Las Tapas

"The only thing more amazing than the flamenco show is how this dump stays in business"

Food: 2/5
Service: 1/5
Atmosphere: 3/5
Parking: 1/5
Cleanliness: 2/5

    Las Tapas may have a flamenco show and live music....however that's about all they have to flaunt when it comes to their restaurant.

   Service here is potentially worse than the DMV, on 3 trips to the restaurant (brought people to see the show) it has taken between 10-15 minutes to even get greeted, another 10 for drinks, and another 15 to get our food. Servers don't have a script, minimal menu knowledge, don't make eye contact, and move at a lethargic pace. Terrible customer service every time for every guest.

   Beyond the absolutely terrible service is the food - calamari so undercooked that my fork went through it like slimy butter, unseasoned tapas, though the manchego cheese with bread was excellent. Of course, how do you mess up cheese on a piece of bread? Otherwise all bland, uneventful, and poorly cooked food...almost dirty tasting which doesn't come as any surprise.

   Parking is terrible as well as this is in old town so come out early if you are going to stop by, however I don't recommend stopping by.

The food was horrible!  Definitely not worth the trip or the money!  Las Tasca down the street is ten times better!  The scallops were not fresh and had a weird taste, the mozzarella and tomato was drizzled with ranch???  The pork was nothing but fat that you couldn't chew.  My friend almost broke his stuff from eating the lamb,  plus the staff was goofing off, no wonder the place was dead on a friday night.  They should hire better managers.

When we entered this place on this popular restaurant street in downtown Alexandria we got carded immediately. That seemed a bit shady. Then the doorman started talking about hookahs and we realized we wanted to go to their sister restaurant next door.

When we got to the right spot the place looked Spanish-style, but it smelt funky. We looked through the menu and ordered a few dishes based on our waitress's recommendations. Should it matter that she's not Spanish? Poland is close enough.  Charging $7 per plate of tapas should be matched with quality and a reasonable sized portion. Mostly, we didn't get either. The patatas bravas was good, but even I can chop and fry potatoes. The octopus was water-logged and tasteless, like frozen food can get. The paella should be the knockout dish. Here is wasn't and again it was small. The rice was cooked separately and then topped with the ingredients of our dish. Not great, but edible. The sangria was ok, not much flavor, and certainly no buzz.

Overall, Sam and I wished we'd tried another restaurant. I wished I hadn't broken my Galaxy S3 phone earlier which resulted in this non-Yelp dining experience! Never again!