Good Eats: Tapas and Paella at Carmen

My sister had the day off one Tuesday and was able to come down for dinner at Carmen (922 Queen St W). Carmen is listed as one of the top 10 best Spanish restaurants in Toronto, so we decided to give it a go. We made reservations the night before and took a short streetcar ride to Queen and Shaw right after work for our cita with Carmen.

We were the first diners to arrive that night, which meant getting the best seats in the restaurant: a comfortable booth in front of the brightly-lit counter shown above. Much like Toronto's most popular restaurants, Carmen was tastefully decorated, though the real question was whether the food was muy delicioso. At the suggestion of our server, we ordered one paella del carmen. We also ordered three tapas dishes to share between the two of us to essentially stave us off while we waited for the paella to cook!

Tapas 

We ate the Gambas al Ajillo, the chorizo with potatoes, and the fish with the mangoes. They all turned out to be quite delicious! Of the three, I think my favourite was the gambas, which was a simple and yet extremely tasty dish. I would have liked to try the serrano ham, but I guess that can wait until I get to Spain this summer. :) 

Paella 

After the tapas came the big pan of paella–certainly a feast for the eyes and for the stomach! The paella that night was on point.

Believe it or not, after this big serving, we still felt like we could have some more. That being said, we had a great dinner and are looking forward to trying the remaining nine Spanish restaurants to see if they can serve up a better version of this Spanish specialty. <3