My reviews from trips past, day 1…enjoy! (Stay tuned for Food Fact Friday, New Orleans style tomorrow)

I went up to Orlando for my Mom’s birthday and we decided to try El Bodegon, a Spanish Restaurant in Winter Park. We got there pretty early on a Saturday night, so we could catch a movie at 8:00 (saw He’s Just Not That Into You, which was pretty good). We were the only people at El Bodegon, which made me pretty leery. I felt like everyone who was working was watching us..but at least we got good service! The decor is okay. A little sprucing up and some modern touches would help.

We started off with a small pitcher of sangria and some bread. The sangria was nice and fruity, but you could definitely taste the brandy. I really liked the bread, which was sliced and coated with an herb garlic butter. We ordered a few tapas. The first was a cold tapa. It had Manchego, Serrano ham, and very thinly sliced Chorizo. On the menu, it said it came with olives too, but there weren’t any on the plate. But you could tell the meats and cheese were top quality.

Next were the ham croquetas, which were very good! Croquetas are always a must for me at a Spanish restaurant. They came with a spicy aioli dipping sauce. They were perfectly crispy on the outside and creamy in the center. It paired well with the sauce, which wasn’t as overpowering as I thought it would be.

Our last tapa was the Chorizo Al Brandy. It’s sliced chorizo, served flaming to your table, with a layer of potatoes on the bottom to soak up all that chorizo goodness. It was highly recomenned by our server. It was my favorite dish of the night. The flambeed chorizo almost melted in your mouth, and tasted exceptional sandiwched in the middle of the garlic-herb bread.

Dessert was Crema Catalana, which is basically a Spanish version of Creme Brulee. It was amazing! The texture was super creamy. It was served warm with a super crispy topping, which is exactly the way I like it. I’m definitely not a fan of cold creme brulee (sorry there isn’t a picture, it was gone too fast).

El Bodegon is a great place to go. I think they should add some more tapas to the menu, get some music, and modernize a little bit. I hope that more people start going soon…to be only half full on a Saturday at 8pm is not a good thing.