Just finished dinner at a Vietnamese joint in Holland V and was looking for a place to have some drinks and a chat with friends. Didn't want WalaWala as we wanted a quiet place and was finally attracted by the menu of this place - esp. their desserts (I'm always a sucker for great desserts!)

What really made the choice for us was the great salesmanship of the waitress,can't remember her but it started with "C" and was the name of a perfume(So much for enhanced memory through association!). She had a refreshing truthfulness which impressed us - when asked if they had coffee, she advised us against going there just for the coffee as their coffee machine has yet to come and current coffee will not pass our muster. Her frankness came through a few other times - when she advised against some of the tapas or drinks or even desserts.

Ambience was great except that the aircon area near the entrance was not cool enough. Food was great, esp. their signature beef tenderloin cubes and king prawn! She even advised us to go for their tenderloin over the more expensive Wagyu beef when we asked her which she would go for if in our shoes - hope her boss isn't reading this!

Drinks-wise, it was ok, there was a happy hour (1-for-1 for beers) upto 9pm. Nothing great though as I found their Pina COlada just average - she did warn me that they use Malibu instead of realy coconut. They didn't stinge on alcohol which was a plus point as many places try to save by diluting drinks.

Overall, a nice place to go hang out with friends but price-wise, the tapas were not cheap - about $12 for the beef tenderloin cubes of about 100g. King prawns were about that price for 3 pieces.

Desserts were good - tiramisu was value for money, at least when compared with Starbucks. The highlight was their panneto 'something' which essentially was something custurd with a sauce over it - really good!

Oh, yes...just remembered her name, Chanel!

I'm quite sold on this place! And it's not just the free food I got...yes I came here for a HGW food tasting session...but it's really the quality of the food, and the prices that impressed me. I was happy to see the discount advertised on the HGW website, and will definitely come back to give this place another try.

As some of the other reviewers may have mentioned, we were overwhelmed by the generosity of the proprietor, Kenneth. For our tasting session, we had the following (TWENTY) items:

1. Spanish Olives
2. Cream Of Tomato
3. 3 different salads
4. Garlic Bread
5. Tuna Tataki
6. Prosciutto di Parma wrapped Cantaloupe
7. Oyster Shooters
8. Stir Fried Wild Mushroom
9. Escargot Champignon
10. Tortilla Espanola - with smoked salmon
11. Angus Beef Cubes
12. Tiger Prawn - Bacon-ed
13. Arroz Ala Marinera
14. Arroz Negro
15. Carbonara
16. Bolognese
17. Spicy Chorizo Pasta (Chorizo is the spanish sausage)
18. Lemon Gelato
19. Coppa Tartufo
20. Double Chocolate Shots

Whoah. What richness! Most of the dishes were great. I have tried Orchard Hotel's Bodega Y Tapas, and I think this place is much better in terms of value-for-money. The dishes are not necessarily Spanish- it's just good ol' lip-smacking food from all over the world, with different influences. For example, the tuna tataki consists of half-seared tuna slices with radish, etc (ala Japanese style), whilst the Carbonara, I mean, is Italian, isn't it? Most of the dishes were standouts for me. I liked the cream of tomato, which came in a dainty and delicious portion, the tuna, and the tortilla espanola with salmon (that was a meal in itself, such a good, hearty portion). The tortilla espanola is Spanish omelette, with a choice of topping. We had the salmon topping, which was unusual, but quite refreshing indeed. The food here is refined, the sort for which you would expect to pay hundreds of bucks, that is, if this were a fancy restaurant. Amazingly, though, the tapas dishes are only priced between S$8 to S$12. Quite a steal I think.

Thumbs-up to the carbonara here as well. I expect most places to serve really creamy, gross pasta when it comes to carbonara, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that the carbonara here was just right, not too creamy. It was hotel standard, and in fact, better than the carbonara at many other Italian restaurants, for example, Pasta Fresca, etc (btw, Pasta Fresca's carbonara is gross! It's slathered in cream. One wonders whether it's a face-mask or a pasta dish).

The angus beef cube dish was competent as well, and so was the stir-fried wild mushroom with the accompaniment of (gasp) quail's egg! It's thoughtful little touches like these that make you appreciate this as not being just, "another tapas place". Kenneth, the proprietor, has a very discerning palate, and he told us that he constantly critiques his chef's cooking, and in fact he was instrumental in the process of creating the dishes. I don't think you would have such an eclectic selection otherwise.

I also enjoyed the chocolate shots immensely. I hear it's very popular with patrons, and no wonder- where else can you get pure molten white and dark chocolate, and all in a heady hyperventilating mix! The lemon gelato was interesting, the ice-cream was actually in a lemon casing! I think one really can't grudge the S$9 price tag for the dessert, seeing the amount of work they put into it.

I'm not really into alcoholic drinks, so I had a kiwi maguerita. Yes, you heard me correctly. I have never heard of magueritas made of kiwi fruit, but there you have it. Kenneth was kind enough to whip up a kiwi fruit concoction for me- I think it was experimental on his part, but fortunately it was quite nice. The rest of my dinner party were waxing lyrical over the beers, which I guess must've been really good, judging from their happy expressions.

Service was good, and the staff seemed well-trained. I believe most were foreigners, but they spoke English with great panache. No problems with comprehension whatsoever.

The only thing I found not so great about this place was the ambience. It was nice, and there were cosy lights, but it was a bit smoky for me, probably because we were sitting in between the smoking and non-smoking sections. But I think that's not a big deal, simply ask to sit inside the restaurant, which is the non-smoking section. One good thing is that they screen the sports channel here, and so if you are an EPL fan (like I am), you will like this place too.

I went there expecting for a glass of wine and the serving staffs gave me the menu and informed that there was happy hour for all specialty beers.

Wow, that was such a good deal, and my friends and I ordered quite a few range of beers such as petrus aged pale, wittekerke ROSE beer(really refreshing and yummy) . My friend's favourite was the bavik and mine was the Rose beer.

Definitely good value for money for beers and also fantastic service!

I was very priviledged to be able to join a group of very nice and fun people for this food tasting session at Tapas Wine Bistro on this day.
Many thanks to Kenneth, HGW for this wonderful dinner and the group of other reviews that made this evening a very pleasant and enjoyable one.

1. Spanish Olives
First up was a "cupful" of green and black olives for our eager taste-buds. The olives were very fresh and serves as a good start to whet our already big appetities.

2. Cream Of Tomato
Nicely laid out on a smallish plate, the soup is served in a "cappucino-ish" cup accompanied by a heap of tomato cubes on the side. The soup is creamy and decimated by bits of tomato puree. I enjoy the soup quite a bit.

3. Pimentos, Seafood Gazpacho and Salmon Salad (3 types)
Salads...hmm...Salad is just salad so unless u are a health freak or on a veggie diet, I suggest u go for the other stuff as Taps Wine have lots more to offer u.

4. Garlic Bread
This is one finger-licking garlic bread. Thickly cut pieces of grilled bread, dosed with generous amount of garlic is really addictive. This came with some spicy, sweet dip that u can eat ur bread with but I prefer it just as it is.

5. Tuna Tataki
Pan-seared tuna served with raddish. The lightly seared tuna is melt-in-ur-mouth tender and even for a non-tuna fan, I find this very enjoyable and cannot stop myself to 2nd helpings of this.

6. Prosciutto di Parma wrapped Cantaloupe
This received many praises from the table but I find this rather normal. Essentially rock melon wrapped in parma ham.

7. Oyster Shooters
Now, this is a really innovative dish. Served in 2 shot glasses are oysters topped with a tomato sauce in 1 and vodka lined with tabasco at the bottom in another. They are meant to be downed in 2 mouthfuls - 1 shot glass each mouth. The oysters were fresh and the tomato did the trick for this tomato lover. However, only order this if u are a oyster lover or vodka addict. The vodka proved to be too strong for me and I only took a small sip.

8. Stir Fried Wild Mushroom
This is served together with sourdough bread and quail eggs. Simply grab a piece of sourdough bread, top it with lots of mushroom and quail egg and pop it into ur mouth. Fantastic combination! I did find myself enjoying this dish.

9. Escargot Champignon
Escargot lined with mushroom. Order this only if u r an escargot person.

10. Tortilla Espanola - with smoked salmon
This is another dish that I like. Fried onion adds fragrance and potato adds bite to the omelette. Slapped with lots of sour cream and pieces of smoked salmon, it is an explosive mixture of flavours - all of which I enjoy very much.

11. Angus Beef Cubes
This is one of the signature dish of Tapas Wine. Little cubes of premium grade beef competently grilled resulted in very tender pieces of good tasting meat.

12. Tiger Prawn - Bacon-ed
This is one of my favourite dish for the night. Imagine big pieces of tiger prawns wrapped with bacon, grilled to perfection. Each bite is bursting with flavours from the juicy prawn and crispy streaky bacon. Do try this one if u are in Tapas Wine.

After all this food, one would have thought that we are done. But we were then told by Kenneth that we are now ready to move onto our Main Course. Can u believe that all that we ate are just "apetizers"?

Most of us are too full by now to eat more than a few mouthful of each of the main course which is really a shame as they have some really nice food esp pastas.

Arroz Ala Marinera & Arroz Negro - these 2 are spanish rice entrees, one cooked with seafood based stock and the other squid ink. I find that the flavours of rice somewhat lacking and a little tough to chew on. They were however both served with very generous amount of seafood - mussels, prawns and scallops.

The pastas are generally quite good. My favourites include the carbonara(I am quite based when it comes to cream based pasta) and surprisingly bolognese, something that I usually dismissed as a commonly found pasta dish. To be honest, if not for this tasting session I don't think i'll ever order this. The bolognese sauce is very flavouful and packed a punch together with the plentiful chunks of delicious beef, pure enjoyment. Spicy Cho1zo Pasta leave little impression on me though.

After stuffing in all this food, we have finally arrived at desserts. I can't believe I am saying this - we are actually at the point of rejecting food. We pleaded with Kenneth to reduce the desserts in an attempt to prevent our shirts from bursting. LOL

1. Lemon Gelato - the tanginess of the lemon came through, interwined with sweetness is very refreshing change after all the heavy duty meats and flavours. It is served in an empty lemon zest.

2. Coppa Tartufo - I missed this as I had to visit the toilet (too much drinks) and by the time I got back, it is gone so I guess this must have been pretty good?

3. Double Chocolate Shots - A sinful concoction of white and dark chocolate in liquid form. A sweet end to the fantastic fare this evening.

In short, Tapas Wine Bistro have some really good food to offer, together with a chic environment and extensive drink list. A good choice for chilling out with friends after a long day of work.

This place is sinful!I have been coming to Tapas for the past few weeks due to their superb hospitality!Got to know Kenneth one night when he was doing his usual rounds...initially he asked us how was everything and we just started chatting...never did i know that our conversation went on for more than an hour,and he started to recommend many nice and interesting drinks to my grp of friends...with such hospitality,we made it a point to drop by Tapas whenever we hang out at holland which is very OFTEN cos we all stay nearby!but it is really nice to know that such hospitality exists ard in local restaurants nowadays as I have not really came across anything similar so far!great job Kenneth! =)

Anyway, I am so called a regular here and have tried alot of their tapas!they serve very good food here!i personally like their cream of tomato, angus beef cubes,garlic bread and their carbonara!

Cream of tomato - very unique style of doing it,very rich and tasty!

Angus beef cubes - very shiok!LOL!

Garlic bread - unlike the usual,very nice with their sauce!

Carbonara - one of the best I have eaten,not the super creamy kind,but tastfully done!

Actually I'm more keen with their drinks.They serve really good beer as well as cocktails...You have to order their kiwi margaritta!it is something you do not see at other places very often!their Rose beer and hoegarden orange is really nice and refreshing too!

On the whole,I should say Tapas serves decent food & good drinks at reasonable prices!but their most outstanding quality is their service!nowadays even when I do not see Kenneth,the service provided by his staff is very prompt and welcoming!this is really one of the restaurants where I give total credit to their service team and it makes me feel at home! =)