Sangria Tapas Cafe Review (Royal Oak, Michigan) - Avoid at all cost.

 FOODIE BEWARE!! - Kitchen Nightmare in the Making... Call Gordon Ramsay.

I've been fairly lucky with my restaurant encounters; it seems that my luck has run out. My latest restaurant I've visited, Sangria Tapas Cafe, is far from being the finest restaurant. In fact, it is so bad that I would strongly recommend against it. Unless you wanted reheated food and sub-standard food standards. Now granted, I didn't try the paella, or the drinks, but honestly the Tapas is what I went there for and the Tapas is far from mediocre but outright horrible, uneatable, and to be honest a big ripoff.

Lets talk about the history of this restaurant, it won: 

• 2006 - Hour Magazine, "Best of Detroit" Best Dance Lessons
• 2006 - Real Detroit, Best of Detroit, Best Spanish Restaurant
• 2004/2006 - AOL City Guide,"City's Best - Royal Oak"
• 2004 - AOL City Guide, Best Outdoor Dining
• 2001 - Hispanic Magazine,(National Publication), Top 50 Hispanic Restaurants in the U.S.

and this was what I based on to go there in the first place. But unfortunately I didn't to arrive at a restaurant that deserve all these awards at all.

We went on a Sunday, an hour after opening and there was no other customers. The place was empty and I was told that there would be a band coming in around 9:30pm. The host, whom I believe was the owner, sat down and gave us the menu. It had the typical Tapas, Entree, and Paella listings. Then the waitress came and asked what we wanted to drink/took our order. All sounds good until the food came.

Here's what we ordered.

Tapas #1: Carne y Queso Azu

Carney y Queso Azu is a thinly sliced beef, Cooked Medium Rare, served with onions and crumbled blue cheese. It is a cold tapas. It came with a vinaigrette sauce. It sounds good alright, but the food arrived at the table different from what was advertised. The beef was overcooked; it was so over cooked my knife couldn't cut through it. It was chewy, cold, and tasteless. On a positive note, the salad was decent and vinaigrette sauce was pretty nice. 

I don't know if it was Sunday and they didn't want to cook food, or the chef was lazy, but the dish was not what i would expect form a 7 dollar dish from a restaurant like this. It was the first sign that this was not the restaurant that was advertised on the website.

As you can see in this picture, the beef is not cooked medium rare as was advertised.

The Hot Tapas came out together, I was excited until I took a fork to it.

Tapas #2: Empanadas

Empanadas is a baked turnover filled with ground beef and pork, served in a pool of tomato sauce. This was the worst of all 4 dishes. The meat was super dry and the bread was so hard it felt like street empanadas that was left in the fridge and served reheated to the customers. The tomato sauce felt like it was from a can that i can buy in the store. This dish was the bottom line and the turning point of what I thought was a great tapas restaurant into kitchen nightmare.

Overall, this dish showed the lack of care of the chef, the restaurant owner's ignorance of their food quality, and set the tone for what's to come.

Empanadas is suppose to be sealed. this looks like precooked dish that was cut and served. 

Tapas #3: Mejillones Europeos

Mejillones Europeos is Mussels, Roasted pepper, and garlic sauted in creamy white wine sauce. The description makes me want to try it. I did try it and the result was not very pleasant. The mussels tasted like it was old, fishy, and sour.  I eat Mussels a lot and i know what mussels usually taste like. The mussels in this case was bad. It is so bad that my girlfriend got food poisoning over this dish. The sauce was fishy and sour as well.

Bad seafood. Food poisoning. Bad Experience.

Tapas: #4: Champinones Relleno

Champinones Relleno is a mushroom cap stuffed with shrimp filling in garlic butter sauce. This dish was actually decent. It wasn't as bad as the other two but who knows what they put in the shrimp filling and how long that shrimp filling has been prepared for. While it tasted decent, the other 3 dishes were so bad that i couldn't enjoy this dish at all.

My Overall Experience.

I made a reservation for my gfirlfriend's birthday. It was a horrible experience. I want my money back. Avoid at all cost.