 1998. The main dish that I ordered which is the paella is where I have mixed reviews on why only the four stars and some other mixed reviews on desert. Although it their "Paella Valencia" was tasteful and good. I did not taste it to be the best. They gave fresh limes as a garnish which is not genuine. Unless this is trying to be fusion of Mexican cuisine? Not sure if that is considered traditional. I did not taste a hint of saffron despite the waiter/server insisting there was saffron in it. I didn't see or taste hints of this semi expensive spice. They used smaller shrimps instead of the large jumbo shrimp in the Paella which I am happy about because in Spain I didn't like that they did not remove the legs and tails which made me avoid eating that part of the traditional Sunday rice dish despite eating this on a Thursday night. All the other ingredients including the clams and the mussels were authentic or genuine and what they put next to adding fresh peas. Not sure if the rice or "arroz" they use was from Spain but the texture was right when cooking it you got to be careful using what kind of rice when making paella. Bomba rice imported from Spain of course is correct but it's a NO NO to use "Uncle Ben's" American rice or Indian Basmati rice because it has a different texture and starchiness of that stickiness to the rice even using Japanese sushi rice imported from Japan or Thai Jasmine rice. Another disappointment why only 4 stars is that although Spain does not have any significant or popular desserts that they are known for outsiders or Americans would mention next to the long lengthy Spanish pronunciations in syllables; I saw two interesting desserts that they did not have and one dessert that I would have gone but they didn't also have as well. One was a pastry dish that is typical in American and European dishes but they were out of it. The other was a pair that was garnished and chocolate I'm not sure if it was liquid chocolate or not and they didn't have that on their menu. Last was another one that was grapes garnished in chocolate which is really unusual I wanted to taste why Spaniards would eat that since most Americans would find that gross as a combination to eat. Nevertheless they had other dishes and I ended up getting "Platano con Carmelo y Haldo" in translation as you could see the long sentence in syllables which in English means bananas with caramel, diced peanuts and vanilla ice cream. It's okay or a "Meh" good as the millennials would say. ...

Short version: The staff here either treats their customer with apathy or blatantly ignores them, with one unfortunately rare exception where we were treated like actual paying customers. Considering that there's only one really exceptional dish at this restaurant and all the rest are mediocre at best, I would advise skipping this place and finding a different one. Long version: I'd love to give this more stars because it has one of my favorite dishes but good food can only go so far when it comes to rude and dismissive waitstaff. The only reason that it's getting a two instead of a one is because I've had a few good experiences, although the negative far outweigh the positive.

The first time my husband and I went it was great; the waitress was patient and explained to us how tapas works and made sure to stagger our dishes. The second time we went was atrocious; the waiter ignored us the entire time and, despite specifically asking for it, and didn't bother to stagger our dishes as all. As such, we received five dishes at the same time and were forced to pick between eating quickly while everything was warm or actually enjoying our food but letting one or two dishes go cold. Since our first time was so good, we decided to give it another try. The next time was okay; nothing to write home about but no real complaints.

And... then came Valentines weekend. Ironically enough, my husband and I had already celebrated Valentines the day before so the reason we were even going out was to celebrate his new job with a few friends. Upon the realization that the celebratory dinner was the same weekend as Valentines Day, I called Barcelone to inquire about a reservation early that same day. They told me that the earliest they could seat me was 8:30. Understanding that it would be a busy night, I asked them, very specifically, that if I came in and put a reservation in at 6, would it possible to get a table at 7. I was assured that, yes, should I come at 6 my party would be seated around an hour later. However, when we arrived we were told by the host that they didn't even start taking names for seating until 7, which meant that we probably wouldn't be seated until 8 or, more than likely considering everyone in front of us, even later. When I expressed my disbelief at this, considering that I had only a few hours before specifically asked about this situation, the host was dismissive and didn't make any attempt to fix the situation, instead leaving us standing by the door unsure as to what we would now do. Now, please note, I'm not saying that I wanted anyone kicked out of their seat or for our name to be bumped up to first on the waiting list (if he had offered, I would have declined); however, I feel that after so obviously ruining someone's plans that some offer of apology should have been made. In my opinion, it's just polite that if you create a problem you should...

What can I say about Tapas Barcelona that hasn't been said by Gordon Ramsay 1000 times before about a 1000 different restaurants on kitchen nightmares. Let me start with the good things, and there are few, the drinks are reasonably priced, and the sangria goes down pretty easy. Job done. I walked into this place on a Thursday night ordered drinks and the baked goat cheese, it was actually pretty good. Then I ordered the ribeye "How would you like it cooked?" The waiter asked. "Medium rare please". This is where things began to break down. The ribeye is approximately 3/8ths of an inch thick. To paint you a picture think bargain ribeye at your local supermarket and you'll have some idea of the dimensions of the steak. Now to no one's surprise when we cut into the steak it was well beyond medium rare. A steak this thin is nearly impossible to cook to medium rare if your goal is also to achieve a decent sear. This then is either the waiter not understanding this, the kitchen not caring enough to order proper cuts or both. I'm an adult, I don't care if this dish costs 12 bucks instead of the 9 dollars they're charging for it so long as it means I get a decent piece of meat. We send the ribeye back and order chicken, about ten minutes later the waiter comes back and asks us what he can get us. "I don't know" I say and he suggests the lamb chops "the lamb is really good" he says. So I say sure bring the lamb chops and again request them medium rare. Probably 10 or 15 minutes later he comes out with the lamb and we dig in. What we find is that the lamb chops are essentially raw. Again we send them back and about 10 minutes later the waiter comes back around and says he wishes there was something he could do for us and all I'm thinking is where is my chicken skewer? He brings the check, I guess they were out of chicken or simply didn't feel up to the enormous task of cooking it. In either case I never really got an explanation as to why they didn't send it out. Long story short I won't be coming back and I cannot recommend enough that you avoid this place like the plague. Save yourself the frustration and cook at home before you come to this place, chances are you'll be in for a much...