tapavino

what a fantastic restaurant!deliciousfood and great atmosphere. this would have to be the best spanish restaurant i've been to (and i've been to spain!!)

the truth is that i’ve been trying to get to tapavino for ages. the reviews have been great, continuously, but the last time i was in the neighbourhood, before a show, it was too crowded to get in. so, a casual business lunch on a friday was a nice way to be introduced. there were various elegant tapas on offer: my favourite would be the dish pictured above, the fried zucchini flower with goat’s cheese and romanesco ($7 for a single serving). a very nice match of flavours and textures. the beetroot hummous was alsodelicious($14), but i thought that the watermelon and ricotta salad ($14) was lacking in both watermelon and ricotta, though was tasty enough.

lunched here on a beautiful summer afternoon. all the dishes weredeliciousbut my fav was the beef cheeks with chickpea puree, the beef was packed full of flavour and melted in my mouth. the spiced roasted sweet potato was beautiful too - spices and sour cream balanced the sweet potatoes so well.
service was the let-down... waitress was on the phone and threw the dish down without saying anything.. i expected better customer service than that. food wad fantastic tho

can you believe that tapas can make you full? of course! you just need to eat a lot ! they were sodeliciousand you cannot help yourself, especially the duck liver paste and clams. i also like the mirror dory, you have to try it if you like special sauces! and for desert i highly recommend the coconut and lime crema, light and sweet so you won't get sick of it.

being tucked away in a cobbled lane helps to set the scene... if lucky enough you may score a table outside and enjoy some alfresco dining... just as you might on a summers evening in spain.

the wine list is well chosen and spanish, and the staff know their wines.

the food wasdeliciousand servings generous. we had the:
- jamon with burrata. the burrata was the hero of this dish, delightfully creamy and subtly flavoursome. - sardines - fresh and bursting with flavour.
- braised chorizo - my favourite dish of the evening, as i've never had chorizo prepared in this way. it was slow cooked and literally melted in your mouth. the tomato based sauce was rich and juicy and not too tart.
- beef cheeks - cooked to perfection but slightly lacking in flavour. the chickpea purée however wasdeliciousand the better half of the dish.
- shaved cabbage salad - would recommend adding to your meal, to balance the intensity and heaviness of the other dishes.

overall delightful. my only negative of the night was the rather brusque way in which we were made to leave, as they wanted to seat the next lot of diners.
in saying that i would happily go again (with a second seating booking) to try the desserts and other dishes.

excellent place for a drink and snack when wearing the pin-striped uniform and want to remember younger days in barcelona ! just had some glasses of an excellent tempranillo with a few tapas plates. manager was great but wait staff a bit haphazard and the food (while delicious) was a bit rustic. however great atmosphere in the otherwise soul-less city in the evening and a genuine spanish feel to it. not cheap but worth it - however go the bottle not the glass ! the red isdeliciousand after our group drank 9  reds by the glass we worked out we should spend more time planning our evening ! really nice place to go "of a tuesday" !

hidden in a laneway in circular quay is tapavino, a charming spanish restaurant. as i stepped in, for a moment, i felt like i was in one of the tapas bars in barcelona or madrid. everything on the menu soundeddeliciousso it was hard for my friends and i to decide what to eat. the wine list is extensive to say the least so we asked the waitress to help us with our selection.

this place feels so melbournian & one of the first laneway bar /restaurants in the sydney cbd. get in early or be prepared to wait. grab a stool at the bar with a friend & chat to any of the friendly staff, learn about wine & sherry & try a few spanish drops. food is tapas style & you really cant go wrong with what you order. smashed broadbean & goats cheese bruschetta is fresh. chorizo stuffed squid is full of flavour. lamb shoulder is meltingly tender with pops of sweetness from sweet, juicy grapes. get in quick for the dulce de leche cake as they run out quick. even the spiced nuts are addictive. only downside is it can get a little noisy & as it is a small place, you & your clothing will smell of thedeliciouscooking that has been happening all night.

was planning to have dinner on the harbour before seeing a show at the opera house but found tapavino instead. this place is quite small but full of atmosphere. staff here know exactly what they're talking about and can recommend wines to match any plate. the food here was fresh, fast anddeliciousand if you're tossing up between different plates, just get them all definitely worth it.

last minute finding a place in sydney with so much choice means grab the urbanspoon ap, search and map it and then follow your nose to this busy laneway restaurant buzzing and packed to the gills. couldn't read the menu as it was too dark so i trusted the friendly waiter. the three tapas dishes he chose weredelicious( jamon beef ribs and tuna) the sangria refreshing but the bill was somewhat pricier than expected. the main negative was the drain smell that occasionally waffed as the grease trap needs clearing. terrific place for the younger set but as a mature lady i think something more relaxing next time!

the menu features a whole section dedicated to the heavenly food item that is jamon served in various forms, this particular dish is a mushroom truffle tart topped withdeliciousjamon and shaved manchego cheese. i’ve found that i prefer jamon over prosciutto for both taste and texture.

now the moment of truth, my favourite dish of the evening “jamón serrano, burrata, pickled red onion”. this was the mostdeliciousham and mozzarella i have ever eaten.

terrible, terrible service. this was my second time trying tapavino. the first time, i walked out before even ordering anything because the staff were so rude to me. some time has passed and i thought i would try it again. unfortunately, i was met with the same waiter that made my previous experience unpleasant. don't get me wrong, the food was absolutelydeliciousbut i will not be going back for a third time as the staff have absolutely ruined it for me. most of them were very nice and professional, but one man in particular had one of the worst attitudes i have ever encountered and i felt i wanted to suggest to him that maybe he should be in a different line of work. he treated me like i was dirt beneath his shoes, like a common annoyance. when we ordered, i asked if he thought it was too much for two people and he no. we then had enough food for another person or two lef over so i asked to take it away with me. when we received our take away, the container was filled with about 1/4 of the food that we had left on the plates so i asked why he hadn't put it all in (in a very polite and respectful way) and he snapped at me, and completely shut me down. very rude and disrespectful when i was clearly right. i don't appreciate being spoken to like he spoke to me and i also do not appreciate being lied to because it was 100% clear that only a tiny portion of our leftovers was in our container. i feel bad for the people that probably had a recycled meal based on our leftovers. in summary, tapavino is lovely but they need to get rid of that particular waiter. i work right across the road and know a lot of people that have been there and every single person knew exactly the waiter i was speaking about and had very similar experiences. he has already ruined many people's dining and drinking experiences - how many more until you do something about it? if you keep people like that around, you will be losing a lot of business.