97 Danforth Avenue
Toronto, Ontario
Cuisine(s): Spanish, Tapas
Date visited: April 2010
www.embrujoflamenco.com
So one day Dile decides that it's time for a girls night out. And not just dessert - we're going for dinner! We (well, she) narrows it down to two places (can't remember what the other one was called) and Embrujo Flamenco won out. I was excited to try it - never tried Spanish tapas before but I likened it to Spanish dim sum. Now if you don't know what tapas is, think of chinese dim sum, where you have small dishes of food to share among the table, rather than one large dish per person.
Food: 4/5
We ordered almost 8 things I don't remember which ones we ordered (not the cow tongue tho .. they were out of it that day. BJ almost cried .. haha j/k). A few shrimp dishes - one was chocolate covered shrimp. It wasn't that great, although the thought of it was quite different. There was one with some sort of cheese like thing with little bread squares that was delicious, as was a dish with steak pieces with different sauces. The calamari was yummy; the eggplant was alright, and the paella was very flavourful. The main tapas dishes I thought were standard fare - good, but nothing stuck out at me (except for that cheese/honey/bread one). The paella was very good.
Service: 4/5
Reservations are indeed necessary for this place - it seems there's pretty much only 1 sitting through the entire evening (we were there for almost 3 hours!). Our waiter was helpful in suggesting what to eat and how much to eat, but I suppose he also overestimated how much we were capable of eating. We wanted to get one order of paella, and on the menu it says for 2 people, so I said paella, I guess for 2 people? And then he suggested about 8 tapas dishes on top of that. We got about 7, and thinking that our one order was going to come out it would be about good. Turns out he put two orders down - waaaaay too much food for us. We ended up doggie bagging an entire plateful of paella. I suppose that was partly my bad for saying "for 2 people?" (and I pointed to the menu), but perhaps he could have clarified. Oh well, I won't split hairs over that. Dile was upset he didn't top the water off (maybe cuz she was drunk .. heehee).
Atmosphere: 4/5
The restaurant is a tiny place tucked in on Danforth. If I had to hazard a guess I would say maybe 10 tables of 2-6 could fit, with a stage for live Spanish dancing. The dancer was very good - she danced (with those clam shaped instruments that are really loud when clapped) and stomped on the stage along to a guy on a guitar for some time (maybe 30 min?). The only problem is that because the place is so tiny and the stomping/instruments were a bit loud, it was hard to talk amongst ourselves. But after the show was finished it was fine. Ewie and I decided to hit up the ladies room - I was not impressed with it. It looked like something I'd see at camping - a single light, with none shining into the stalls; the stalls were dark and wooden and rickety (one stall didn't lock properly). The only "cool" thing was the mirror/advertisement board in there - you think you're looking at a mirror but in the corner there's some electronic advertising. Parking is available in a public lot about a block away.
Price/Value: 3.5/5
This being my first time to a Spanish tapas restaurant, I didn't know what to expect. The menu had a lot of selections (expected, since you're probably going to choose a bunch of dishes), but at an average price tag of $9-$12 for each plate and you need to get a lot of plates, you're looking at a large dinner tab. For the 4 of us, we ordered around 7 tapas dishes, 2 paella dishes (the cheapest ones, at $40 a pop), and a few drinks. The total damage was $200, so about $50 a person after tax and tips. Even if there wasn't confusion about the second paella, it'd still be about $40 a person.
Overall dining experience: 3.5/5
It was nice to try out a new cuisine - the tapas idea was nice and the food was decent, but the price tag and bad bathroom can't keep my opinion above water. I'm not dirt poor but I'm not filthy rich either, but in my opinion $40 per person was a bit pricey. Would I return, not likely, but I wouldn't not recommend others from going either (yes, a double negative); it's not my cup of tea (or plate of dinner), but someone else may like it and find the price tag alright.
