Bocadillos Review

After a very long wait, Bocadillos provided use small plates in a variety of qualities: some we'd certainly reorder, some we may, and some we certainly would not. When I say long, I mean it. The five of us waited over an hour -they don't take reservations and it's a small place- and eventually we ate at some stools at the bar.

I'll review the main course dishes in a bullet format, roughly from the better dishes to the worst. 

• Catalan sausage bocadillo (little sandwich). Meaty, fleshy, flavorful, and toothsome. Served on an unremarkable soft squishy bread the size of a dinner roll; indeed, these were the rolls one person receiving after asking for some bread to alleviate her hunger. Came with a good bitter salad/garnish that we all independently discovered and also enjoyed.

• Snapper ceviche. Most of us liked this. Limy but not too acidic. The main complaint was it was mostly salad and not enough fish. The sliced pear at the bottom of the dish went well; the potato chips on the side did not.

• Flat iron steak with chimichurri sauce. Generally regard as a well executed steak, tender and nicely pink in the center and with a chewy exterior that easily soaked up oils and flavors.

• Moroccan beets. A simple well-prepared plate of beets.

• Serrano ham bocadillo (little sandwich). The ham was too subtle for our tastes, especially in comparison to the sausage bocadillo.

• Warm octopus salad. I'm a minority in really liking this salad. I thought the octopus was perfect; others complained while the texture was right, the flavors of the octopus didn't go well with the overly large red peppers strips that had been soaked in too much vinegar. I understand this complaint. I just decided not to eat the octopus with the peppers at all.

• Calamari with romesco sauce. Bah. While good in the sense that the calamari were crisp, retained their shape, and weren't oily, the breading wasn't well mixed -there were salty and non-salty regions- nor could one taste the squid itself. There were spiced herbs stuck to the side of the bowl; if only they'd stuck to the squid this dish might be more interesting. That said, the dipping sauce was good so we did eventually make our way through most of the calamari.

• Pig trotters (feet). Way too fatty for our tastes; pretty much no one finished his or her share. While it's neat that it had a crust and a smoky flavor, people said, "I don't like it at all," and "It's better than a cow's ear" (not meant to be high praise). It came with some egg salad (or it was meant to but the arrival was delayed) which was also icky, bittery or vinegary or something.

As for desserts, they "really hit it."

• Warm chocolate cake with banana ice cream. Both components were excellent. The contrast between the cool creamy ice cream and the dark rich and gooey chocolate really worked well together.

• Macaroons with pistachio ice cream. The former was "fantastic." The latter was rated good, including by one person that grew up on pistachio ice cream. He claimed it was not pistachio-y enough, though I felt it was almost too pistachio-y. In any case, we both liked it.

We tried two wines:

• Txomin Etxaniz Txakolina. (White.) Very good. Dry and flavorful.

• Some red from Rioja (Spain). (Didn't write down the name.) Mediocre.

We noticed Bocadillos was stylish from the moment we entered and crossed a glass-covered recess in the floor containing wine bottles in a variety of colors lit from below. Stunning. Then there was the highly polished pale glossy wood bar, wine bottles nicely individually separated and displayed along two walls, and a kung fu movie playing on a flat screen television.

Total was $25/person including tax and tip but without drinks.

Original Announcement

This week I'm feeling causal, so let's head to a tapas bar called Bocadillos.

http://www.bocasf.com/

Please tell me if you plan to come. We can walk over from the Embarcadero BART station together.

Comments from Other Attendees

From my research, the prawns with garlic, the tripe, and the spinach with pine nuts all got more endorsements than the average dish.

-mark

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