Bilbao Tapas bar and restaurant

Recommends

soleu

Joined 6 years ago

Excellent atmosphere, awesome food, great service. Romantic.. As a basque decendent that has been living in the United States for a few years, I was impressed by the qualtiy of food and extremely friendly service. In this restaurant, the owner (who is basque, that is where the name "Bilbao" comes from) visits the tables at least 2-3 times to check that everything was OK.

The tapas are fabulous with the interesting flavours that remind me of Madrid's tascas. My husband and I just loved the chorizo al jerez, queso frito (fried cheese with pine nuts and glazed onions, which doesn't sound very appealing....but was a tasteful surprise), great empanadas filled with cheese (very flaky). About desserts, we tried the crema catalana, which is a desert to die for, if you like lemon. It's a very rich cream, with a flambed thick sugar coating on top. Something similar to Creme Brule, but with another taste.

The first time that we went, we order 4 tapas, a pitcher of Sangria and a dessert. The price for the tapas ranged between 6-8 dollars each (better prices than many of the other tapas places that I have visited). The most expensive item of our order was the pitcher of Sangria (which was also excelent), which was 20. Our total meal was $60, including tax.

Great multi-level atmosphere. Very typical spanish table settings for fine dining, which includes table cloths, napkins made of cloths, several wine glasses and, of course, plenty of olive oil to have with you bread.

We have to apologize for a mess that my husband did at our table: He accidently knocked out the olive oil container, leaving a very big olive oil stain in our perfeclty mint table (oh, oh). They were nice enough not to say anything to us. It was embarrassing, so we left a big tip...

Doesn't Recommend

dlach

Joined 8 years ago

Why the Basque name?. I haven't been yet - but from everything I've heard its a Spanish restaurant (Flamenco, paella, etc.) - so why did they name it Bilbao? If you want Basque food, go to the Harvest Vine.

Recommends

guda

Joined 6 years ago

Best spanish food in Seattle, excellent service. All my family was in beatifull restaurant, we eate paella, the best paella in Seattle I was filling the same in Spain, with tortilla espanola and also pimiento de piquillo, the service and the owner was excelent, very good experience in this restaurant

Recommends

Contributor

Joined 10 years ago

Editorial Review. University District tapas joint features tiny portions perfect for sharing and live music.