Bar Tapavino

Amazing find, my new favourite restraunt in sydney. The wait staff were fantastic and very knowledgeable about wine. Helped us choose a bottle. Albeit, was corked, were great about it and helped us choose another one. Food was sensational. Lamb shoulder, warm potatos with caremalised onion and cauliflower & chorizo amoung our favourites. Easy to walk in and have a late dinner on a sat. Definately reccomend.

What the actual F Sydney, here I am boasting to everyone in the US about how Sydney siders are some of the worlds most discerning and demanding eaters out there and that we know what’s good. Well I’m totally shocked I was led astray by these other reviews cause what I had here today was a total shit show.
Came here tonight to celebrate my mother’s birthday and tried an array of dishes but I’ll mention a few that stood out as being the most offensive:
Oysters on the half shell: mmmm how can you F this up? Drown it in tomato purée and sprinkle some parsley on it so you can’t taste the oyster at all. Mind. Blown. #fail
Scallops: let’s blast it so it’s nice and well done oh and then a little dollop of something that taste like duck on the side cause you know, why would you want to taste the scallop?
Yellowtail: the waiter recommended this one to us after I asked him what is a ‘must try’ dish. Again, it seems the theme of their treatment of seafood in general is «why the f would you want to taste any of it, let’s see what crazy spices we can use to cover up the integrity and nuances of the main ingredient so it is completely obscured and camouflaged». This dish actually made me angry. It looked like some quality slices of fish covered in roasted nuts spiced with cumin. You heard me– CUMIN IN AN F’n sashimi-​esque fish dish!
I mean, I don’t care what type of cuisine you’re trying to do the bipolar madness going on in these dishes are a cardinal sin to all cooking. Respect the ingredients and make their intrinsic qualities sing. This felt like a rookie chef’s demented science experiment.
Only good thing about the meal was the glass of wine I had and the attentive service.
We came in excited and really hoping to enjoy a fine meal and left just disgusted, dazed and confused and headed around the corner to Café Sydney for a second dinner to make up for this one.

Brilliant lunch in my final Sydney days. I was on my own, but they’re happy to have single diners at the bar. Works for me.
Food was delicious, and bigger portions than I expected. The crab, avocado, & chilli tostado was fresh and very tasty. Followed by the spiced lamb shoulder with pomegranate & yogurt and I couldn’t eat another bite.
Washed these down with a few glasses of wine, with recommendations by the lovely server, and it was a perfect lazy lunch. Shot of Pacharán? Yep. Chocolate dessert with sherry? Of course. It was a foodie experience for one, a culinary goodbye that will make me miss the Sydney CBD for lunch.

Love this place, best tapas in Sydney, brilliant ambience and service. Great for a date or large group. Sharing dishes all round.

Upstairs is for bookings, downstairs is for walk-​ins. We arrived at around 8pm without a booking & they managed to fit us in at a cute little outside (lucky there was a heater!)
The staff were welcoming, more than accommodating & very efficient.
Chorizo sliders for entrees… Oh my goodness. This was too good. Then braised chorizo (yes, I’m a fan of chorizo) served with bread to mop up the thick tomato sauce goodness & olives. We also had the beef short ribs which were great!
Amazing wine selection, focusing on Spanish wines. You can have your wine served in a glass, carafe or the full bottle. I love places that do a carafe — perfect for when you want more than 1 glass but don’t want to commit to a whole bottle.
Overall, an amazing restaurant! So cute, very authentic, amazing food and wine. Will be dreaming about this one for awhile.

Everything is good. Really good. Worth the wait for a table (check out Bulletin Place bar next door)
Tapavino is definitely one of my favorite spots. Perhaps to excess. Great to go with a group of a few people so you can share the tapas but also a great spot to go solo and enjoy sitting at their bar.
Some of my fave dishes:
— Crab, avocado and chilli tostado (super refreshing!)
— Lamb shoulder (so so soft and juicy)
— Warm potato, caramelised onion and salt coca (amazing pizza, great carb addition to the meal)
— Yellow fin tuna cruda (the spiced almonds and dressing on top are to die for!)
— For dessert, chocolate terrine with olive oil and salt flake (quite salty and rich but with every mouthful you can muster, you go to heaven)
My only grievance is if you go late at night (say past 9pm) they run out of certain popular menu items. Which is a shame but it’s really my fault for not prioritising Tapavino’s beautiful food any earlier in the evening.
Arguably the best affordable restaurant in Circular Quay (big call I know!)

I have been to Spain and had authentic Spanish tapas and have to say that Tapa Vino in Sydney is one of the best experiences of the cuisine that I’ve had to date.
Our party of four had a reservation for Upstairs at 6.30pm although were hoping to squeeze in downstairs… This place is fully booked at all times and we quickly realized this wasn’t to be but that wasn’t an issue.
We ordered 7 dishes all up:
— Warm Artichoke & Black Truffle Dip
— Seared QLD Scallops with Chilli
— Sweet Potato Salad and Pumpkin Seeds with Chimi Churri Dressing
— Braised Chicken w. Tomato salsa and paprika mayo
— Spiced Lamb Shoulder w. Pomegranate and yoghurt
Dessert:
Cinnamon, Chocolate and Oreo Cheesecake
And a pear dish with fresh cream
The food was incredible! Every dish was different yet excellent in its own way and very, very fresh. My favorite would have to be a tie between the sweet potato salad and the braised chicken.
Our servers were extremely prompt and polite and helped us out with any questions we had regarding our order. I will definitely be returning next time I’m in Sydney and (hopefully) get that downstairs table!

This restaurant has the best idea! Upstairs is booking only, downstairs is walk-​ins. We left it to late to book only deciding the day before so we just rocked up and 20 mins later we had a table and were sipping on wine. The service here is fantastic, everyone is very tentative and polite. We ordered spiced lamb shoulder, braised chicken, sweet potato, and the black truffle tart topped with beautifully cured ham. There was more than enough food for all 3 of us. We also ordered two desserts to share… Chocolate Terrine and dulce de leche tart.
All the food was amazing! We also had a couple of glasses of Spanish wine which was light and fruity! yum.
This will certainly be a regular for me now.

Went in for tapas after seeing a show at the Sydney Opera House. Didn’t have a defined waiter and the waiters that did check in on our table weren’t particularly friendly or engaging. They were out of 7 – 10 of the most popular items on the menu, making ordering slightly difficult. Ended up selecting 3 items for 2 people: Jamon serrano, truffled mushroom, and manchego tart, lamb shoulder, and asparagus, pea, and mint salad. The tart was the tastiest choice by far! The salty ham paired deliciously with the pastry, cheese, and mushrooms. The lamb was fine but not memorable, and the dressing on the salad was far too oily and the asparagus was grossly overcooked. Would be 2* if not for the tart. Extensive wine list but I didn’t try any on this occasion.

A solid place for good tapas. There were a few issues and had to send the food back (too cold), and yet staff was most accommodating. They comped us glass of wine for the trouble.
Still, food was flavorful, and portions were generous. Good selections of wines by th glass.

This cute wine bar is INCREDIBLE. I visited for the first time 2 months ago, and have been back 5 times already! It is on a charming ally way in the CBD, but can get quite crowded if you don’t get there early enough. You can make a booking and sit upstairs, otherwise they reserve the bottom bar area for walk ins. Sit outside if it is a nice day!
It is a great place to go after work for a beautiful glass of wine or their delicious sangria.
The food is on another level. Go with a small group so you can order many of the amazing tapas. I have never had a dish I did not thoroughly enjoy.
Could not recommend this place any higher.

UPDATE– only fair to upgrade a star after my 2^nd visit. My friends made a reservation so there I was giving it a 2^nd chance. This time the service was very good. Wine always filled, water always filled, etc. The food was still very good as well. Dulce de Leche tart still a winner and this time tried some ceviche and tartare (both very good). Great wine selection. The below still happened so not removing but wanted to update my review that the 2^nd time was much better.
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This is a tough one. The food was Excellent! From the braised chicken, to empanadas and the excellent selection of charcuterie! Only complaint was that I was surprised the sweet potatoes were served cold. For dessert we had the Dulce de Leche tart and it was amazing!!!
The downside… service. Now this was just one individual (and also a 2^nd who witness and did nothing) so I don’t want to be negative about the whole place, but this was entirely unacceptable. My experience (some not so bad, but when taken as a list… you get the idea).
1. Waiter didn’t know how to make wine comparisons. I understand it’s a Spanish restaurant, but I don’t know Spanish wines, so we asked them to compare to our favorite AU/​NZ wines. Response was basically like, «we don’t have AU/​NZ wines, only Spanish so we can’t compare.» well that was not the point of our question… moving on.
2. Received an appetizer that we didn’t order (assumed maybe it was complimentary). But wait! then we received another! So we knew something must be wrong. So we waited. When the waiter came back we asked him if we could order. He said «are you sure? Do you not like your other food?» We responded that we hadn’t ordered it. He realized his mistake and took the 2 plates to another table. JUST DIRECTLY TO ANOTHER TABLE! They had been sitting at our table for 20 minutes. He has no idea if we touched them or sneezed on them or whatever. Gross! Leave them with us or take them to the kitchen, DO NOT DELIVER TO ANOTHER TABLE.
3. First time he came around for dessert requests, we weren’t ready. He didn’t come back for another 20 minutes and even then he only came back because I had to make quite a show for attention. Meanwhile during this 20 minutes, our wine glasses had gone empty (it’s the type of restaurant where they take your bottle and hide it and pour for you). With the first bottle it was timely, this time we were dry for quite some time. So we asked for more wine. He responded «your bottle is done.» This was not possible, we said and could he check. (we knew there was no way, it was our 2^nd bottle and we’d only had one pour for the 3 of us). He came back and said we were right but he had switched the bottles.
4. We made our dessert order and he left. When he came back to deliver our dessert he mentioned that we would have to leave the table quite soon as there were people waiting downstairs. I take exception to this for 2 reasons (the 20 min we had to wait to order dessert with no wine, and the fact that he let us order dessert and then rushed us through eating it). We smiled and said nothing.
5. I observed him asking some other waiter we had never seen to take our payment. not sure why.
6. After paying, the hostess came over to ask how things were. My friend politely said we were a bit disappointed with being kicked out of our table, especially after such a long wait to order dessert and be poured the rest of our wine. The waiter overheard this at the next table, immediately left the people he was serving (a shame for them) and started defending himself that he had asked for our order once. I think it’s perfectly acceptable to not be ready to order the first time they came around so I said I understood that but it took him a really long time to come back and meanwhile we’d had no wine so didn’t appreciate being rushed out of the restaurant. He continued getting defensive and aggressive and the hostess just walked away and left him to us. He was making a scene and I have never seen a waiter get so defensive over his mistakes and over constructive feedback that was asked from us. There is no way the hostess should’ve let him continue on his tirade. She should’ve taken the feedback and given it to him later to avoid a restaurant scene. We just walked out because I was not about to get into an argument with a waiter who was obviously poorly trained and didn’t give a crap about his job or his service.
One of the worse experiences that I or my friends have ever had in Sydney. So despite the food being wonderful (hats off to the chef), we would not return. I understand that this is just one bad server, but this was witnessed by several and none of the other staff knew how to handle it appropriately either. A disappointment.

So I came here for a mate’s birthday, and walked out beyond content! This place is amazing. But be prepared, this place is always crowded, so make sure you book — especially if you are coming for dinner.
We ordered and shared all our dishes together. The watermelon salad was brilliant, and the cod salad was to die for. Every dish that came out was better than the last — the only disappointing dish was the lamb with feta. It wasn’t bad, just ordinary.
Also, Tapavino has an extensive amount of Cherry on the menu — personally, I think cherry is too sweat, and so was extremely pleased that they also a vast amount of dry cherry on the list.
At the end it was a great evening.

I was excited to try this place out after reading some great reviews. Unfortunately, I disagree with the hype and felt like this place was mediocre and stuffy.
Despite the line outside, we were able to be seated right away for dinner. It was, however, very crowded inside. I felt like I was having dinner with the couple sitting next to us, because the tables were so close together. More than once, the waiters/​waitresses bumped into our table trying to serve the other tables.
It was very loud here, so it was hard to ask questions to our waiter and hear his answers (not that his answers were any good). The wine we ended up with was not great, nor was the food. All of the food descriptions sounded good, but when we finally tasted it, we said ‘We’re paying how much money for this??’. Bland, boring food. I would have been better off ordering a pizza.

Sometimes its good to let go. Tapavino is a great place to let someone else take over. Resist temptation to pick up the menu, let someone else do it all. There’s yet to be something land in front of me that I haven’t thoroughly enjoyed.
In fact, I think that’s the only thing Tapavino is missing: a chefs selection or degustation menu. Then again, there could very well be one, I’ve never read the thing.

Wow this place was fantastic. We had the set menu which was a lot of food. The highlights for me was the beef cheeks which just melted in your mouth! The chicken was just as good though. hmm would say the cheese in vine leaves was another fantastic dish. I wasn’t a fan of the yellow fin tuna unfortunately. The dessert dulce le leche was seriously good. The service was excellent with the a recommendation of red wine from the waitress. It’s not cheap but would recommend if you’re after a nice celebration or party for a birthday!

OK, I’m in love.
All the previous reviewers are not lying — this place is amazing. A new absolute favourite.
The food is incredible. We had «jamon» in all varieties (Espanol for ham, mate). I had a mushroom tart topped with jamon & truffle oil… I mean, it was sex on a plate. I also had the scallops with morcilla… this was me being open-​minded about morcilla (morcilla is blood sausage). I can say I don’t like morcilla. It just tastes like plain, gross animal fat to me. But honestly, the scallops were exquisite in taste and presentation.
My friends got this epic potato dish I was super jealous of, I had a bite and I am definitely getting one to myself next time and also the witlof dish, which was different and interesting, but really really good (witlof, blue cheese and roasted hazelnuts).
THEN THERE WAS DESSERT!
We got 3 and shared. The chocolate terrine with salt and olive oil (dense and rich, but perfection), the dulce de leche tart and the prune and brandy cheesecake… seriously all luscious and delicious.
Hands down my favourite tapas experience, ever. Love it. Will be back.

We managed to get someone to mind the kids and had our first night out alone in 13 years to celebrate our wedding anniversary (18 years thanks for asking). We had finished dinner and were walking slowly back to the train trying to avoid returning to normality.
We wanted something a little different to finish off the night and I had heard of this place online. We both like sherry and we were walking right past it so we dropped in for a nightcap and… wow.
I have never seen so many sheries to choose from. We found a spot at the bar and relied on the bartenders recommendations. Spot on. We each had 2 (or 3 or 4).
Nice atmosphere. Great buzz to the place. A fantastic way to round out the evening.
The food looked amazing (even though we had just finished an amazing meal elsewhere and were frankly stuffed).
Next time we can ditch the kids we will be back for dinner as well as drinks.

Movida, who?
”Warm cow’s cheese, walnuts in vine leaves a la plancha”. OMFG. Mouthwatering stuff!
The steamed fish parcel with piquilo peppers and sherry mayo was also exceptional.
Inviting ambiance, prompt service and there are PLENTY of other dishes on the menu which I intend on trying in the future…
I’ll be back. Often!

Mind = blown to pieces.
Walked in here accidentally trying to find Bulletin Place a month or so ago. Was struck by how packed and happy it was. Then saw a Unilocaler add a picture of their razor clams here a fortnight ago, and the deal was sealed.
We started with a pinot grigio in a 500ml carafe — looks like a test tube with a smallish bulb at the end but a helluva lotta wine comes out of that guy let me tell ya.
The food:
— Razor clams with split peas, long and sumptuos, a real standout.
— Braised chorizo with Spanish olives, rich, saucy, a real standout.
— Jamon with ashy goats cheese and roast beetroot, a real standout.
— Cucumber and seared watermelon salad, interesting but not a real standout.
Everything was just. No, I can’t. This is killing me. I want to be back there. Never write reviews when you’re hungry, it’s not healthy.
To finish we went inside, sat at the bar and ordered a couple of sherries. And found out that while we don’t particularly like sherries, it was fun to try new things.