The Tapa Bar

Nice ambience, good food, good service. Nice Cuban influenced atmosphere. Rotated selection of local beers on tap. Food was very good.

Delicious and *wonderful* staff! Robbin was amazing. Get the bacon dates, Burrowing Owl Syrah and have yourself a wonderful evening.

I am so glad we found this spot. We came here on whim and I am very happy with the food and service. We had about 4 tapas for lunch (which was more than enough) and my favorite by far were the Papas bravas with the garlic ailoi, the tomato sauce ones were yummy too. But they were like fatty garlic potato fries. We also had the Chile Relleno, which I loved, the Seafood Ceviche and the Vegetarian Cubanette. This is somewhere I would love to go back to to try more. Great spot and prices.

This is the spot my boyfriend and I always visit when we come to Victoria. The mussels have really good flavor (both the coconut and spicy version) and very meaty. Their house salad has warm olive dressing that has just the right amount of flavor with a generous piece of avocado piece on top. Definitely a must try place in Victoria.

Sat at the bar with wife and a friend, service was impeccable from the entire staff. Everything we ordered cane ot looking and tasting delicious! We had one drink that didn’t agree with our palette and they offered to remake it without hesitation! Definitely a place you don’t want to miss.

Good food with excellent variety and tastes. Intimate environment for couples night out. Biggest complaint was that cocktails were weak even though I had a double margarita. I would go again but focus on the food.

Good service and good wine. I am vegan, and so skipped anything that had meat or fish in it, and even some of the vegetarian dishes had cheese in them.
A hit and miss. Some of the tapas were good, and some quite mediocre. The biggest complaint was the noise, which made it quite hard to talk, even though we had a corner table.
Will we come back? Don’t know.

We started our meal with specialty drinks, which were delicious but skimpy for the price. The chorizo fondue was an excellent choice for a starter. My husband and I enjoyed it very much. We went on to have the calamari and the sardines. I was excited to have the sardines because you rarely see them on menus. My disappointment came with the oysters Rockefeller. The oysters were mushy and didn’t have much flavor. The spinach that came with the oysters overpowered them as did the gloppy cheese which covered the whole mess. On the positive side my husband loved his cubanette sandwich which was a generous dish with delicious beans. For dessert we decided to have a specialty coffee which topped off the meal perfectly. All thing considered, we enjoyed our meal and would recommend this restaurant.

Do you like prawns? There are 3 different prawn dishes, my favorite is the curry dish. Another must have is the eggplant with goat cheese with tomato sauce. People beside us were raving about the bacon wrapped dates with goat cheese and the calamari. A beautiful patio in trounce Alley. A wonderful setting to have dinner and drinks after a day in Victoria.

The only thing I can review is the service — lack of. We were sat and they the entire staff walked by us, looking at us and then away. We were never greeted by waitstaff. I got up to ask and was told somebody would be with us. We waited some more, still no one, however the entire staff, hostesses, waiters and perhaps a manager walked by us (looked like one). When we got up to leave nobody said a word. We were all nicely dressed and could see no reason for such blatant ignoring other than they were perhaps in the weeds… everyone looked stressed. I was shocked for their complete disregard of a customer. I suppose they figured that we were just tourists and it would not hurt their business. Sorry to say that they were wrong as I am an avid reviewer on Unilocal and trip advisor.

I have not yet written a 5-​star review since joining Unilocal but if any restaurants deserves it — it’s this one. We’re on a mini food tour of Victoria right now and this little gem absolutely blew us away. A cute little location with great atmosphere and ambiance (everything was also super clean, yay) — we were seated right away and our two servers were funny, nice and accommodating.
My partner and I shared the Margarita pizza, the grilled portobello mushroom and roasted potato with garlic aioli sauce (sorry I can’t remember the proper name) with the grilled bananas for dessert and everything tasted amazing, this was seriously some of the best food we’ve eaten since moving to the west coast.
Some people might find it a little too loud for a romantic evening on a Friday or Saturday night but if you can get over that you’ll be in for a lovely time. Everything was very affordable too, barely breaking 40 $ for 3 dishes and dessert. Overall this was a great experience and I will definitely be coming back someday.
— oh and try to get a patio seat if you can, it looked very charming.

great food good surroundings with central location. try the bottomless soup and smoked chicken pizza

Their sangria — and everything else — was simply amazing. We stumbled in here after walking around in the rain for an hour trying to find a good place for dinner without an hour wait, and good thing we did. Their covered patio was open too, but they had blankets at every seat in case you got cold:)

We were visiting Victoria from Seattle and were more than impressed with this restaurant. We were deciding what to order and asked our server for recommendations, Without hesitation she recommended the Montes Cabernet/​Cermenere, and it turned out to be our new favorite wine. I wish I knew her name because she went above and beyond by writing down the wine for us and then telling us where we could go to purchase it.
We ordered the chorizo and mushroom pizza and the fettucini con salchicha, and let me tell you, they do not skimp on the sausage here! And the cheese on the pizza. That cheese!
The food and beverage was great, but the service really sealed the deal for us. When we return to Victoria we will definitely be back!

A fun place for after work get togethers. Typical Victoria loud, and zero Spanish ambiance, but smiling service and tasty food. Two wines chosen from the small list were unavailable, but another (more expensive) Tempranillo was suggested and it was excellent.
We looked after ourselves for the most part, but the service was attentive enough to bring more (outstanding) bread when needed and refresh water glasses.
The food had far too much garlic — I didn’t complain at the time as it was so tasty — butter, white wine and big chunks of almost raw garlic, but both myself and wife suffered for two days. Probably the fault of mine and over eating it. It may be right up your alley. Normally, I can’t get enough garlic.
The wings and shrimp were done with the same sauce, yet the wings themselves were superb. The shrimps were standard grilled. I did taste another chicken dish which was not to my taste — tasted to me like lots of half and half was used.
So, not a rave, but a fun place to get together with pals. If I could post a 2.5 stars, that’s more the scuttlebutt. Our search for fine dining in Victoria continues.

This place is definitely a staple in my out & abouts, yet to be dissapointed & always seem to be able to eat all I order, lol! My favorite dish is the Chicken Cubanette I get it served over rice & beans instead of the bread & it’s amazing! I also love their pizzas they’re all ridiculously delicious, their steak with balsamic reduction & blue cheese I dream about on a daily basis & their rum punch is my addiction! Oh yes their wonderful staff & management are another reason why I call this place my other home!

Be sure to make a reservation, we went on a Thursday night and it was packed. Don’t make the mistake of going here for one particular meal, especially if you’re with 4+ people. It’s called tapas for a reason.
Everything we touched was amazing. I don’t know what they put in the salads, but they were both outstanding. I could eat their Caesar salad or Caper salad for days.
The mussels are wonderful, get both kinds if you’re with a big enough group. One of them is in a creamy sauce and one is in a spicy, yet subtle sauce.
We also ordered a couple chicken dishes and the eggplant dish, all of which were very good.
Again, if you’re with a larger group, get the sangria. It’s a good blend and goes well with all of the menu items.
The service was great and the atmosphere was fun with good lighting. Down a quiet but popular alley/​street, the restaurant itself is fun to walk to. All around fun place to go with your family or friends on a night out in Victoria!

I’m normally opposed to ordering boring margarita pizzas but my wife decided to get one and it was great! Their prices were reasonable, flavours robust, drinks were tasty and the crowd was fine. We waited no more than 5 minutes for seats on a Saturday evening and service was great!

Husband and I took a weekend trip to Victoria and stopped in for Sunday lunch. They had a special going for pitcher of sangria that afternoon so we tried their white sangria. It tasted watered down and the fruits in it did not enhance the flavor as you expect with a good sangria.
We split 4 of their listed tapas and none of the 4 wowed us. Very average tasting without a lot of pizzazz. When you pay as much as they charge, there should be some sort of wow factor when you bite into the food.
I will say that the service was good, courteous, and prompt. It may have been the best part of the expensive lunch.

Really solid tapas and wine.
We shared the platter for two and really devoured the food. The hot tapas were by far better than the cold ones. The mussels cha cha cha were hands down the best of the bunch with a fantastic spicy garlic sauce that we dipped almost everything else in as well. The cheese tortellini were perfectly cooked and creamy. The eggplant with goat cheese were surprisingly awesome with the right touch of salt, creaminess, and texture. Our favorite cold dish was the smoked chicken which looked and almost tasted like smoked Gouda.
Things we were less impressed with– the cold chorizo which lacked much flavor, the escabeche (we like our pickles more acidic), The plate also comes with artichoke hearts, chile relleno, bean and salted cod salad, and some bread.
Also we loved the two glasses of kettle valley wine– a pinot gris and a pinot noir that we got.