Tapas, Sangria and Live Flamenco! This is as Spanish as you can get outside of Spain! We love Tapas and fell in love with Flamenco especially after our trip to Barcelona last year. Seyda told us about Bar Lola and live Flamenco there. We decided to check it out and really enjoyed the whole experience. Sorry, my pictures weren’t the greatest. Poor lighting + Shaky hands = BAAAD picture!
The house Sangria was pretty yummy. We has front row seats and had direct view of the Flamenco performance. Although the performance was good, it would have been better if they were actually on the stage. Their outfits fell a little short compared to the traditional Flamenco dancers; no long flowy dresses.
Here’s what we ordered for Tapas. We picked 2 Tapas each and pass it around the table.
1) Calamares Fritos Tenerife - Fried calamari with mojo ali-oli & Lola’s tomato sauce (Bottom Left). I don’t think this came with the tomato sauce, but the mojo ali-oli was awesome. The calamari lightly coated in batter and fried to golden brown deserves 2 thumbs up!
2) Bunuelos - Seasoned vegetable & cheese puffs (Bottom Right). This was light and very flavorful. I forgot was the the dip/sauce that came with it though. I think bell peppers were one of the key ingredients in this puff.
3) Vegetarian Crepe (Bottom Left). I can’t seem to find this on their online menu now. I forgot what was in the filling (beans perhaps?) except that it was a vegetarian crepe. The crepe itself was however nice was thin.
4) Langostinos Rebozados - Prawn fritters with a savory mango & scallion sauce (Bottom Right). The batter was rather thick (but fluffy) on this, but it was nicely seasoned and deep fried till crisp. Fried seafood are generally good in my books. =) I can’t help dipping my fritter in more yummy mango sauce!
5) Crostones de Cangrejo con Salsa de Piquillos y Gambas - Maine crab meat, sofrito and cheese crustini’s with a piquillo-shrimp sauce (Bottom Left). Crabcake and sauce was good. Lump crab is definitely not used in this cake.
6) Spinach Dip with Pita Bread (Bottom Right). Again, I can no longer find this on their online menu. I don’t care much for this dish. For some reason, I did not like this dip; maybe it’s the cheese that they used.
7) Pato con Naranjas Valenianas - Roasted duckling with Valencia orange sauce (Bottom Left). Duck is one dish that the husband will order at most Tapas (and any other restaurants). This was good. The orange sauce was light and refreshing. The duck was moist and delicious.
8) Pinchos de Pollo a la Mostaza - Chicken skewers with mushroom-mustard sauce (Bottom Right). While the husband usually order a duck dish, Rob will usually order chicken. The grilled chicken skewers were not bad, although I’m not a big fan of chicken breast. The white mustard mushroom sauce were creamy good; I can’t get enough!!
9) Flan Al Caramelo - Caramel Custard and Sugar Biscuit (Bottom Left). I like that they put in a little more effort to make the dessert look pretty. Seyda ordered this and the flan was light, smooth and delicious. The turn off was the hard sugar biscuit on the base. It was quite inedible.
10) Budin de Pan - Bread Pudding with Mango Sauce (Bottom Right). A nice slice of bread pudding drizzled with mango sauce, sprinkled with berries and topped with whipped cream. My kind of dessert and I love it!
11) Tarta de Queso - Fresh White Cheese Tart with Berries (Bottom Left). The husband ordered this and we all agreed that it was the BEST dessert that night. I’m not a big fan of plain cheesecake, but I actually enjoyed sampling this. This cheesecake was nothing like the dense and uber rich New York cheesecake. It was light, almost fluffy, and was perfect with the berry sauce. I’ve never had a cheesecake like this and would definitely eat this again!
12) Tara de Chocololate - Chocoloate Tart with Passion Fruit Cream (Bottom Right). It sounded good but this was quite a let down. I think this was maybe store bought. The chocolate tart was quite frozen, it was kinda hard to dig in.
I forgot the prices of the Sangria ($24 per 1 L pitcher?) and the Tapas. They were slightly higher ($1-2 more) than the other Spanish restaurants we’ve been to. On average I think it was about $8-9 per Tapas. However, if you factor in the free live Flamenco….the whole experience is pretty worth while. We spent about $77 per couple. Not bad for a night of entertainment, drinks, food and company!
Service was overall ok. Nothing too spectacular, although with our “front row” seats, it was quite hard to hear what the wait staff was saying!
If you’re perhaps interested in learning the Flamenco, check out Flamenco Boston. She’s one of the Flamenco dancers at Bar Lola that night. She/They seem to be performing quite regularly at Bar Lola, so check out their next scheduled performance.
Don’t forget to check out Bar Lola’s delicious menu. Bar Lola is just located a street from Newbury Street. So, get your shopping done and head over for some dine and wine!. Plenty of metered street parking on Newbury Street, but it’s also usually quite hard to get coz of the many shops and restaurants there!
160 Commonwealth Avenue
Boston, MA 02116-2707
(617) 266-1122
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