Amada
Philadelphia, PA 19106
Phone: (215) 625-2450
05/08/2008 Posted by crimekate
I love spanish tapas, and have been dying to try Amada ever since it opened. What a disappointment! The food was just...wrong. We ordered some traditional tapas as well as two of the "flatbreads". The pan con tomate was tasty, but not authentic - it was more like a bruschetta. Traditionally it's a garlic-and-tomato rubbed toast, here it was covered with a thin layer of well-seasoned tomato puree. That was the best thing we ate. The duck flatbread (the menu identifies it as coming with dates, serrano ham, and cabrales) was an abomination.. When it arrived it was soggy, covered with orange zest, and there was no cabrales in evidence, thought there was some kind of bland cheesy substance. After tasting it I asked the waiter about the cabrales and he said "oh, it's cabrales CREAM'.' (It doesn't say that on the menu, btw) I wanted to say - "what, made with monterey jack?". The serrano ham was completely unecessary and clashed with the other flavors (there were too many ingredients to start with). The beef-horseradish-bacon flatbread was a little better, though I didn't taste any bacon, and only a little bit of horseradish in one bite. That was also covered in orange zest, and soggy. Yuck. The fried baby anchovies, when they arrived, looked like Andy Capp's hot fries. They were completely coated with smoked paprika. Why? Smoked paprika is a strong flavor that can easily overpower a dish... especially something as delicate as fresh anchovies. Inexplicably, there was a soft-fried egg perched on top of the pile of neon-red fish. It was, in a word, disgusting. Completely inedible. The ham croquettas were also inauthentic and not very good. In Spain, I fell in love with these creamy fried wonders... here, they were too gamey, flavored with waaay too much serrano ham, and greasy. They just didn't taste right, or even good. I guess they're trying to impress with high quality ingredients, but flavor and authenticity ought to count for something.
Cons: food is not authentic, and not good
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