La Bodega

I will def be revisiting this restaurant as I want to try something they actually cooked! My girlfriend and I went for a natter and to catch up over some nibbles and bottle of wine. TBH I was a bit let down by their selection of reds as I thought all of them were extremely light and overpriced. So we settled for a nice bottle of whit to go with our mixed cheese and meat board and caprese salad. I loved the board and the salad. The meat and cheese board had a nice selection of different cheeses and the meat cuts were def not from tesco. 2 thumbs up for this place an am looking forward to trying more of their menu items!

Endroit sympa ou l’on mange très bien. Les produits sont frais et délicieux. Bonne ambiance et décoration soignée.

This is my second time dining here now, and I’ve really enjoyed it both times. I far prefer it over the ever-​popular Porthouse chain of tapas joints. The service is quick and our waitress was really helpful when we were making decisions about the wine, bringing us tasters of different ones.
Items to try: sardines a la plancha (even if you think you don’t like sardines, give them a try), fried goat’s cheese with honey, patatas bravas (a classic), spicy pil pil prawns
Items to skip: chicken skewers (flavour was nice, but very dry), tenderloin strips in creamy sauce (bland)
I agree with previous reviewers who mention not having enough room on the table. Everything is served literally at the same time — it’d help if they could stagger the dishes a bit.
They also have a very good selection of reasonably-​priced wines. For 3 people, it came to about € 35 each for dinner — and that’s with 2 bottles of wine! We were all stuffed!

Personally, I am yet to meet someone who doesn’t enjoy tapas food… little plates of delicious Spanish food that you can mix and match, share (or not!) and get a taste of lots of different things… what’s not to like?!
My most recent discovery was La Bodega Wine & Tapas Bar in Ranelagh. What’s the story with Ranelagh… I’ve been eating there for years but there’s ALWAYS somewhere I haven’t tried yet! Right on the main street you’ll find this gorgeous spot, spacious and light with fab furnishings and dotted with beautiful antique-​ish mirrors — the perfect spot for a few glasses of vino and some sharing dishes over a catch up!
We decided to have a dish of our own, then share a couple of dishes — then follow it all up with a cheese board… because no meal is complete without cheese right?! :-) Dishes were approx € 6.50 and portion size was extremely generous. It was all absolutely delicious! We had Creamed Mushrooms on toasted Country Loaf, Patatas Bravas, a Mixed Bean Stew, and Chicken Skewers.
And the all important cheese board — we went for the small (as we were a lot fuller than we expected to be!) at about € 11 — great value.
Along with a glass of white wine, the full bill came to € 47 — very reasonable for the amount of food that was dished up. La Bodega is an ideal place for a nice bite to eat if you are anywhere ear the Ranelagh area.

Boooo. Despite being nearly empty we were told there was a two hour wait. Ate there once before, but it’s not worth a 2 hour wait. What poor service.

I’m a big fan of La Bodega, I love tapas and for me this is one of the better tapas places I’ve been to in Dublin. They have a good selection of dishes and there are always some really good daily specials which are worth trying! They do get very busy so if you’re going here do ring ahead! One thing about this place is that it can be a bit too crowded, tables are very close together and you can feel a bit cramped, especially if it’s a table for two people! I’ve had serious problems fitting all the tapas and drinks on the small table! Don’t seem to have the same problem if you’re there in a group though! Overall food is great, staff are friendly and helpful and I love the look of place! You’ll forget that you’re sitting in Ranelagh, and leaving the cosy restaurant can be quite a shock! The Chorizo del Pastor and Patatas Bravas are our staples here, then we mix and match whatever else we fancy!

3.5 review. We have passed by La Bodega several times so decided to finally give it a try the other weekend. We of course did not have the foresight to make a booking so the place was packed. Luckily, there were two chairs and a small coffee table of sorts near the entrance so we plopped right down. After ordering some Rioja we were told that another party had canceled their reservation so we were able to move to an actual table and spread out a bit. After glancing at the menu for a bit our server came by. Some dishes were familiar and some were not so I mixed in a little of both. We did strictly tapas portions and had the gambas con chorizo, pan Catalan, tortilla espanola, pincho de pollo, queso frito and the bravas with allioli. After less than a 10 minute wait all of our dishes came out — and I do mean ALL of our dishes came out. There was no room for all of the food so it was a bit of a game of tetris trying to make everything fit on the tiny table top. I had assumed they would space out the tapas so next time I will definitely order only a few tapas at a time. Despite that slight mishap, we enjoyed our dishes. The tortilla espanola, pincho de pollo and queso frito were my favourites but everything was pretty good. The place had a nice atmosphere and everyone around us seemed to be enjoying themselves. Will visit again.

La Bodega is myself and my girlfriend’s favorite restaurant in Dublin… and that’s saying a lot as we’re foodies.
It’s not necessarily the best of anything in particular but everything works perfectly. The food is beautiful, the staff are incredibly friendly, the wine is fantastic (especially the house red).
I cannot recommend the place enough. Treat yourself of a weekday (really busy on the weekend), there’ll still be a great atmospehre.

This is really a 3.5 star place. It is definitely one of the better tapas restaurants in Dublin. There is a good range of choice here and the food is very tasty. I also find the dishes to be very satisfying, meaning you don’t have to order a lot to end up very, very full. For that reason, I think the best thing about La Bodega is the value for money. I have dined out, for two, for € 49 here. This included a carafe of Spanish wine, coffees and some dessert. I thought this to be very reasonable given the quality of the food and the good service.
La Bodega’s only real drawbacks are that it’s a little out of the way if you tend to head towards town in the evening and that even when it’s busy, I personally think it lacks something in the way of atmosphere.

This is a nice little place in Ranelagh that we went to on a Wednesday night. They have a large menu of classic tapas as well as some others. We got a ham and cheese plate, salad, wings, meatballs, and a sausage special. They had good wine and overall good service. I will definitely come back here for tapas.

I’ve been here twice in the last month, so clearly, it’s good!
I love a good tapas bar, and this one serves good food and wine in a cozy and fun atmosphere for a reasonable price.
Highlights:
Chickpea and Chorizo
Shrimp and Garlic
Meatballs
Patatas Bravas

Friends and I were going to finally try out the 15euro Monday — Thursday deal at Ochos in Ranelagh (glass of wine and 3 tapas for only 15). However, when we arrived at Ochos we were told by the staff at Hobarts that it went out of business… but luck would have it that La Bodega was just down the street!
With four of us we were able to sample a good portion of La Bodega’s menu and nothing disappointed! The calamari was amazing! Thankfully we’d ordered the large portion because the 4 of us just could not get enough! Often calamari is chewy or heavily breaded, this was perfection! The Chorizo en vino was another dish that the four of us could not stop raving about. The queso frito and paella (can’t remember the name on the menu, but they are fried paella balls) were good, but didn’t wow the way the calamari and chorizo had. Our table just kept raving about the authenticity of the dishes and it led to each of us telling stories about our time spent in Spain.
Even though we had gorged on tapas, the desserts looked too good to pass up but ultimately were lack-​luster. We tried the Crema Catalana and a dish that was a cinnamon and sugar coated French Toast with chocolate dipping sauce. The French Toast-​like dessert was tough and chewy but the dipping sauce was perfection. The Crema Catalana was good, but not as good as we all thought it would be. However, with the tapas being so good it wasn’t a problem that the desserts were just ‘okay’.
All in all, 8 tapas, a bottle of wine, and 2 desserts only set us back 20euro each… not bad at all for the amount of food we ordered!
Also, it has to be said, the service was amazing. The staff friendly and helpful and the food came out very quickly. Highly recommend everyone takes a trip to Ranelagh to check out La Bodega!

Being indecisive, I adore tapas. It seems to me the perfect way to enjoy a talented chef. Instead of limiting yourself to one dish you can have four. If your dining companion wants to share you may try eight. Come with a large, friendly group and you can sample the entire menu.
There were two of us, and we did share. But before we could do that, we had to wait. They don’t make reservations for groups under six, and at 8 pm there was a 45 minute queue. The hostess took our names and we passed the time at the bar. Not a bad start.
After about 40 minutes the hostess offered us a table by the window. We should have declined and waited for one in the body of the restaurant, but we were growing hungry and intoxicated. Being seated in the window, to the side of the bar, we were separated from the main restaurant and were promptly forgotten. 20 minutes later I flagged down a waited and wrangled us a pair of menu. He apologized, but clearly forgot about us several more times throughout the evening.
The food was fine. I love anything with goats’ cheese, so Spanish food is reliable. I was fighting a cold, so an eloquent reminiscence won’t be possible. Sorry.
There were a few nice wines too, and reasonably priced, although I was surprised that there were no wine flights. You usually see those at tapas restaurants, what with the sample-​many-​flavors theme.
All in all, it was a satisfying dinner, but when I go back I won’t let them annex me into the window seat; the décor is too good to ignore.