Itapas & Wine Bar

I had the pleasure of dining here last night with Kelly T.; we met for happy hour.
We picked items from the iTapas happy hour menu at the bar and it was just gravy.
We noshed on the garlic mushrooms, the chorizo and quail egg canapé, spanish olives and the calamares. Good portions to share. Kelly had dirty martinis while I started with a peach cosmo and eventually downed two Chopin and tonics. TOASTY!
That’s what I call HAPPY HOUR!
TIDBIT: Oh lawrd. so faded after walking back from Nola’s for a fourth freakin’ drink. my ass slept in my car for an hour before driving home. Good times. (yeah Kelly. that’s why I didn’t pick up your phonecall!)
Thanks to Brian, our bartender at iTapas for remembering our names and our drinks. I will definitely come back again. They even had a live jazz band. Loved the downtempo jazz beats.
Kelly: Thanks girl, I had fun with the talkstories, mad hi fives and getting to know you! Looking forward to our next happy hour session! *hugs*

Happy Hour here we came! I had heard about this place from a couple of friends and have been meaning to check it out literally for the last YEAR. So when the fabulous Mika suggested Happy Hour in her area, I was all guns for ITapas.
The bar was completely empty about 5:15 when I came in but slowly but surely, the place became packed and by 7:30 when we left, it was in full swing with a jazz (?) band to boot.
We ordered the olives, calamari, sauteed mushrooms, and sausage and quail egg canapé. The canapes were delicious — OH yum! Oh and they make an excellent Dirty Martini and I’m VERY SURE that Mika enjoyed her Chopin and tonic — thank you, Brian!
It’s a pretty small place but very neat and clean appearance, which I like. I think the only issue we encountered was with the JACK ASS who kept bothering us to move down even though we had like 4 dishes and 2 drinks in front of us. Jerk off — BUT the wonderful Bartender Brian saved the day before we kicked his a** and took the chair out and told them to hush up — Loves for you!
Great overall place for a Happy Hour, especially when you have as good as company as I did!!!

Don’t bother unless you have $ to burn. And if that’s the case, just give me your wallet. ;-)
Overpriced food and drink. Tiny portions. $ 10 for 7 shrimp? Oh, no. I don’t think I could eat all that (NOT!)., I’m so full… you have some. Puh-​leeze.
What kind of nonsense is that?!?
$ 9 -$ 12 for a tiny glass of sangria?
This restaurant is the biggest waste of $. Personally, when I go to a restaurant, I expect to EAT, not be overcharged for a puny portion and then go home and have a real dinner.
You want to treat friends to tapas? Invite them over to your place, make it poltuck (or have everyone bring an ingredient for the mega-​paella pan), have some nice wine at home, groove out to flamenco and Spanish guitar… guaranteed to be a better and cheaper time than ITapas.

iTapas sounds like an awesome idea! A whole restaurant that surrounds the idea of spanish appetizers and drinks sounds like a fun time to me, but culinarily speaking, it was a disaster.
All of the tapas we ordered (with the exception of the crab cakes which were alright) were either painfully mediocre or actually horrible … the chorizo selection ended up just being slices of chorizo in a tiny bowl (uhm… I could have done that myself, thanks for your excellent knife skills though…), and the paella was a total disgrace to paella everywhere! It was a seafood paella and while I SHOULD have known better than to eat a mussel at a random restaurant… near the end I thought I would try one and… it tasted dirty and horrible — like you know that feeling when you’re worried you’ve just consumed something that could put you on the floor of your bathroom all night long later? Ya, you know what I’m talking about. The class level on this place took a major dive when I experienced the mussel mishap.
The sangria, which I ASSUMED would be this place’s saving grace, was NOT — it was watery! And tasteless.
Lastly, our waiter was below average in everything you could rate him in.
I think that everyone has a right to their own opinion, but I honestly do NOT think you should go here. Would a major chance of having an unsatisfactory evening and possibly contaminated food be worth it? I can answer that for you… NO!
***Since it’s required to give 1 star, I’ll say that they deserve it for having cucumber infused water: o) Not very Spanish, but a likable touch.

3.5 stars, actually.
We went here on a whim of a friend of ours — she made a reservation, and off we went. The décor was what you would expect from a Palo Alto tapas place — trendy, downplayed, psuedo-​sophisticated. Pretty chill.
There were 10 people in our party, so we all got lots of small plates to share. Everything tasted great. The things I can remember being especially good were the roasted potatoes, the garlic shrimp, some sort of chicken dish, the lobster and avocado spring rolls, ahi/​avocado tartare, and a rib dish. It was all quite good — flavorful, pungent, unusual for traditional tapas. Nice.
I have to take a star off for the terribly overpriced sangria. Seriously, $ 34 for a pitcher? $ 9/​glass? For that stuff? Yikes. It was like someone poured Costco box wine in a pitcher, added ice, a couple of blueberries and raspberries and called it sangria. A shame. I also have to take off half a star for the music. For a while I thought we were at a wake for someone. Either no music or fun music, please.
Overall, 3.5 stars for the food and simple, decent décor.

I really love this place. Since most of the time my eyes are bigger than my tummy, the small portions were right up my ally.
Perfect for sharing… here’s what we got–
Garlic potatoes (deeeeeeeelish)
Spring rolls
meatballs
and some vegetable thing i can’t remember.
I also had an AMAZING pomegranate martini with lime juice… ah, so good.
I walked out of this restaurant feeling content/​full– as opposed to omg i ate way too much full.

1 Star for the Service, 1 for the Wine. Otherwise the food was not impressive (we ordered 5 different types of tapas) and overpriced, in my opinion.
The Spanish tortilla, for instance, was loaded with potatoes, which is not good for people with diabetes.

I couldn’t decide between 3 and 4 stars… maybe it was the good company, but I had a great time here, so I gave Itapas the credit and leaned 4. We had the meatballs, chips and guac, hamachi with avocado, lobster spring rolls, pulled pork, duck tacos, garlic mushrooms, mini churros… I think that’s it. Haha! I highly recommend the garlic mushrooms and the churros. A little on the pricey side, and some of the dishes were great, but some were just okay. The guys shared a bottle of wine, and the girls had the «Chef’s Favorite Whites» and «Master Reds,» which were 3-​glass wine samplers.
We also met the owner of Itapas towards the end of dinner, and chatted with him a bit. A friendly guy, who obviously cared that we were satisfied and encouraged us to try his other restaurant, Three Seasons. Overall, it was a pleasant experience. With good company, it’s a pleasant atmosphere to have dinner and chit chat.
On another note though. «iTapas?» C’mon… you can be more creative and less played out than i-​Whatever! ;c)

Yum, on a Monday night, this place was decently filled but our server was prompt, friendly and hungry, drooling while describing the dishes really makes you want to try them.
We had a green salad (BIG and tasty), duck tacos, garlic shrimp (YUM dredged in sauce, ooooo), calamari (super crispy), lamb skewers (flavorful but sea salt would have been nice), and ahi tuna (good but was hoping for spicy).
Everything was really good and I had the chef’s choice wine flight which didn’t really go with what we ordered but was tasty nonetheless.
I would definitely come back here again and would come here before going to Iberia or Cascal.

Having eaten in Palo Alto a lot and being a fan of both wine bars and tapas, I’m surprised it took me so long to try out Itapas. I guess skepticism from Unilocal reviews had turned me off. And after my first visit I felt like Itapas perfectly fit the Unilocal reviews, though I’m still compelled to go back.
Its a nice setting with an extensive menu and wine list with generous tasting pours for $ 5-​$ 7 and reasonable, though not great prices on food. A few of our dishes were great and a few left a lot to be desired.
We started with the asparagus bisque and 4 small skewers ($ 6). The soup was terrific with a buttery flavor that didn’t overwhelm and wasn’t too rich. It seemed like a soup I’d generally only find in a much better restaurant. The skewers on the other hand were pretty disappointing. They were rather tiny, maybe 2.5″ long, and had a mix of good, dull, and unappetizing options. The onions were too pungent for my taste and the cheese and bread were rather blah. A few of the meats were tasty, though the anchovy was unexpected and unpleasant — though admittedly I don’t like anchovy.
We followed this with the duck tacos ($ 13) which had four small corn tortillas with well cooked duck cut into strips and a side of mango chutney, guacamole, and an orange salsa. The condiments added to the dish, but it they weren’t a match made in heaven. While it was tasty, it wasn’t a great value for $ 13. The melon and prosciutto was also a let down, as the melon was rather tasteless (and I think out of season) and the balsamic and prosciutto didn’t make up for it.
I tried the ’03 Jade Mountain Syrah ($ 5/​taste) and really enjoyed it. It was only slightly fruity with a strong flavor of kalamata olives. The ’02 Spanish grinon summa syrah/​cab blend lacked character and made me glad I hadn’t finished my Syrah before moving on to the summa.
I think I’ll be back here for the wine bar and expect good things from it. Maybe if I explore Unilocal reviews closely enough to feel help choose the best options, I’ll be satisfied with the food. But even with some careful exploration, I expect the wine will be the only thing keeping Itapas from 2-​star-​ville.
—- Update ²⁄₁₈ —-
Came back tonight and am starting to think that this won’t be my last visit. I came for happy hour and got a terrific $ 4 (happy hour price) white sangria which was better than any of those super fruity concoctions I’ve had other places. I got a $ 5 taste of the syrah/​zin blend that was enjoyable and well priced. The food was better than my last visit. We got an eggplant dish ($ 4) with cheese that was very enjoyable. Didn’t trascend bar food, but still a nice accompaniment to wine. The tortilla dish with aioli ($ 4) was also quite enjoyable. It was a small flat pizza shaped dish with a fried dough and aioli on top and not as heavy as I expected.
One thing that really bugs me (in general) is the TVs being on all the time. While I can understand that some people are more interested in sports game than I am, in this case, it was just some random show on mute that kept diverting my eyes, despite that I was totally uninterested in the TV. Kind of a useless buzzkill for people coming here for a date. Definitely doesn’t have the nice vibe of the Wine Room on Ramona, but then its a much easier place to drop in without dropping $ 16 on a glass.

Updated 4÷23÷08: Note: I’ve been back several times and actually don’t care for the wines so much – and I’ve tried a bunch – but still am a big proponent of their food.
_​_​Original Review_​_​
I’ve been here twice and really like it. I visited initially because of the wine selection but went back because of the food. I like the variety of Asian, Spanish, American, etc. small plates.
We got everything from sashimi to bbq to potato omelet to sea bass, etc. and I liked the taste of it all. Nothing complex, but good none-​the-​less.
For drinks, I had a wine flight last time and sangria this time and both are good.
The atmosphere is low key and relaxed with live music on some nights. I’d come back here for a regular evening out away from the college crowds that sometimes fill up downtown PA.

Had an unexpected but very romantic date here. We wanted a nice evening out in downtown Palo Alto but hadn’t made reservations anywhere. After being turned away at two places that were booked, we stumbled upon iTapas & Wine Bar. As we were checking out the posted menu a woman leaving the restaurant said, «The food’s terrific!» Ray and I thought, why not?
We walked in and the atmosphere was just right– dark and candle-​lit, we were seated in a cozy corner at the front. Something old like the Laurel and Hardy was being broadcast on the back wall– I love the effect of movies being played on walls in restaurants, a la Foreign Cinema.
They have wine flights which we love and order. Turned out my menu was missing a page so I didn’t realize they had a sparkling flight– my favorite! The waiter was so nice and gave us both the red flight I had ordered and the sparkling and only charged us for one.
They have more than just Spanish tapas which I enjoyed– one page is dedicated to Spanish while the rest are international, particularly Asian. We shared several dishes– the most memorable: the tortilla espanola, a potato omelet with a spicy sauce; crispy sweet potato fries, my favorite!; four mini duck tacos, Ray’s favorite dish.
A memorable experience, and I’m sure we’ll return someday.

Okay, I was borderline between 3 or 4 stars but I’ll be honest — I really just wanted to get out and celebrate a good Tuesday so I went on the lenient side, I read the reviews, all seemed fairly positive. My boyfriend and I got there around 7:30, not too crowded. We sat at the bar and maybe it’s me but I have a thing about bar seats — they need to be height appropriate and unfortunately, these were definitely not. You sit down and feel like a 4 yr. old at the adult dinner table.
Anywho, we ordered an array of stuff. Appetizers oysters were pretty good — fresh to say the least. Tortilla is def. not as good as in Spain, (but duh, that’s too be expected) strawberry and fennel salad was refreshing, paella was waaay overpriced and not very good overall, but the superstar of the meal was the eggplant appetizer. Granted — my bf and I are pretty close to vegetarians so I may be bias but it was quite delectable.
I had an excellent Spanish wine, and my bf enjoyed his chilled cab. Overall, I liked the place — would def. agree with fellow Unilocalers that it’s more of a snack spot than dinner but c’mon — «tapas» is in it’s freakin name !

This place seemed a bit odd to me. Tapas are Spanish style appetizers right? So why are their spring rolls with lobster and rice vermicelli? And especially at $ 14 for 4 measly pieces?!
Oh well at least there’s a big wine list and sangria!
The menu says they are part of Three Seasons (Vietnamese) and we actually saw the owner/​chef there hanging out.
The bar seemed like a good spot to chill and have a couple of drinks.
Other appetizers were just alright. Unique to try but I still feel they were overpriced.
It was a mehh on the dessert though. Everything tasted a bit funky. I wouldn’t recommend the dessert taster though.
Service was friendly. Everyone greeted and said thank you’s.
SEE PICS!

Easy place to pass by — never looks open. Dark restaurant and not really welcoming, except for the bright green awning. Staff seemed tentative. Good place for those like me with ADD. So much going on — Michael Buble on the sound system, Cal game showing on the TV screen above the bar, and Charlie Chaplin (a la Foreign Cinema) playing on the back wall. An extensive and a bit overwhelming small plates and wine/​sangria menu. We enjoyed our food — seeking light fare — grilled asparagus, hamachi & avocado ceviche, and duck spring rolls were all fine and dandy. 3.5

My friend and I stumbled across this place and the menu looked really interesting…
We ordered a couple glasses of sangria (the white sangria is awesome), and the bartender really took care of us.
The negative– the food on a whole wasn’t that exciting, every dish was swimming in oil and butter, which I absolutely hate.
A good place for drinks but wouldnt come here for food.

The first time we visited iTapas was pretty random. We went to Palo Alto because it was a Sunday and everything in Redwood City is either closed all day Sunday or closes pretty early. This place was right across from a public parking lot, and since the name has «tapas» and «wine» in it and we love wine and tapas and are pretty lazy about wandering around looking for something, this is where we ended up.
Our server seemed rather inexperienced. We enjoyed the wine flights and most of the tapas we ordered, but the service — eh.
So one day my bf says «you know, I’ve been thinking about that iTapas place… want to go back?» and it had never occurred to me that he might have liked it enough to go back instead of trying something new, but I was like «sure». That second time, about a month after the first, we had that same server but she was really good! And she remembered us!
A month goes by and we go back again. This time, that server is still there, but we end up with a different server and… I dunno, maybe he’s new/​inexperienced or something, it’s like his rhythm was totally off and he was trying to get us to order dessert when we just wanted to order more wine, and asking us how our food was then not giving us a chance to order more wine when it’s obvious we’ve finished what we had. Maybe if we go back again in a month (and we probably will) he’ll have found his rhythm like our first server. I hope so.
I decided to give this place four stars because the wine flights are interesting, and some of the tapas are pretty good. The guacamole is great. The sweet potato fries are too skinny. You can’t go wrong with the nuts/​olives/​cheese sticks plate. As long as it’s a leisurely Sunday evening and we get a seat by the window, we’re quite happy with this place, it’s food, wine and ambiance, and can overlook the occasional awkward service experience.

(Me, on the phone): «Sorry Mom, I need to go. I’m heading over to a Tapas bar for dinner.»
(Mom): «Topless bar? For dinner?»
(Me): «No, a tapas bar. You know, like they have in Spain.»
(Mom): «I’ve never been to Spain, but I sure wouldn’t go to no topless bar there either.»
Ok, sorry to digress, now on to the actual review:
‘i tapas’ is a solid restaurant for tapas (little bites/​samples), serving more traditional Spanish fare, in addition to some newer style, and more substantial offerings.
We started off with their Bandilleras/​Pinchos, which are like little skewer appetizers. You have to order at least 4, and they are $ 1.50 each. They botched this order and gave us the wrong ones to start, but did fix that on their 2^nd try. Honestly, I recommend skipping these little guys, since the tiny cocktail skewers (typically with a piece of cheese, an olive, a piece of pepper and maybe an anchovy) really aren’t all that special or satisfying.
I did fine that the wine list and flight options were pretty good. I wasn’t that happy with the actual flight I ordered, but the 3 reds in my wife’s choice were all quite solid. The selection overall was positive.
We ordered the Spinich which was cooked in oil, with garlic and pine nuts. It was very good, and I highly recommend it. Excellent flavor.
The ‘tortilla de espanola’ is basically a potato pancake. I hear these are very good and popular in Spain, but I would say try something different. There’s only so much you can do with a potato pancake.
The meatballs were quite good, with some nice flavor, and we also liked their lamb stuffed grape leaves. A good variety overall, but definitely hits and misses. Part of the fun is sharing and exploration.
This place used to be the former home of Left At Albuquerque’s, followed by a short Pasta Pomodoro run… I Tapas is the better restaurant of the 3. Ambience is decent and matches the intended theme of nouveau tapas. It doesn’t feel to me like it’s trying to be too cool.
Service was decent, but not special. Desserts looked pretty ho-​hum, so we skipped it.
We’ll head back and give it another shot.

My friend called me out of the blue to dinner tonight and while remembering there was a dine downtown event going on through the month we gave this a try. I had walked by it previously when I was in PA last and the menu looked intriguing.
Being a Monday the place was rather quiet with only a handful of other parties in the place. The old Left at Albuquerque has been modernized into a sleek, hip interior. The space is long, narrow, with dark colours and dimly lit. There’s a decent sized bar that takes up half of the right wall with the kitchen being in the very back. Art depicting NYC, Venice, Paris and other places adorn the walls. Like the art, the menu is equally as varied with the cuisine covering the corners of the world.
Since the set menu from the dine downtown program looked pretty good, the three of us did that, each choosing a different entrée and splitting them. We also each ordered one additional small plate to maximize the variety of dishes. The set menus we tried were:
1. Crab Cakes or Caesar salad plus purée of asparagus soup.
2. Lamb Chops w/​mashed potatoes and brussel sprouts — «Steak and Fries» — Chilean Sea Bass w/​purée of butternut squash and brussel sprouts.
3. Vanilla Cheesecake
The additional dishes:
1. Lobster spring rolls (Vietnamese style)
2. Shrimp and Chicken «Corndogs»
3. Salmon, scallop, shrimp fried rolls
It was amazing that we were pleased with every single dish. The one person who had the Caesar salad would probably say that was the weak point of the night (go for the crab cakes if you’re going set menu (and the «steak and fries» is actually twist on beef chow fun (with the rice noodles replaced with potatoes), which iif that’s what you’re used to, is weird at first. Between the three of us the bill was $ 133 and that’s without booze. The one odd thing is they don’t give free refills on coke which is almost unheard of these days. The waiter we had was pretty good but being a Monday night it might not be a good judge of how they are under weekend style pressure.
Definitely worth checking out on a quiet weekday and their drinks looked intriguing enough for a return on a leisurely weekend meal too. Will return and give the rest of the menu a try.

We went twice. The tapas didn’t strike me as real tapas. more like just. small entrees. My duck wonton soup was tasty but large enough that I couldn’t really try anything else… I was full. That was disappointing, since I wanted to try more dishes. I also agree that the cheese plate was a complete joke.
They have a great bartender but the wine list is very pedestrian. I’m afraid I won’t be back.