Guapas Tapas & Wine Bar

Rating this a 3.5 …
I like this restaurant. I would return for certain if I’m back in the area. We found it gallavanting around like tourists. It didn’t even show up in my initial Unilocal restaurant search for ‘current location’, and my GPS was on.
Guapas Tapas bar and grill is tucked in a corner across the Vintage Steakhouse; around the corner from 3:16 Bakery. It’s super nice inside. The arched entry way mimics the SJC Mission architecture. The interior decoration however modern, intimately warm colors, and drawn together like a cozy cabin with the fireplace setting against one wall. Outdoor private patio is available too.
But walking in, you’re first attracted to the bar with a huge chalkboard wall. Yeah take your time with that. It’s super nice — I told you. My favorite eye candy was an oversized vase filled with ice cubes water, whole oranges, lemons, and limes if I’m remembering correctly. There were large tropical bulb flowers and fat banana palm leaves being displayed in it. LOVE IT! Going to copy cat…
With my glass of refreshing shocktop beeeeer, we grubbed on:
* veggie empanadas trio — corn, spinach, tomato (the BESTEST)
* truffle fries (but Yard House has better ones)
* veggie paella (kinda tiny but enough)
* pan roasted duck with pomegranate reduction sauce (the sauce won over the duck and item I don’t think is worth $ 12) this also took forever and the duck wasn’t hot as in freshly cooked.
Service was good. The three attendants wore several «hats» all were greeters, waitress/​waiters, bartenders, servers interchanchably. Brittney memorized our order — didn’t jot it down SUPER BRAIN. Good enough place to hangout after walking Camino Capistrano. Woulda had more beers if this were a coworker event hangout.

I’ve been there four or five times and every time they’re out of multiple menu items and beer offerings. On our last visit they were out of no less than 3 entrees and 6 beers. I had to place an order three different times because the server kept coming back to tell me they were out of whatever I had ordered. The food was just ok but the beer was good but they don’t make it so I can’t give them credit. We are probably not going back there.

Ordered food for delivery on door dash, when we ordered on our smart phone around 4pm, we put a delivery time to have it delivered at 7pm. At 6pm they call us to tell us that they wouldn’t accept the order.
Our order was over $ 50, we paid for the delivery fee…
Why would they tell us an hour before they were suppose to deliver?
Why couldn’t they call us at 4:15 saying they couldn’t accept our order which is a really lame excuse.
So now we are rushing to find another restaurant that delivers before they close.

I was so excited to try this place because the name is cute and it looks so nice on the outside. I felt like nothing was fresh and in my opinion, flavor was lacking. We went on a Friday night around 6:30 for dinner. For starters, the vibe isn’t inviting at all. Our waitress was nice, but not very knowledgable on the menu.
We ordered:
Truffles fries — ok, but definitely not fresh fries.
Chicken croquettas — the waitress couldn’t explain what these were and it tasted like we were chewing on a sponge, also the accompanying BBQ sauce didn’t complement them at all.
Meat empanadas trio — probably the best thing we ordered.
Paella pequena — I was so disappointed in the paella. I was expecting so much more, but it lacked flavor.
House made churros — ok
Banana zebra cake — tasted like it’d been sitting in a fridge for hours.
I wouldn’t recommend this place or at least the items we ordered. Hoping they just had an off night.

Sitting at one of my favorite spots in San Juan and am pretty disappointed. The service is really slow and we are one of two tables in here. The Brussels sprouts are now served with chorizo rather than pancetta which totally overpowers the dish. The roasted cauliflower florets are nice but feel an afterthought. I ordered the shrimp ceviche and it came out on a warm plate. They serve it on a crunchy corn tortilla now rather than in the glass with all the juices. So it’s a raw shrimp dish with a bunch of clumsily chopped mango, red onion and bbq sauce. I have been here a number of times and have always left satisfied, this just feels like amateur hour. I really hope they get their act together because this is not the menu that I have come to love.

I would definitely not recommend this place for lunch. place is way too dark. food is worst than what you can get at a fast food place. service is fine. we tried almost 9 – 10 items from the menu and each one was worse than the other., potato croquettes were ice cold in the center. it felt like left over food that was heated up in the microwave. mac and cheese tasted just like it came out of the box. i can’t really name any item that was reasonable. Calamari was awful, hard and old.

Second visit… definitely better than the first, but still kind of bland. We had stuffed dates… nice! Chivito Sliders… interesting! Pan Roasted Duck was tasty! The empanadas were bland & a little greasy! Truffle fries were delicious! Ordered the Moscow Mules… seemed very diluted. Service & the people were great, but they definitely need to get a new chef!

Second time is not a charm. I love the venue, the service but the food…
My husband and and I tried the restaurant again. We did not order a meal but several appetizers.
The wait staff aimed to please but the food was just off– to us.
I do not think there will be a third time.

Good place to have some good tapas .
Good ambiance and great corner restaurant in old san juan capistrano. somehow romantic.
I’ll like the place. Cozy and casual with great service. Great selection of wines and beers.
I’ll be back

Greatest tapas I’ve had in OC. I’ll be back and I’ll recommend to anyone visiting the mission San Juan Capistrano.

After reading some of the good and bad reviews here on Unilocal,we decided to give this place a try. So glad we did!
Per some of the other reviews here, we decided to stick with tapas instead of entrees. Almost everything we tried was really delicious. The empanadas are out of this world. I highly recommend getting an extra corn empanada for $ 3. Their chicken croquettes are very tasty as well. We thought the duck and meatballs were good. We did not like the brie, I guess we’re not big fans of tapanade.
Their sangria is very tasty. They have both red and white sangria. We tried only the red this time, but looking forward to trying white next time.
Overall, great experience and a nice place to relax and have a few drinks and tasty food. Cheers!

Very disappointing experience. I live down the street and I have been wanting to try Tapas since it opened. From the get go we got off to a bad start when I tried to wash my hands. They had what look like a nice bottle of hand soap except they refilled it with cheap extremely liquid pink hand soap — the type of stuff you would see at the 99 cents store. Well when I went to squirt some in my hand, it squirted all over my silk shirt. The cheap pink liquid hand soap is not meant to be in that type of dispenser. The soap was so liquid, it almost appeared that they had added water. It makes me wonder if they are using full strength dish soap on their dishes.
I was hoping the food would alleviate my bathroom experience, but boy did Tapas let me down. I ordered the burger and my husband had the Greek salad with chicken. The salad was mediocre at best. My burger was downright disappointing. I ordered it medium rare but it came well done with cheap American cheese, not cheddar as advertised on the menu and a stale bun. All in all very disappointing for a $ 14 hamburger. Despite living a block away… we will not be back.

Horrible food.
Pallela was a joke, no seasoning at all. I told waiter I’ll take it to go & add some spices to it when I get home. I should of just sent it back and/​or waiter should of offered to replace dish. Needless to say, I threw it out. The unsavory dish had no hope. That was $ 12 wasted dollars.
The truffle fries were greasy, had no crunch & was probably cooked in vegetable oil. It came with mayo sauce that was bland. What purpose did this serve? Adding more grease to oiled down fries. Takes a genius to go wrong on fries. Calling it «truffle fries» solidifies how pretentious this place reveres itself.
Now the sangria. So disappointed! Wasted another $ 12 on water down something…
It was filled with ice & sangria mix was less than ¼ of glass. Couldn’t taste the rum or vodka, just some cheap red wine with concentrated orange juice. I was expecting fresh fruit around rim or on top of drink, however there were pieces of lime and lemon inside the drink somewhere.
Throughout the meal, we had piles of dishes at our table. None of the waitstaff cared to remove them as they brought out new items. Proper training is a must & implementation is necessary.
The place was filled with dirty /​uncleared tables. The host rather stand around than clear some tables near the entrance. He seems to think it’s someone else’s job and relied on busser to perform a simple task. The restroom was stuffy & unkept. It seemed there was tension among the employees and everyone just threw in the towel.
This is such a nice location with a lovely outdoor patio. However the food & service warranted a one time visit.

I SERIOUSLY WISH Unilocal DID HALF STARS but oh well. I came here directly off of my Amtrak ride and it’s literally 20ft away from the station so very convenient for travelers.
Food:
MEAT EMPANADAS TRIO one fig/​bacon, ham/​cheese, filet/​olive they were all just ok tbh the crust was nice and flaky but the sauce they served with it didn’t compliment all of the empanadas fairly
–SHRIMP CEVICHE it was super tasty and light! Great big chunks of shrimp, perfectly tender, and well seasoned :) with tomatoes, mango, red onion, and cucumber. Served atop a perfectly flaky tostada shell
–FARRO SALAD which was mehhh just arugula, tomatoes, strawberries, and goat cheese (the menu says cucumbers but there were none in mine) but on a positive note all of the produce was really fresh I just couldn’t really taste the vinaigrette :(
–PROSECCO which was nice and sweet and u get about two glasses of the 1 bottle
–VEAL MEATBALLS which were PERFECTLY seasoned and tenderrrrr! The marinara sauce was amazing nice and chunky tomato with sweet onions with I think Parmesan melted on top
–LAMB LOLLIPOP w/​COUSCOUS caution it’s only one lollipop :) but really delicious and tender, perfect crust on the lamb, the mint pesto compliments it very, very well the couscous was meh, not really memorable at all
–SPANISH ROSÈ delishes nice and sweet but not too sweet, perfectly refreshing :)
–RED VELVET so our server brought out the dessert tray, which felt really «buffet» and I asked for the red velvet he left with the tray and came back with one slice and it tasted like cardboard don’t even wanna talk about IT WAS THAT BAD
Service:
–was great our server was very accommodating, everything came out really fast, and he even let us buy the rosè at the bottle price after we had glass and decided to take the whole bottle instead :)
Ambiance:
— We sat outside on the patio its beautiful! lots of greenery, with acoustic Spanish guitar playing and cute but NOT corny tiki torches
Overall I wish I could give this place 3.5 stars but oh well life goes on

Visited Guapa’s while out and about and looking for a patio place. We peeked over the patio and everyone looked happy, so we took that as a great sign!
We ordered a couple drinks, and the veggie empanadas, the goat cheese sliders and mushrooms. DELICIOUS. Everything was perfection. The service was timely, friendly, and not overbearing.
Will definitely return!

3 stars or 4 stars. I can’t decide. Let’s say 3.5. I have mixed feelings.
The good:
–Lots of vegetarian tapas options
–The tapas are delicious. The roasted mushrooms were my favorite, with the goat cheese stuffed pepper sliders a close second
–A decent selection of beers on tap
–An entire menu of wine
–Great ambiance, especially outside on their patio
The bad:
–Extremely slow service (and it wasn’t even busy). I still left a 25% tip. I must have been drunk
–The tapas are really tiny. If shared between just 2 people, they’re fine. If you share with 4, everyone will get a very, very small portion. Yes, I know this is how tapas are. I’m just warning those who don’t
–The entrees are not as good as the tapas. I got the Del Campo sandwich, the only vegetarian entrée option. Very weird flavor. I kind of struggled to finish it. The consensus around the table was that the tapas were much better than the entrees, quality-​wise
We might come back for a drink before a movie, but not sure I’d eat here again. It is a nice little spot to sit and chill, that’s for sure.

I was underwhelmed by the food.
I came here with my husband and brother in law on a Friday night. There was a 5 – 10 minute wait for the patio so we sat in the bar area and ordered drinks. I like that they have a huge cocktail board on the back wall.
I had a Moscow mule, which was good. My husband asked the waitress in the bar area for a recommendation and ending up ordering the citrus white specialty cocktail with alagash, citrus vodka, lemon juice and agave nectar. I had a sip and it tasted like a bad combo of a mimosa/​screwdriver.
We were seated outside and my husband told our server he didn’t like his drink. The server wasn’t too keen on my husband exchanging it out for something else, but he reluctantly did, which was nice.
We ordered a bunch of tapas and a shrimp salad. The shrimp salad was just okay. The dressing was way too sweet and there were only four shrimp.
Tapas:
Flash fried shishito peppers with sea lime and salt-​these were pretty mild but delicious! This was the only thing I loved.
Roasted mushrooms in herbs-​served with a garlicy butter dip which was okay but something that I could’ve made better myself.
Meatballs-​Not impressed as the meat wasn’t very tender and the sauce tasted like something from a jar.
Ceviche-​I like my ceviche really cold and it wasn’t served that way. Also, the chips they served it with tasted a couple of days old.
I don’t think I’ll be returning.

Ordered Empanadas Trio, Calamari a la Espanola and Paella at the same time thinking that Paella would take a long time to prepare. So we thought while enjoying our appetizers. They would have time to prepare the Paella. But voila! Paella came first, when it is supposed to be an entrée. But my hubby and I are both hungry so we started eating our main entrée before our appetizers!
Food wise. It was all mediocre. Paella needs more cooking time. Empanada Trio was a bit dry on the inside and was served in on a «wilted» arugula leaves! Calamari though was good. It was well seasoned with the right crispiness!

Best hangout in San Juan. Excellent food and atmosphere. If you love beer and are tired of the wine bars, come in.
Most incredible memories of the swallows day party.
Owner is one of the nicest restaurateur and sincerely cares about your experience.
Music is nice, seating is cool with couches lining the bar.

The décor and the way the place is set up in here is very nice. I ordered the empanada trio, and I was not impressed. Only one out of the three really had flavor and taste. The other two… well they actually kinda tasted the same. I was kinda expecting to taste some real or unique Spanish food.
Don’t get me wrong, it is a place I’ll try when I’m in the neighborhood again, but I will say try the blood and sand drink. Oh man talk about a margarita with some scotch! It will wake you up that’s for sure, and remember it’s the Matador’s drink!