Encasa

Thanks to everyone for the appropriate high reviews. I was in the area, clicked on nearby and brought me here.
This has to be up there with one of my best sandwiches.
Awesome location in the heart of the city and the bench window seat allows for great view of the bustling Bathurst st.
Polite and helpful server which really was the icing on the cake.
Sandwiches are all detailed clearly on the menu and I had a savage hunger to tame so went with the most expensive sandwich or bocadillo.
Can’t go wrong with the priciest one
The pepito was perfectly cooked eye fillet mignons, cheese, salad and fried eggs. The aioli sauce combines all the ingredients together perfectly.
It’s a large sandwich which leaves you very satisfied upon completion.
With a large cappuccino, the eat in price was $ 19.
Fair price for an excellent sandwich and coffee to match.
Happily gave this a high review to steer a hungry soul towards a gold mine in amongst a plethora of cafes and restaurants.

I’m a fan of a good tapas and sangria place but I was a little disappointed by Encase. I think mainly because the sangria tasted like lemonade and was very watery with about 2 pieces of apples and 1 tiny piece of orange floating around on top. I probably should have stuck to wine. The food quality was good and the portion sizes were adequate for two people to share but their service was lacking! There were only about 6 couples in the restaurant and yet it took about 15 minutes for them to realise we were there and take our order and then getting the bill was a feat in itself.
I will say though that the churros were a triumph!

Absolutely adore this place. We had their Paella and it was not disappointing. They sticked to their roots. Super savory rice, mixed with chicken, clams and squids and topped off with jumbo king prawns and razor sharp mussel: what more do you want? Only complain is the paella was missing the glorious sorcarrat.

We had garlic mushrooms, potato bravas, and pork belly followed by brûlée and chocolate pudding. We had both red and white wines by the glass. Everything was perfect. The service could not be faulted. We will be back the next time we are in Sydney. Can recommend.

One of my go to take away pizza.
Today has been the first time I ate here. Whatever you do, make sure you get their patata bravas. The tomato sauce was drenched in garlic, amazingly delish.
Mushroom garlic was definitely great as well. I wasn’t too impressed with the garlic shrimp. I did enjoy their sangria though.
Make sure you make a booking to eat in. They are extremely popular!

Not going to lie — when someone invited me to a bday dinner at Encasa recently, I laughed out loud. It had been years since I’d been there (read: it used to be the hip Spanish spot years ago probably about the time I was just out of high school).
However, I was pleasantly surprised. I love Spanish food in particular chorizo and potato bravas. The real test is whether those potatos are still crispy. At Encasa, they are fantastically crispy!
The great news is even though they do 2 seatings on a Saturday night, the restaurant is large so well accommodates groups. We enjoyed chorizo, bravas, garlic mushrooms, scallops, pizzas, meatballs, and more. The only letdown were the meatballs which were a little dry and bland.
The staff also put on a great show if it’s your birthday including flashing the lights on and off.
Not bad after all of this time afterall…

Sangria is the best alcohol drink ever! The potato dish is also great! It looks like nothing special but you can’t stop to eat! Amazing ~

I liked the place a lot from a previous visit so i am excited to come back. Service was slow but luckily the food held the standards.
I had the flatbread and the zucchini flower. Yum! From what i remembered, the mushrooms, patatas, and grilled octopus were all delicious!
Had a glass of their malbec too but i’d stick to their sangria next time.

I have had mix feelings for En Casa. A few years ago, it was the «go-​to» Spanish tapas place in the city amongst our friends. However, we stopped going for a while after we had two rather disappointing visits in a year.
We gave it another chance this year for my sister’s birthday, and I was pleasantly surprised at the food quality. Unfortunately, service was a bit lacking. Nevertheless, in all fairness, the staff were all pretty friendly when they actually noticed/​remembered us.

My Spanish friends constantly tell me that this place is not authentic, but I don’t care I think this place is awesome! I love it. Yes, once I went to Spain, I realised that my Spanish friends were correct — but it doesn’t mean that I now stop coming here, I just appreciate it for what it is.
So the paella is not that great — so a piece of advice, don’t order it. But the rest of the food is really good. As I said, not 100% authentic, but that doesn’t make the food not good. Personally, my favourite dish on the menu is the black rice. And any of the tapas. This place is also BYO, which is always a plus — but they follow the Sydney trend of a slightly expensive crock tax.
So come along for a nice and loud vibe, with some good food. But don’t try to talk the waiters about Spain… every time I have come here, I am either served by Brazilians or Portugese. But hey, we’re Aussies, as if we are going to know the difference.

Woaha! Tapas!!! Some of the best, fresh scallops in saffron cream sauce we’ve ever had! Amazing!
We just stopped in for a light lunch and ordered some of the fresh sourdough bread with the scallops along with an order of amazing shrimp in garlic oil.
Perfection!
We also had the homemade chocolate and Baileys ice cream for dessert. Yum!
If you’re ever in Sydney and want some really good, true authentic Spanish tapas make sure you give this place a try!

Work Xmas party. 23 of us. Set menu. Tapas. Fantastic.
Great service. Fantastic food. Good company. Fantastic food. Sangria!!! Fantastic food. Secret Santa and did I mention Fantastic food?
I love Tapas. This was really nice tapas. Grilled chorizo, galic mushrooms, garlic and chilli prawns, really nice roasted potato cubes with garlic, tomato sauce on them. There was so much good food I can’t remember it all. With all the Sangria we could drink (and boy did we drink a lot of Sangira).
It was noisy, but thinking about it, most of the noise was probably us. Apologies to anyone else in there who was looking for a quiet evening. Mind you, even without is there, this place would always be lively rather than quiet.
I’ll definitly be back with the family.

How to put it straight… Having a meal at Encasa it’s as close as you will get to an actual Spanish restaurant in Sydney.
I’m quite positive about it since I’m Spanish and I’ve been craving Spanish food since I got here a month ago. And oh, let me tell you, the paella tastes like a real paella, and the bravas are the same fried potatoes with spicy tomato sauce that you’d eat in an Spanish bar. The same goes for the beer (Estrella Galicia in Sydney, hooray!) and, for what I saw, almost all their wines were legit Spanish products, eve if I didn’t order one.
Almost all the staff is Spanish, so I had the opportunity to speak a little bit of Spanish and, I don’t know, everything was like being back at home for a while. By the way, this is what «Encasa» means: at home.
To sum up, a good place to eat some tapas, get a Spanish beer/​wine or a jug of Sangría and then have a funny night with one of the leisure opportunities nearby, may it be a show, a pub or any other choice.
I’m seeing not everybody agrees here though, guess Spanish food ain’t for everybody.

I went here midweek with a few friends for a slow dinner and good chat. Really lovely place! Funky décor, chilled vibe and friendly staff. The tables are spaced quite close together, which is never good for this caboose!
They have a huge range of Tapas available and are quite vegetarian friendly. I always worry when I go to Tapas that everything will be spicy, but the waiter pointed out 2 or 3 dishes I should avoid and that everything else wasn’t going to be hot. He then admonished me by saying the cuisine is Spanish and not Mexican. In the words of Tobias Fünke «Well excuuuuuuussse me!»
All up we had chicken skewers, lamb skewers, grilled mushrooms, patatas, cider soaked chorizo as well as a chicken pizza. The servings were quite generous but we were hungry so like a bunch of labradors we simply inhaled our food. The white wine sangria went down a treat as well.
It’s not too pricey either — each tapas sets you back $ 9-​$ 14 as as mentioned the servings are generous. I’m definitely keen to go back and sample some more!

My partner and I booked a table at encase for diner on Saturday night, and didn’t even get to sit down. Let me clarify «booked a table». We called and left a message, someone called us back and told us what times were available, and we booked.
When we arrived our booking was found and we were told it would be 5 minutes. After 15 minutes and numerous «it will only be 5 minutes» I asked can someone tell us when we will actually get a table and I got the first honest answer for the night was «I am not sure».
All this time people were walking in and asking for a table only to be told that one will be available in 30 minutes. I can’t understand how that can happen when they can’t seat the people who have booked. During this, waiters were trying to push past people waiting for a table and were downright rude about it .
After some discussion with a very rude front of house lady, we left and had a nice meal at the pub a few doors up.
Bottom line. A booking doesn’t guarantee you will eat at this restaurant and all staff we had dealings with were rude. I will never go back and never recommend to anyone. There are lots of choices in Sydney, go elsewhere

Good food, great ambiance, fantastic staff — in that order. The food was pretty good. The pork belly and the meatballs stand out for me. The ambiance was exactly what you want in a spanish restaurant — loud, cheerful and jam packed. The staff were excellent. Extremely attentive and friendly. It was a pretty good dining experience and I would certainly return — especially in a big group.

The first time I went to Encasa, I was blown away. We ordered a banquet (I think it’s this one I copy pasted from their online menu):
— Sevillanas (prawns in spicy tomato)
— Mejillones (black mussels in tomato sauce)
— Chorizo a la Plancha (grilled Spanish sausage)
— Pinchos Morunos (lamb fillet skewers marinated in Moroccan spices)
— Pinchos de Pollo con Mojo (chicken fillet skewers)
— Aceitunas (olives)
— Patatas Bravas (fried potato with garlic mayonnaise and spicy tomato salsa)
— Champiňones al Ajillo (garlic mushrooms)
— Tortilla Espaňola (omelette with potato and onion)
And it was so good. The online price says it’s $ 34, but it was a few years ago so I can’t remember the exact price we paid, most likely would’ve been similar. But it was good. And we were so full. The food just kept coming and coming and all of it was tasty and we left the place with full bellies and a feeling of general contentment.
Because of that stellar first experience, I’d always looked at Encasa rather fondly. There were a few times I wanted to go, but they were closed, or we were in another part of the city. So when the chance came to eat here again, I grabbed it!
Unfortunately, it wasn’t as good as I remembered. We ordered:
— chorizo a la plancha
— patatas bravas
— gambas al ajillo
It could’ve been good but everything was just too salty! It’s like they cooked everything a little too long and added way too much salt to make up for it. The shrimp didn’t taste fresh either.
Service was good (like it was the first time I went there) but the food was just not up to par.

Service was better than the food.
This place was manic and the staff shows it. The owner/​operator that served us was amiable with loads of personality though same can’t be said about the casual staff (stubby girl) who looked if though the first order of business after end of service was to rinse her mouth out with a shotgun.
Our paella valenciana came out burnt at the bottom which caused the entire dish to take on a most unpleasant odour. The colour was completely off and the entire dish was a major disappointment after a 40 minute wait.
Luckily for the chef we had a show to catch immediately after and was therefore unable to return the dish to the kitchen.
The lamb skewers were dull, dry and grainy and not worthy of further mention.
The fish stew I ordered tasted «like the ocean» — it felt as if though it had been cooked with seawater; the saltiness overpowering any semblance of balance between the various elements of the dish.
The hot bread that was ordered was less «crusty hot» than «crusty, several days’ old», and cold.
Sangria was watered down, «Deluxe» sangria, strangely, even more so.
Have had better. Much, much better elsewhere. Major disappointment and will not return again.

Encasa is reliably good fun — generous serves of thoroughly enjoyable tapas and fabulous sangria by the jug. Love all the prawn dishes, the lamb skewers and the patatas con bravas (I could live off this dish alone — fried salty garlicky heaven!). Friendly through very relaxed service (dishes come out at a leisurely pace). It might not suit tapas purists but it is always a great night!

By far the best Spanish restaurant I’ve been to in Sydney. The menu is awesome and the prices are great.
I went here for a Christmas party so I was lucky enough to experience many of the tapas dishes via our banquet menu. Their patatas bravas is to die for, as is the gambas con alioli. The banquet menu that I had was about $ 34 and it was definitely worth it. The food just kept coming!
If you want to go here on a Friday or Saturday night make sure you book in advance. I rang up on a Tuesday night and tried to book a table for 5 and the only booking they had left was at 9pm!
All in all this restaurant is great and I’ll definitely be back!