ox bar de tapas

the food itself tastes pretty good, but small portions for the price. good place for just a casual tapas and drinks kind of night rather than a dinner date.

i've eaten a lot of tapas in spain and elsewhere. i really enjoyed the food scott made for us and will go back for sure to try their summer platter. the fried artichoke hearts was amazing. ceviche was simple and delicious. lamb was great with the aioli based sauce. i'll have to save room for dessert next time!

very good...great place to have casul time out..small portions..not great if you are really hungry and looking for a bigger meal... they are tapas..morsals of numminness ...
great atmosphere

the service was excellent. they even crafted me a special alcohol free cocktail because i was expecting. we ordered the spanish table which at first i thought might not be enough food but it was more than enough and each dish was handcrafted to perfection.

this is one of my favorite place to go now. i came here twice to confirm on how awesome it was (brunch and dinner) and both occasions pass with flying colors. i have tried all of the foods in the picture and it was all very tasty. i highly recommend their paella and get churros while you are there, it will be worth it. it is pricey but it is a great way to treat yourself. i will definitely be back for more....probably in a year...lol

ox & angela caters to everything i love about dinning out - intimate atmosphere, sharable meals and quality creations. i have gone out in larger groups, but recommend this place for date nights or other one-on-one occasions, as it has the perfect ambiance for a late night romantic bite.

the dishes change or are replaced somewhat frequently which i love. the quality is always there and i like to try new things. i would avoid the pre-set menu that servers occasionally suggest for groups, as i much prefer to have control over the items selected, but to each their own!

the bovine must be a significant contributor to a business to receive top billing over poor angela. the ox could be a dude i guess. there are celebrities named after stones, liquid fuel, and money, so why not. ox & angela (which could be compressed to o&a…but i never will) is a spanish tapas restaurant balancing the knife of edge of what defines tapas. don’t get me wrong, it’s good, and my crystal ball foretells an extremely positive review, but i adhere to the tradition demanding a tapas restaurant list dozens upon dozens of options for people to pull from. i’ve been to some with literally sixty options.

tapas must be difficult for a restaurant to offer given the number of options required. you have to support a large enough staff to handle the orders, or else freeze everything beforehand, a horrid idea leading my preference to limited tapas over a menu offering the world stuck in an ice age. that being said, a successful restaurant in a town like calgary shouldn’t have that problem. ox & angela offers less than thirty options that can be classed as actual tapas. not bad, could be more, but far beyond some of the insults to the name i’ve been to. a local business in my hometown only features tapas in title only, renaming the appetizers page. a disgrace. ox & angela is birthed from mary’s womb in comparison. however, to enjoy the full experience, the suggestion is to order the “the spanish table”, which is, let’s be honest, actually a chef’s menu—a set list of small plates (about ten). at $45 per person, such a menu is a remarkable deal. i’ve spent triple that on some tasting menus.

the décor is charming, with a wall splitting the establishment. i love restaurants that do this—it increases intimacy, but more importantly, it greatly decreases sound pollution. i’ve been in colossal restaurants where one cannot hear friends across a table. ox & angela takes it one step further by altering the décor in each half, leading me to think one side is the ox while the other side is the angela. i would wager i was on the angela side…it looked more feminine.

there were three of us that day, a day where the the spanish table was $10 off. given its two person minimum, it became the obvious choice. each course was shared, and of course, it had to open with olives, followed by persian dates wrapped with serrano ham and stuffed with manchego cheese, walnuts, and coated in pomegranate molasses. sharing that plate was dry cured spanish serrano ham. then came the (apparently) famous croquettes with salt cod, potato allioli (not a spelling mistake, the spaniards add an “l”) and chili oil. so far, so good. what was elaborately described as toasted pan rustica with crushed tomatoes, garlic, and extra virgin olive oil was really a mouthful for bruschetta. after that was a personal favorite, albacore tuna with tomato relish and crispy capers. it remained a favorite for about three minutes, followed by something that shouldn’t have been amazing but was--ensalada escalivada--charred marinated vegetables, whipped goat cheese, and anchovies. yes, anchovies. after which, we had a butter lettuce salad with toasted walnuts, apple, manchego cheese, and a sherry vinaigrette.

bored yet? not i. patatas bravas--crispy fried baby potatoes, something i’m going to replicate the first chance i get. it was followed by the only course i was not a fan of--grilled spring onions on romesco sauce. but redemption came moments with grilled hanger steak with browned mushrooms, olorosso sherry butter, and pickled onions. we had room for dessert, so while one of us had the flan, the rest had churros in chocolate sauce.

by the way, i just love saying flan. flan, flan, flan.

along with drinks, the bill came to around $150, pretty much a bargain in my book. ox & angela is a legitimate score. the food is fantastic, sublime and astounding. i immediately wanted to return. however, i would not order the “the spanish table” again, as that menu is fixed. i would spice it up with other options, or better still, challenge the chef (whose name is listed on menu) to create something entirely original. given the selection, i bet he would take up the task. ox & angela makes virtually no mistakes and knocks everything else out of the park.

flan, flan, flan…

food: 5/5

service: 5/5

presentation: 5/5

value: 5/5

recommendation: 5/5

lots of mini choices, which i love because i need to try everything. i'm so afraid of committing to one item so this works perfect for people like me. food was good as well as service and the atmosphere is great. just didnt care for vegi paella

food was fantastic but it ends there.
waiter didn't want to be there. very short and bothered when anyone in the group asked for something. with a group of 8 you are unable to pick off the menu and forced to only have the spanish table dish. portions are very small for any adult. let's be honest our daughter would leave hungry. all this for $45 a person, way overpriced to be forced to take what they give you. the service was horrible and your obligated to pay 18% gratuity. which i understand is standard in many places with groups. i've never liked this as my tip is based in service. great service gets a bigger tip. last, you are unable to get your own separate bill. they will not split a bill, it says right on the menu. they will split payments off the bill but good luck with that! we will never go back and i'm left wondering why anyone would😔

one of my favorite restaurants. love their patatas bravas. most of foods are delicious, fancy and perfact atmosphere to drink. the churros is the best dessert at the end of the meal.

i’ve been to ox & angela a few times before in the past, and some highlights of past meals were the sangria, paella, croquettes, pan fried duck breast, and seared albacore tuna. after my last visit being over a year ago, i decided to return with a few friends who have never tried ox & angela for big taste yyc. overall, our experience was pretty good, the food was delicious (a tad on the heavy side) and our server was really nice. the restaurant was fairly noisy and loud, so we had difficulty hearing each other and ended up shouting to carry our conversation.

the last time we went here it was very loud and crowded. the food was ok but nothing to write home about. we haven't been back since, and probably won't anytime soon.

i don't think i will ever get sick of ox and angela. every time i've been there, food has ben great, wine is delicious, and service is fantastic. if something is wrong...they fix it. for example, a large party of about 20 came in while we were dining and were standing right beside our table for about 20 minutes. we mentioned to our waitress that it was unfortunately ruining our dining experience. she immediately spoke with a manager and had the party moved and offered us a free dessert.

excellent choices for someone who is celiac as the owner is as well. the servers are very knowledgable about gluten free options and the preparation of gluten free food.

whether it be brunch or dinner, i've never had a bad meal here. yes it is a little more expensive, but 100% worth it.

big taste menu was delicious. just the right amount of food and the ability to try many dishes was perfect. i love the carrots and the chocolate tarte was to die for.

went here for the first time for brunch with friends - this place did not disappoint. we ordered the breakfast tapas for 4 people - each dish was amazingly good and we were definitely stuffed and satisfied by the last dish. i would come back here again. also lovely and friendly service from staff. the only thing is that it can be a bit too loud making conversations a bit difficult - probably nothing they could really do about that, there was just a lot of people when we went there.