I enjoy Spanish food and Spanish tapas, especially their seafood. I found this Spanish tapas restaurant, who also is opened for brunch. Their food looked really good, so we decided to head over for some good tapas for brunch. From the outside, it didn’t really look like much, and seemed really small. Good thing it was painted bright yellow, we spotted it without difficulty.

The inside is rather small, but with lots of natural lights coming in from large windows and vivid colors, it made the space feel a bit more open.

 

It has a bar on the right, with good number of counter seats. It had cool, modern design when it came to their light fixture. I liked the industrial looking light over the bar, simple and clean. The bar counter itself had its own lights, which was interesting. It had green lights coming through all the way across the counter top, even on the side.

The draft beer handles had cute decorations, I really liked the Day of the Dead handles! The seating is on the left side of the bar, but it also extends to the back of the bar as well. All of the seats are high stool and high booth seats. The decor is kept rather simple, with white walls and yellow booth. Most of everything had a sharp 90 degrees angle – bar counter, tables, chairs, and artworks on the wall which were some kind of colored square canvas, which went well with the bar counter top lights.

We started with a cup of Coffee ($2.50) and Mimosa ($5). They do have a Brunch happy hour that offers unlimited mimosa, sangria, or bloody mary for $12 for 90 minutes. We only wanted just one glass of Mimosa, so we opted out. The coffee is really cheap, and we asked for milk on the side, which came in a super cute container. The coffee itself was nothing special, not really a good cup. The mimosa was ok, didn’t have the sweetness I was looking for. It was refreshing though.

They offer regular brunch items, such as Benedict, Omelet, and Pancakes, but we wanted some tapas to share, so we only ordered from the tapas menu. We ordered Gambas al Ajillo ($12), Marcha Calamari ($11), Baby Chorizo ($9), and Croquetas Platter ($10).

The Gambas al Ajillo is made with sauteed shrimp, olive oil, garlic, and pepper flakes. It came out piping hot, and I mean seriously hot that the oil was still bubbling when it came out, which was super awesome! It had good amount of plump shrimps, and it was soooo tasty. Great garlic flavor. The shrimp had soaked up all the flavor, super juicy.

Marcha Calamari is made with floured calamari, and smoked paprika aioli. At the first glance, I thought it was going to be spicy, but it was actually more on the sweet side. The calamari was crispy, lightly fried, and the paprika aioli was really nice. I enjoyed the sauce. It was good to have a dish with a bit of sweetness, giving a good contrast to the spiciness from the other dishes.

Baby Chorizo also came to the table piping hot. The sauce was bubbling quite aggressively, which we had fun time watching. The chorizo was packed with flavor, and had good kick to it. I liked the spicy flavor, it warmed me up from the inside. It was a good amount also, more than enough to share among the three of us.

Croquetas Platter comes with 4 kinds of croquetas: goat cheese, chicken with plantain, mixed wild mushroom, and jamon. They also came with different kinds of sauce for each croqueta. Each one was really crispy on the outside, and was not greasy at all.

 

The goat cheese one had a good, strong goat cheese flavor. Smooth and velvety, and great for cheese lover. The chicken one was the best, most of us liked this one the most out of the four. It had deep flavor that was comforting and delicious. It was creamy without being mushy, really enjoyed it.

The mushroom one had earthy flavor, good but a bit mushy. It was certainly high quality, nicely seasoned without overpowering the natural flavor of wild mushrooms.  Jamon was good too, but not as good as the chicken one somehow. Overall, all the croquetas were great, each offering different unique flavor, and very well made.

After the tapas, we decided to get some desserts to share as well. We ordered Incredible Tres Leches ($7) and Torta de Noviembre ($7). I always like to get something that is “limited edition” type of things, so when I saw the Torta de Noviembre, it was no brainer there. It was a house-made pumpkin pie, served with ginger ice cream and cookie crumbs. The pumpkin pie was really good, rich, creamy, with nice flavor of pumpkin spice. The ginger ice cream was really amazing, it went great with the pie which was a surprise. The cookie crumble was almost non-existing and it was not necessary for the dish. They could just leave that out and make the dish a bit more clean.

I like Tres Leches, when it is made right, and with its name indicating that their version is “incredible,” it made me want to try it for sure. It was an interesting display, not your usual Tres Leches for sure. It was more like a sundae than a cake… It is made with Argentinian style moist cake with home made vanilla ice cream, and dulce de leche foam. The cake was on the bottom, then vanilla ice cream, topped with more of a dulce de leche whipped cream than “foam.”  It was tasty and I enjoyed it, but I am not sure if I would call this Tres Leche… Really liked the dulce de leche whipped cream, it was the best part of this dessert.

They have nice, clean bathroom all the way at the back. The mirror above the sink was place a bit high, tilted below so that you can see your face, but if you want to check if you have anything stuck between your teeth, you might need another mirror… you can’t really get a close look with their mirror.

We had a really nice brunch here. The staffs were nice and friendly, and the tapas were great. High quality and delicious, good amount and pricing were kind as well. I heard they have good paella, I would love to go back there for dinner to get some of their paella!

Marcha Cocina – Bar 4055 Broadway, New York, NY 10032