Paella Bar

We love tapas. We like this place. The atmosphere is fun and the staff attentive, helpful and just plain lovely. I wish the tapas rose to their level, as they seem to be pretty hit or miss. As others have stated, the bacon wrapped dates are the best of the bunch, but even they do vary in quality from time to time. It’s not the food that keeps us coming back, but the vibe of the whole place, and I will admit, the great wines and cocktails. As others have noted, it’s a bit pricey and no need to rush in for happy hour as the savings are fairly sparse. Have not tried dessert here, as Sluy’s is just down the street. ‘Nough said.

Wow! What can I say about this place except if you’re here– you must go on. I’m just sad I couldn’t stay for dinner to go to the Italian place next door. Both are owned by a man who truly cares about great homemade food! Great service by all. Even the house wine is delicious so for happy hour the glasses (heavily poured;)) are $ 4.50. Funny to find such a gem in this tiny town but it makes it all the more enchanting

Amazing food, great service. The best way to spend a birthday celebrating with family. This was our first time but it will definitely not be our last.

Great food, fast service and family friendly if you get in early. They are still family friendly but the ambience is more adult themed.

Excellent! My new favorite go to place for a fine culinary experience.
A nice selection of Spanish wines by the glass. A LONG list of tapas selections. We only tried a fraction. The potato chorizo tortilla was really fine. The artichoke pickled anchovy was delicious. But by far our fav was the picadollo peppers stuffed with goat cheese.
¡Anda! ¡Provecho!

We love the quality of food and service at Paella Bar and their sister restaurant Burrata Bistro. We’ve been to Paella Bar with a large group before and have tried almost everything on the menu. There were very few dishes that did not live up to expectations (e.g. mushrooms). Try the beef empanadas, flautas, clams with chorizo, and brussels sprouts. I also recalled the lamb meatballs and beef short ribs being very tasty.

The best gem in Poulsbo. There is literally nothing that isn’t good on this menu. Very nice place for a date. The price is what you would expect, so its definently 3 dollar signs if you are planning on leaving here full! The wait staff is excellent. My #1 location for Poulsbo.

Great food, atmosphere and service today. Our server and bartender «Niko» aka «Nico» was amazing… Normally this place is packed even need reservations especially on certain holidays but we came in on an Easter Sunday and had an amazing time with no prior planning. We absolutely love this new new quaint haunt. We had very personable service that made our experience not just a 5 today but an absolute 10! There is outside seating in front — lighted seating in front and darker seating in back for whatever you are looking for in a dining experience. Clean upscale modern establishment would highly recommend ! A MUST if you are in Poulsbo.

Mixed feelings about Paella Bar. The food is always on par, very good! The variety can’t be beat anywhere and the staff is very attentive and helpful. It’s a bit pricey but it’s what one might expect in downtown Poulsbo. Staff is knowledgeable on wine pairings and making dish suggestions.
The frustration comes in the vegetarian menu. My husband and I went for a date night… him being an avid carnivore and me being a vegetarian. We poured over the veg menu looking for one or two that might suit his tastes as well and decided on the posole soup… which arrived with large hunks of meat and bone in it. When I noted this to our waitress she said she’d mention it to the manager. However, on my next visit to the restaurant, it was still on the veg menu, and still arriving at the table with meat in it.
If you are a hearty meat eater and aren’t concerned about plant based options, you won’t be disappointed. If you are meat free, proceed with caution.

A rare oasis in a the culinary desert of the Kitsap peninsula. I wouldn’t have believed a tapas bar could be sustained in that area. I mean look at how many people are complaining about the price and small portions. Go to the casino down the road where you belong! Our group had a total of eleven dishes and five drinks and it totaled $ 123 and we were all full.
I’m going to say one negative thing because I think it’s good to know. If you call for a reservation, the phone number is the same for both the Paella Bar and the restaurant next door, The Burrato Bistro. I made a reservation for what I thought was the Paella Bar and when I arrived, they did not know who I was. I had actually made a reservation at The Burrato Bistro despite using the number on the Paella Bar website. Why they don’t mention that when you make a reservation, I don’t know. They lucked out and happened to have an open table for us.
Here is what we ordered; Almonds were par, Olives were very good, the Goat Cheese Stuffed Dates were f-​ing spectacular, the Marinated Manchego Cheese was excellent, the Potato Tortilla with Artichokes was also done well. The Smoked Salmon Mousse was the only item that I found subpar; a little too fishy. The Honey Baby-​Backed Ribs and the Red Mole Enchiladas were excellent choices as was the Coca Bread.
For dessert we had some chocolate thing that looked like a slab of liver but got rave reviews from the chocolate lovers in the crowd. I had the Tres de Leches Flan (shown in the restaurant’s Unilocal icon) which I highly recommend.
I am definitely going back and/​or trying the place next door which looks good as well.

After trying Burrata Bistro (same owner) and finding is so amazing, we took a trek back to Poulsbo to try the Paella Bar. We love tapas, and good ones are hard to find in my opinion. Although I rate BB above Paella Bar, we really enjoyed the evening at Paella Bar. Our server was very helpful in making our selection… she asked what we liked, gave us a variety of recommends with descriptions about why she recommended each (which helped us rule out some and rule in others), she helped us select the right amount of food (it’s easy to do too much or too little with tapas!), and she was attentive throughout the meal. The dishes all came with amazing speed… almost no wait at all. The flavors were excellent and varied… and they offered something different from everyday fare in typical dinner venues (e.g. I would never have paired spinach and raisins, but they were awesome). All of the dishes were different, and all of them flavorful. Overall a very nice place to go.

The food is overpriced and under flavored. I love tapas so was super excited to read about this place but sadly disappointed. We tried the bacon wrapped dates, the beef on crostini, the eggplant cheese dish, and the smoked almonds. The almonds were the biggest disappointment as we paid nearly $ 5 for a tiny dish and we have had better on an airplane. Staff were friendly. Place was way too hot temperature as well.

Great happy hour for a date night or some wine with girlfriends. Love the Spanish coffee. Tapas are good. I wouldn’t pay more than happy hour prices for them though. Had the paella once and it was bland. I don’t usually add salt to things but this I did. Kind of weird for a place called «Paella Bar» but stick to the tapas and it’ll be good.

I would have really loved to try the food I heard was excellent but unfortunately, we didn’t get to. We sat at the bar for 5 minutes waiting to be served and watched the bartender walk past us multiple times. If someone is busy, understandable, but she didn’t even acknowledge us. And as soon as I saw her walk past us the last time to go clean a glass, we walked out. Needless to say, we were livid! Will not be going back there.

Food is very good… the service is terrible! After dinner with friends at Burrata Bistro (same husband & wife owners), we went next door to Paella Bar. After a dinner including wine & port for dessert, I asked the bartender to make me something as yummy as the drink he had made for my friend, just please make mine non-​alcoholic. I thought it best to be responsible. His reply…“that’s not my job”. Some may say a joke, some may not… I say RUDE & WRONG ON SEVERAL LEVELS!
We have eaten at both places before, but will not again. Examples of our previous experiences:
Called & asked corkage fees, told none, arrived with nice bottle, wine served, bill presented with $ 20 corkage fee. Explained earlier call to waiter even providing the name of person who spoke to, owner appears says «she shouldn’t have told you that there is a $ 20» & she refused to remove from the bill. Sorry the way I was trained, the customer is always right.
Husband & I arrive @5pm on a Thursday to find restaurant empty except for 1 other couple. Asked if we have a reservation, we did not & are told we can’t be seated. I ask if they have a lot of reservations or large party coming in? His answer «we do at 7». I said we just wanted a quick bite, understood we couldn’t linger & would be done within an hour… still refused to seat us. Found out later it was not an employee but also the owner who refused us.
I’ve been in the restaurant business, I know how it works & both situation could & should have been handled differently. We’ve given them several tries to get it right but…3 strikes & your out in my book.

$$$$ — You’re gonna be paying alot if you want to leave this place full.
For the quantity of food per tapas and price you pay, this place is very Pricey.
I’ve been wanting to try this place for awhile now, and finally got a chance to go here this past saturday. I ordered 3 things on the Tapas menu:
Garlic Prawns: Came with 5 Prawns in a bed of Garlic sauce, the sauce was very good. But I felt that the price tag for this dish, it really should have came with more than just 5 Prawns. $ 14? Yikes. That’s like $ 3 a Prawn.
Fried Geoduck Special: Geoduck was deepfried. The slices should have been thinner. It was really rubbery to eat. Probably not the best way to eat Geoduck in my opinion.
Honey Baby Back Ribs: The taste of the honey was very overpowering on the ribs, didnt taste good. Although the meat was cooked very nicely because it was pretty much falling off the bones. The ingredient for this didnt mesh well.
I ended up still hungry after leaving this place, ended up going to Joa in Silverdale on my way home to fill my stomach.
Probably the location and the limited competition is probably what is keeping this place pack, but the food here isnt much to rave about.
Service was good though.

Let’s me start with saying I’m f-​ing this food!
The food is simple, clean and fresh.
Drinks a very well crafted. I was told all the juices are freshers squeezed. Great margarita and sidecar.
The décor is relaxing, though like 90% of the area there’s no A/​c. Sit by the door, it was really stuffy in there.
I’m looking forward to there wine and app box socials.

Nestled in the Nordic town of Poulsbo, there are a few things that stood out about this place.
Let’s start off with the cons.
The portion sizes of the meals are on the skimpy side. I was expecting more food to come out, and was flabbergasted by how minuscule the portions were.
The service is not great. Having to flag down the server several times we didn’t get our water refilled and didn’t have silverware till we got our meal which is very unacceptable.
The sauce for the PE mussels lacked a key component, «SALT.» The white wine reduction was on the bitter side and concealed a lot of the flavors of the mussels. If we didn’t have salt on our table this dish would definitely be disgusting and intolerable. Note for the cooks: Please taste your food before putting it out.
The plus sides of the restaurant:
This restaurant is accessible and easy to get to. I wasn’t expecting a paella bar to be remotely close to this area of Poulsbo.
The smells from outside will attract you to come in. It resembles a seafood mix with cooked garlic aroma.
The motif is decent, it’s colorful walls will make you feel like you’re somewhere else other than Poulsbo.

Great service and friendly staff just added to an amazing meal. The place was packed and folks really were enjoying the evening. We had the cheese stuffed dates wrapped in bacon, the potato tortilla dish, the Brussels sprouts, and the Seafood paella. A tremendously awesome meal. If you have never been to a tapas bar, and we hadn’t, ask the staff for help and suggestions. It takes away from the overwhelming feeling you might otherwise experience. Of our order, the potato dish was a bit flat in comparison to everything else, but it ess a good dish… others were just amazing. Really a great restaurant.

I would give Paella Bar five stars if not for the prices. I get it; its right in historic, tourist-​favorite Poulsbo, so the market will support the cost. But… sheesh, that hurt. We had two cocktails each and shared the smoked-​paprika rubbed tenderloin plate.
My husband opted for both blood-​orange cocktails (one margarita, one martini) and I had two of the champagne-​based libations. Everything was phenomenal. The bartender was very friendly and it was easy to make bar-​talk with other clientele.
If we hadn’t dropped $ 70 on the experience, we’d be back once a week.