Isabella's Taverna & Tapas Bar — Restaurant in Frederick

A Spanish shell with worse than Asian buffet food quality. They properly named all the locations, origins, styles of different regions in Spain on menu, styled the restaurant and mood well to fit the tapas mood but they are all covering the fact that they do not know Spanish food at all.

We picked some of the classics: shrimps, chorizos, paella, a beef dish (yeah why dont they have steak), and mushrooms (didnt feel like overpaying for croquetas or potatoes).

I was almost curious to know if they believed our Latin American brothers and sisters in the country who have worked in any Asian restaurants would automatically make perfect tapas chefs because of the transferrable skills because everything that was put on the table made me believe they came from Chinese restaurants. If you charge $15 for 5 shrimps and told me you have thrown a pil pil sauce on it, I do not expect it to be the kind of shrimp the cheapest Chinese restaurant would throw into a fried rice. Bland, flat, textureless, tasteless with all the signs pointing to them being frozen for a long time and did not properly thaw before cooking. The oil is certainly not from olive, garlic looked unhealthily small, it was an instant red flag the moment it was served. If you charge $20 for a beef short rib but willing to throw string beans on it, i cannot help but to think the creativity came from the last job they might have worked who involves wok, msg and soy sauce. But I will save time and cut to the paella which was the final nail in the coffin. If you are willing to search on youtube and click on the first search of paella it will probably taste better than what they served. At $30, with the wrong pan, no sign of sauce or soup to cook the rice, absence of calamari, you already know its not paella. The short grain rice which is often found in Eastern Asian cusines, they are somehow managed to bring a strong unpleasant odor to the rice. Not sure if their water source had problem, but the rice alone which probably came from a rice cooker was terrible. They put peas on which is creative but shows the senseless take of what they know about paella, the frozen seafood such as clams, mussels and the same gambas de pil pil had no taste, dried up, everything looked like they were cooked separately. I cannot believe with such ratings, Frederick is able to produce such a restaurant with awards won apparently. I must be from another planet to them, so scroll right on to the next review.

edited notes: the bar is alright. proper cocktails and beers. if BOF stands for Bar of Frederick, i dont have a...

Let me start off by saying this is a location where you're paying for the QUALITY of the food. Now granted, in the grand scheme of things with inflation and the way the economy is at the time you'll usually spend a decent amount but if you're looking for amazing high quality tapas this is the place to go.

Food: (apologies but I don't remember the exact names) I went with a friend and we ordered the lobster risotto, the chorizo burgers, asparagus fries, shrimp, grilled chicken, mushrooms and a salad.

In terms of my favorite I really enjoyed the chorizo burger (shown in picture [qty 2]). They had the perfect amount of sauce, meat, and bread ratio in my honest opinion! The chorizo wasn't spicy but it had the perfect amount of sausage-like texture/saltiness combined with the sweetness of the sauces made each bite delicious. Plus the chorizo was so juicy/cooked to perfection that it almost melted in your mouth.

The asparagus fries are something they're famous for and they go perfectly well with the dipping sauce included (the presentation is an added bonus too although I normally don't care too much for presentation as I'm not a true foodie.) I almost always order the asparagus fries when I'm there (not pictured).

Grilled chicken was definitely a 3rd favorite! Although it's hard to really get chicken to stand out, the seasonings/sauce they put on the chicken and the way they cooked it so well that it was still nice and juicy definitely helped.

Finally, the shrimp was ok. It didn't really stand out too much but it wasn't bad either. I think in comparison with all the other dishes I was so blown away that the shrimp seemed mediocre when any other day it would really wow me. I noted the mushrooms and salad but I didn't partake in those so I can't include them in my review.

Service: The server was very attentive, kind, and broke down the menu to us if we had any questions/concerns. I didn't have to ask to have my water refilled he just did that for me when appropriate and even gave me a soda refill as well without me asking. Overall the type of service you can expect and enjoy at a nice restaurant. I couldn't see how he could've done a better job because he was amazing.

OVERALL I think it's truly worth it. Go if you're willing to spend a bit more money to try different things and share high quality small bites. You can easily spend less than 50 per person if you each order individual entrees/skip out on the drinks but expect to spend somewhere between 40 - 60pp depending on drinks, entrees and appetizers. Definitely well...

What wonderful place for a girls lunch! Especially when we both love cheese so much. Lol

We started with the fried goat cheese. I actually appreciated that this goat cheese wasn’t quite as pungent as most. It was on the mild side. And the Panko exterior was extra crunchy.

Next, the waiter brought out a complimentary dish from the kitchen! Panko fried asparagus. It’s served in a champagne glass filled with tomato aioli at the bottom. I love asparagus so much just in its own, that I would never have thought of ordering this. But I have to say that it totally changed my mind. Again, the Panko was extra crispy, which was a perfect balance to the soft vegetable inside. And the tomato aioli was so completely delicious!! I would definitely order this again!!

Next, our fried manchego arrived. It had the same Panko crust and a dallop of jam on top. This sat on top of a slice of baguette and slice of green apple. The salty manchego was very yummy with the sweet jam!

Then came our dates - they are stuffed with chorizo, wrapped in bacon, drizzled with balsamic and sitting in a creamy bed of goat cheese. Oh my lord they are so yummy!! Bacon wrapped dates are always a go-to for me and this place certainly didn’t disappoint.

Lastly, we ordered the short rib. This was probably the largest serving size. It consists of four, slider-sized sandwiches absolutely stuffed with meat and served on perfectly toasted brioche. The meat is also topped with sweet sautéed purple onion and goat cheese. Honestly, I didn’t taste much goat cheese. But the bread was magical and the meat was juicy and sweetened perfectly with the onion.

I loved this place so much that I can’t wait to return sometime...