La Vara — Restaurant in New York

Located on a tree lined block in the Clinton hill section of Brooklyn this place is a perfect place to grab an amazing dinner with friends or that special someone. If you plan to visit, which I recommend that you do, reservations are highly recommended. If you do not make a reservation there is a possibility that you won’t get seated. This restaurant appears to be in high demand. So take the time to call ahead. We visited on a Friday evening for dinner. During our visit we sat outside mostly because the weather was beautiful and also because they were busy inside, most the the tables were full. The inside of this place is nice, it’s small but no smaller then a typical NYC restaurant. I would classify this restaurant as a fancy new age tapas bar. It’s Super chic and elegant. The server explained the menu in detail. Basically the smaller items are at the top of the menu and the larger items are at the bottom. We ordered the huevos rellenos, morras prensados, salchichon and the arroz melsoo. Everything was delicious with the exception of the salchichon. Salchichon is a sausage dish served with crispy artichoke. I found the artichoke to be heavy and greasy. The greasy artichoke did not take away from the over all tastes. The sausage… It was DELICIOUS. Honestly the sausage was the most delicious part of the dish. The atmosphere is somewhat fancy and the crowd is a little upscale for a simple brooklyn girl like myself. Nonetheless i found this place to be a great place to grab a bite to eat coupled with a great tasting drink. The total bill for the above items, two desserts and three drinks was roughly $206.00. The plates are small but still shareable. All over this place deserves its star rating and it...

I loved the food here!! It was a totally new experience to me. My friend and I ordered four tapas for the night and each of them was surprising and delicious. We first ordered PULPO DE ROCA, which is thinly sliced octopus with citrus and olive oil, topping with marjoram leaves. The leaves gave me the impression of perilla leaves flavor (maybe just me). This combination of seasonings added a nice aroma and accented the taste of fresh octopus. I really loved it!

BERENJENA CON MIEL was another dish we ordered. There were nicely breaded eggplants and well-seasoned baby okra on top of mashed eggplant, topped with pickles and honey dressing. Full range of flavors here and nicely balanced.

We also ordered JUDÍAS A LA PLANCHA CON ROMESCO and BAKALAO. Needless to say the flat beans and cod were nicely cooked in these two dishes, but I want to shout out how awesome the sauces are in these two tapas. One is almond romesco and one is pisto. Both are tomato and red pepper based but very different. They tasted so good. I wish they could give me some flat bread to let me devour every last drop.

It's a tapas restaurant. Don't expect huge dishes. Price is a bit high but it's worth it for a new experience. They were all special. Overall, I really enjoyed the whole dining...

Excellent food in an informal, pleasant ambiance, good service and bad pacing. We were four, and ordered 13 dishes from the menu, roughly according to the recommendation of our lovely waiter. Dishes are ordered all together and our waiter promised us a layered serving that will optimally organize our meal. These were just words, since in the next 20-25 munutes, 9 out of the 13 dishes arrived, and that was a hint that no one in the kitchen cared about layers, or order or the fact that people come to enjoy a relaxed evening with excellent food, and not be force-fed and made to leave as fast as humanly possible. At the 9th dish I remarked on this to the waiter, who eventually put a break on the rollercoaster wheels. The food itself is for the most part fantastic. We had 4 of the specials and the rest from the menu, and besides the octopus dish, which in my taste was too sweet and covered the delicate flavor of the excellently prepared octopus, everything was spot on. And so were the desserts, which included a superlative olive oil helado. Prices are decent, and we will gladly come back, hoping that the kitchen will be more respectful of the...