Last month we experienced Asian tapas in Chinatown Shōjō, and this month (my pick!) I decided to take the club for Spanish tapas in Brookline. In the space formerly occupied by American Craft (and Roadhouse before that) Barcelona Wine Bar opened fairly recently.
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| You can study your pig parts at the bar |
I arrived early and decided to have a glass of wine at the bar, which was accompanied by a complimentary order of arancini (a fried Italian rice ball) with truffle honey. Who doesn’t like free? I’d say dinner was off to a great start!
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| Free arancini and delish wine |
For large parties they offer three prix fixe options in addition to the regular menu: tapas alone ($35), tapas plus paella and mixed grill ($45), or tapas plus paella and mixed grill plus charcuterie ($55). We decided to go for the $45 option and then order some charcuterie from the regular menu, which is more economical because the meat+cheese is $17.50 for three choices. We are so frugal! And at the end of the night, they ended up giving us the charcuterie for free, which was a lovely surprise.
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| Meat+cheese |
We are all very good eaters, so we were worried that there wouldn’t be enough food with the prix fixe option – that was not something we needed to be concerned about. The tapas were amazing and we were pretty full after that. I think we would have been just fine with the $35 option. For a party of nine, they brought out three of each tapas dish. We started with mixed Spanish olives and spicy eggplant caponata. I think even an eggplant hater would have liked this eggplant dish. Up next was bunuelos de bacalao (salt cod fritters), truffled “bikini” (grilled ham and cheese), and kale salad. I was so confused by the name of the grilled cheese, but it turned out to be my favorite dish of the night. The kale salad was cold and oily.
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| Truffled “bikini” |
The last round of tapas included broccolini (which I loved), chorizo and sweet-sour figs, whipped sheep’s cheese with pistachios and smoked paprika, grilled hangar steak with black truffle vinaigrette, and crispy calamari with smoked pepper aioli. The hangar steak was my second favorite dish of the night.
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| Broccolini |
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| Whipped sheep’s cheese |
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| Hangar steak |
And after that, came our main courses…because we were still SO hungry (not). Mariscos paella (with prawns, squid, clams and mussels) and the Barcelona mixed grill (with NY strip, chicken, pork chop, gaucho sausage)…we sent some great leftovers home!
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| Barcelona mixed grill |
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| Mariscos paella |
Despite how full we were, there is always room for a little sweet and we got sugar cookies with dulce de leche for dessert. There is room for improvement on the presentation of the dessert, but it tasted delicious.
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| Sugar cookie sandwiches |
The damage
$78 per person
The rundown
Barcelona Wine Bar
1700 Beacon Street, Brookline
Kara Cooks and Eats 