San Chez A Tapas Bistro — Restaurant in Grand Rapids

As a recap of my experience at San Chez, I would have to say I've come away disappointed. While the service is friendly and generally excellent, the food just missed the mark.

A few of my general comments then I'll get into specifics about individual dishes. First of all the sizing of the small plates were perplexing as many of the dishes were larger than you would expect from a normal tapas place. Apart from the Gambas, most of the dishes were about 30% more than we expected from a typical small plate. I know this is strange complaint, but if they gave slightly less food, eliminated the bonus items, and priced accordingly, I feel like it would enhance the tapas experience of having small little bites between glasses of wine. Some of the dishes were too big to be a small plates but too small to be a full entree. The second general complaint was that every dish was just slightly too salty. Maybe it was the chefs that night. Also I found that many dishes came with an unecessary aioli. I like aioli as much as the next guy, but in some cases it unbalanced an already fatty dish that really just needed a squeeze of lemon or fresh herbs to brighten it up.

On to the notes:

We started with the Ajo Al horno and the Gambas al Ajillo. Very similar dishes that come with a side of bread and a cast iron full of a garlic confit-like sauce. I can't really complain about either. The shrimp were succulent.

Next up were the Patatas Bravas. They chose serve the potatoes as smashed fingerling potatoes instead of fried cubes. I thought it was an artistic choice, but then I saw other pictures from Google reviews and other people got the traditional form factor! That in itself is not a total deal breaker but it does change the texture of the dish. The flavor on this dish was on point Albeit on the salty side.

Following this dish was the lamb lollipops, the Cheletillas. The lamb was cooked well but the salsa verde (think more Argentine chimichurri not Mexican tomatillos) was flavorless and couldn't cut through the flavor of the lamb. The result was pretty well grilled lamb covered in just oil. This dish also came with a bonus croquet and tomato salsa (this sauce really didn't go with them lamb very well seemed to be only for the croquette), but really for a small plate, this could have done just as well without the single croquette and a better executed lamb sauce.

Next up was the Pulpa Saltado. I actually thought that this was a very interesting dish concept, but a few tweaks probably would have elevated it. First it was just too salty. You could taste the braising liquid in the octopus which had good flavor, but it was over salted. Next up it was served with an aioli, but really the dish needed more brightness not more fat. I think a simple wedge of lemon or alternatively a simple acidic tomato sauce would have done wonders. This plate also came with bonus fingerling potatoes (patata Bravas without the spices or sauce) which really could have been deleted to make it a true small plate. The dish did come with candied lemons but it was hard to eat them with the octopus, and in the end it needed more acid not more sweet. A good thing was the interesting texture of the octopus. I've never quite had octopus like that which was more like a chicken breast than octopus.

Finally was artichoke hearts Alcachofas a la parilla. In the end I think the heats and a tomato sauce might have been better. The hearts themselves were great, but I think something simpler than peppers and another aioli would probably work better. Something bright and herbal.

In conclusion, as a tapas place, I understand what they were trying to go for, but ultimately it comes short in execution. The flavors just weren't quite there and the dishes not quite...

Food is very good but last night our server Derek was ill-mannered. I’ve been here many times. I ordered my usual cocktail and recommended it to my friend. When you order this drink they’ll usually ask like “you know it’s made with mezcal right?” And I’ll say yes. Derek did do that. The first server I had do this to me explained that they get that drink sent back often because of the mezcal so they like to verify they guest will actually like it. I’m glad she explained it to me because I thought it was condescending to be asked if I really wanted what I ordered… but ok. When we got the drinks I could tell immediately they made with regular tequila instead of mezcal. No smokey smell or flavor at all. NBD, but when I told him I think it was made wrong he made a face and just walked away. I thought he was going to come back with two new drinks as this would be the only acceptable reason for him to just walk away from us and not say anything at all, but instead he came back with a tiny, not even half shot, bit of mezcal for us to put in our two drinks..? And he said “well the smoke is not supposed to be very strong”. It’s called Smokey strawberry fields and you just warned me about the smoke flavor. I feel like he was trying to insinuate that we just wanted more booze in our drinks when we just wanted the actual drinks we ordered. If we wanted more booze in our drinks we would have just asked for that. He never asked if we were happy with this resolution. They tasted terrible. We ordered them again because I wanted to actually have one and we asked to please specify that we do get the mezcal this time. What do you know, a completely different drink comes out this time… because they were made correctly this time. When I mentioned that the new drinks were completely different he rolled his eyes and walked away. From the beginning he treated us like we were a shitty table to be dealt. He didn’t make any recommendations like the servers usually do, he tried to rush us between courses, he hardly checked in on us, and he’d fill everyone’s waters in our area and just walk past our empty cups. We actually thought about cashing out and walking to the host stand for a new table but wanted to give the benefit of the doubt because he seemed in a terrible mood and we didn’t want to make things worse for him. I’ve been a server and I understand people have bad days at work, but he never turned our experience around. I was almost embarrassed I took my friend here and we were treated so poorly. The two of us spent like $250 and tipped 20-25%. We expect better service. I’ll be back because this has been my favorite restaurant for years, but I will specifically request to not be sat in...

Well, of all the places we've tried in Grand Rapids, San Chez tapas has been the most impressive.

Each dish does a yeoman's job of faithfully representing the dishes as I remember them from my times in Madrid, Barcelona, Ibiza, and the Canary Islands.

The roasted olives were perhaps the best ever had by my olive-loving dinner companion, although I showed her that that it's even better when when when mixed with the Manchego tapas.

The chicken and chorizo tapas comes with a side of garlic aïoli, which was so good that we got a side of that. (Read on.)

The paella, with the chorizo, was beautifully done, especially with a squeeze of lemon. BUT adding the aïoli and stirring just made the dish POP!

The pulpo salteado (braised octopus, anchovy aïoli, patatas bravas, and candied lemon) wings my vote for best of show. Perhaps the best octopus I've ever had. Tender, flavorful, beautifully spiced. Our third diner, who had more than some trepidation not this dish, chowed down!

The Jamaican jerk ahi tuna did its own great job of both being a fun dish and highlighting the ingredients.

The scallops and pork belly, with a blueberry apple chutney, was the weakest dish, brought down a teeny bit by inconsistent cook on the pork. The scallops were damn near perfect. The chutney was a nice touch but the proteins were so good it wasn't really necessary.

The cinnamon pecan roll & gelato was a fine ending. We were full and couldn't try them all.

With a frequent rotation of tapas, San Chez would be on my monthly visit list, and on our next trip from San Francisco we'll be back, guaranteed!

From now on, when someone asks me about the state of Grand Rapids food culture I'll point...