Cobras & Matadors

This is one of the few BYOBs in LA. It's very small and a little cramped (the bathroom is basically in the kitchen!). The menu is great and so is the service. We ended up getting too much food, even though it's a "small plates" restaurant. We got bacon wrapped prawns, sweet potato fries, crab cakes, flat bread...all very good. We made a reservation but still had to wait a bit for our table.

Since it's close to my house, this used to be one of my favorite restaurants, but the last two times I've been there, it's been very disappointing.

Although we had reservations for 9pm, and showed up 5 minutes early, we still waited over 45 minutes for our table. The waiter was quick to come to the table, open our wine and get an order for our first tapas. But it then took at least 15 minutes for 1 plate of tapas to get to the table. The other 2 plates came seperately a 5-10 minutes later. The lentils with ham had the usual crunchy texture that we love, but seemed overly sweet (too much vinegar?). The cheese plate was fine, and the goat cheese pizza was also good, though obviously cut haphazardly.

After waving down the waiter (he never checked back with us), we ordered some sweet potato fries, and a spanish tortilla. After another 20 minutes, ( the restaurant was now mostly empty), we had to ask where they were. The fries were good, as always, and home made mayonnaise they are served with is outstanding, but the Spanish tortilla was the worst I've ever had in my life! It was a circle of scrambled egg that appeared to have dried under a heat lamp. There was a thin rubbery slice of potato on top of that, and something slimy over the potato. I couldn't figure out if it was cheese or uncooked egg. It was horrible.

To say the least, this is no longer my favorite place, in fact, I don't expect to go back.

This is a wonderful tapas restaurant. For those of you who don't know what "tapas" is. Tapas is term coined by Spain. It is basically an array of appetizer-type dishes but more elegant and tastier than your usual American appetizers. This place is so great for groups, dates, or just hanging with the family. Very trendy looking inside, and well it. Great wine list, and the food is full of sabor.

My favorite tapas bar in LA. A great atmosphere. The original shop is on Beverly over by the Grove, but I prefer the new location in Los Feliz. The benefit of the Beverly location is the wine shop next door. Show up and grab a bottle of wine for dinner - they charge it to your bill. A cool place to grab a drink and tapas. Make a reservation because its packed.