La Taberna Tapas On Halsted

I've been here several times and I absolutely love it. The only reason I won't give it 5 stars is because they are not consistent with the quality of food. The things I love: + SANGRIA!!! Delicious and fresh, always + Decor is breathtaking, perfect for special nights + the house paella, absolutely delicious all the time. You can't go wrong with this! + I've always had excellent service + salsa classes on Friday nights and live music (I think that's on Saturday) Now, the not so good things: For some reason, outside of the paella, the tapas vary in quality and taste. For example, las croquetas de pollo were dry last time I was there, but the time before, they were crunchy on the outside and moist inside, delicious as they should be. What happened? I'm not sure if these things vary because of changes in staff, but I would really like consistency and good quality since it is a bit on the expensive side

Tapas, Tapas and more Tapas Delight! I went here on a Friday night after work - it was about 7 o'clock when I picked up my friend and I was able to make an 8:45 reservation which was great. Due to low traffic we got there around 8:30 and were seated immediately with the choice of inside or patio. Since it was a beautiful night we decided to sit on the patio. The patio at La Taberna is beautiful - the seating is comfortable and you have twinkling lights above you and a soft fountain in the middle of the patio. Although being outside it was nice since we could hear the live music being played from inside which gave the patio a nice musical atmosphere. Our waitress was really sweet and dealt with my horrible butchering of Spanish words ( 3 years of Spanish clearly taught me nothing). My friend and I are foodies and love trying new things and with tapas - you have the chance to have a large variety of plates. We ordered: Croquetas de Pollo, Patatas Bravas, Queso Fundido, Pulpo a la Plancha, Gambas al Ajillo. For drinks I had the Lime in the Coconut which was very sweet but it wasn't so sweet that I felt like I just poured a packet of sugar in my mouth. The taste was sweet - but refreshing due to many spicy dishes. My friend ordered the Champagne Margarita with salt and she really liked it. (However it did not help her too much with the spicy food ahah) Out of all the dishes I personally think the Patatas Bravas was incredible - all the food was really good but the Patatas Bravas inched out the competition by a little bit. After dinner we shared a chocolate souffle with vanilla ice cream topped with a berry puree and had two large mugs of coffee - which was a great way to end the evening. The only weird thing was that the acoustic music had stopped halfway through the dinner and it seemed like a colorful disco ball was going off inside but it seemed like a dance class was taking place. Overall, I would go to La Taberna again because they serve up some Kick butt tapas

My experience is solely based on night event. No food was ordered. Only drinks. Our friend was hosting his birthday. This place turns into a club like Place which is nice. DJ Music was good. Service was attentive. But the drinks were simple. Just ok. Too expenses for just ok drinks. Needs a mixologist! I'll give them another try but perhaps for dinner or lunch next time.

Good atmosphere, great dishes. Great lively place, excellent service, tapas were good size and flavorful. We ordered all the vegetarian plates and the waitress was helpful with customizing some of our orders to make them meatless. I enjoyed the desserts here more than Emilo's. Presentation was clean and elegant. We came close to closing time but they were still welcoming and we didn't catch any attitude with our presence. Bathrooms were small yet cute.