bar tango — Restaurant in Seattle

Pricey and a little disappointed in the paella. Highly recommend the bacon wrapped figs!

My wife took me on a date here in August since I'd raved over my first taste of paella from a restaurant at Pike's Place. She researched and found Tango highly reviewed so she took me here.

We arrived before 6 with reservations and the place started filling up after we were there. You'll definitely want to find parking elsewhere since it's right next to the fancy Starbucks brewery place. I ended up parking about 6 blocks away but that's not Tango's fault. Just giving a heads-up.

We tried a bunch of the appetizers. The pork belly bite was pretty good but the bacon wrapped figs were amazing. I kinda wished we'd just ordered about 20 of them to share and nothing else. I wasn't impressed with the chicken croquetta. I believe we got the manchego queso and it was good. Also had the wild mushroom tapas and it was also decent.

For dinner we had the Tango Paella (the hour wait time is about right but I think maybe it took closer to 45-50 since we got there before the crowd hit). I don't know if it's because I don't know what authentic paella is or what but I way, way preferred the one I had at Copacabana Cafe. The one here wasn't nearly as flavorful and was burned on the bottom of the pan. It was just mediocre to me.

For dessert we had the El Diablo and we both liked it. Just be careful not to breathe in when it's close to your mouth because it is definitely dusted with chocolate.

Our waiters were attentive so I had no...

A friend of mine that lived in the area had heard good things so we decided to give it a try. I've never been to a tapas place and was so glad this was my first place to experience it. I will say the reason why I took off a star is this....although we were seated immediately, it took about 20mins before anyone came over to get our drink order or even just to sit water on our table. However the food was worth the wait. The Sangria was so delicious. We couldn't decide on the white or red so the waiter actually gave us half and half. (Our table agreed the red tasted better but the white tasted stronger as well as good). I didn't know tapas were small plates to share, but after looking at the menu I'm so glad they were because we wanted to try everything! I feel like the items came out as they were finished being prepared because not everything came out at once. Which I actually liked since it allowed you focus on one or 2 things at a time. Our favorites were the bacon wrapped dates and Albondigas. To be honest the only reason I'm writing a review is because these two items are haunting me and I'm sad I had to return to Texas knowing...

Overall, this is a very nice restaurant in decor and service, but with largely overpriced, small-portioned, slightly above-par-tasting food. To be fair, it IS a tapas restaurant and therefore the price and small portions are expected, but I expected better tasting plates for the price tag. All of the smaller tapas we tried have failed to make a lasting impression on me a few weeks later: all I can remember is that the cheese plate was better than I expected. The drink my table ordered was among the worst I have ever tasted, but not something I would personally ever order. Even their ice cream left me with a literal bad taste in my mouth. However, their chocolate mousse dessert was exceptional, and quite worthy of being their flagship item, but it's not enough to make me feel a particular desire to spend what it takes to eat here. It's a shame, really, because the staff was wonderful, but this place is not my proverbial cup of tea. I have no complaints about anything they did poorly other than they should probably have better tasting food or portions for this kind of final bill, as I didn't feel as though my money...