Junction Tapas & Winebar Restaurant — Restaurant in Paso Robles

The dining experience at The Junction Spanish, Mediterranean, Latin American inspired Tapas and Wine Bar in Paso Robles was truly exceptional. The selection of the location was excellent, being situated right by the Paso Robles downtown Amtrak train depot station. The selection of this location creates an ambiance reminiscent of a Wild West train station where guests arrive for dinner at a remarkable Spanish-style restaurant. The wine menu features estate selections from vineyards in Spain, Santa Barbara, and Paso Robles. We were thoroughly impressed to find Perinet, one of our favorite wine estates in Spain, included in the wine menu list. Our preferred vintage from Perinet is the 2015 red wine, and the wine menu featured a remarkable 2017 Red Perinet Priorat that perfectly complemented our dinner selection. After entering, we were warmly welcomed by the hostess, embodying the inviting spirit of the Spanish style atmosphere, accompanied by the background music of Spanish-style salsa. The restaurant provides four seating choices: standing tables, standard tables, patio seating and a 12-foot section couch located in the back south end of the restaurant. The seating arrangement on the couch was so comfortable that we nearly dozed off after enjoying the fantastic atmosphere, salsa music, drinks, and food throughout the evening. Our meal began with a tasting of Vilarnao Cava Reserva Spanish champagne alongside Warm La Brea Baguette bread slices, Olea Arbequina Olive Oil, Queso de Cabra, herbed almond biscuits, raw goat cheese roll in Spanish smoked paprika, Mahon cow cheese and Valdeon blue cheese, offering a harmonious blend of sweet, spicy, and earthy notes to start our evening. We proceeded with the Spanish white wine, 2020 Val Do Avia Treixadura, to accompany our second course featuring the classic Empanadas and the traditional Spanish Tortilla Espanola Frittata Eggs. The pairing of this 2020 Spanish white wine with the two classic courses was undoubtedly a top 10 pick. The red wine selected for the third and final course pairing was the 2017 Perinet, a cherished Spanish red wine from the Madrid valley estate in Spain. The Perinet perfectly accompanied the classic Spanish meal, Junction Paella, made with Valencia Rice, sofrito, grilled chicken, sautéed jumbo shrimp, Spanish chorizo sausage, green beans, sweet red peppers, and fresh rosemary. The staff, ambiance, salsa music, cozy seating, extensive wine selection, delicious cuisine, and location were truly delightful and exceptional. This location will be a common gathering place for us, our friends and loved ones in the future. Bravo, and thank you for the...

Loved Junction, which specializes in Tapas dishes of food, which are small plates of tasty Spanish-style appetizers.

The entire staff was super friendly, going above-and-beyond, with friendly, caring service. The owner's adorable li'l Yorkie, Chewy, which looked like a miniature Wookie, from Star Wars, even came over & said "Hi," to us a couple times.

My wife & I, plus close friends, had just done a couple Paso wine tastings, so it took us awhile, to figure out which of their many different tapas, we'd like to order. They also make larger dishes- Shareables, which we had to consider from. Our server was extremely patient, coming back multiple times, until we'd gotten a handle on our orders.

Our good friends are Vegan, so they asked if the chef could make the Cannalonis without meat, or meat stock used in the dish. Moments later, Chef Nick came out from the kitchen & told us he'd found some pasta, which met their food guidelines, plus they'd just gotten some Chanterelle mushrooms in, so he could indeed accommodate them, with a most special version of the Cannalonis they craved.

The tapas we all ordered were exceptional, & were served one at a time. We started with Papa Relleno, potato croquettes, shaped like a pizza slice, with a delicious sauce drizzled on top. Our friends had several vegan tapas to begin with.

The coup de gras, were the larger dishes, for our friends- the special Cannalonis, which the chef prepared just for them, & for us, it was Fideua, the traditional saffron pasta paella, served with roasted peppers, grilled shrimp & chicken.

OMG, our Paella was amazing. This dish has so much flavor & the grilled-shrimp were so tasty, my wife said she could eat 20 of them.

Our good friends loved their Cannalonis, as well. We left Junction full, & satisfied.

Special thanks to all the Junction Staff, that made our Sunday dinner in Paso...

Service was great, considering my husband and I walked in for a quick dinner on our last leg of a 40 hour, 800+ mile drive, looking disheveled and wearing hoodies. We got 'looks' but everyone was polite and accommodating. Empanadas were excellent. Most notably the flaky pastry and quality ingredients. The aceituna was integrated perfectly. I would of loved it, if more traditional Mendocina ingredients had been incorporated. The chimichurri aoli tasted more like a tartar sauce and hardly a hint of chimichurri. Since the empanadas were already pretty greasy, the aoli just added more oil to the cause. The Junction Paella was good, but i wouldn't order it again. Extremely heavy on the oil, fat, and grease (swimming in it). Sausages were not what i'd call chorizo, but more of a processed frank sausage and slightly gamy. The dish was overly seasoned, which made the paella taste more like a fried rice jambalaya. There was a longer delay for the paella to be served, so maybe there were problems with the execution. Despite how we looked, my husband is a respectable executive chef and i was born and raised in Argentina. We understand the creative fusion the chef may have been aiming for. We could taste the core of Spanish cuisine, the Argentine influence still needs work, but we wondered of the southern dominance in the dishes. Found out from the waitress, that none of the chefs or cooks were Spanish or Argentinians, only that the Chef's wife is Spanish, which made sense how flavors and recipes are being interpreted. Our mistake was coming in too hungry, devouring the food, and regretting it instantly afterwards. The fundamental that fat is flavor goes past exaggeration here. We left feeling heavy and nauseous, which made us question,...