Laiola: Spanish Wine, Tapas, and LOTS of Salt!

I've been to Laiola on Chestnut at Fillmore twice now: once for a full meal a few weeks ago and last night for Happy Hour. I have conflicting opinions of the small, attractive, Spanish restaurant. Let me explain...

The wine list at Laiola has only Spanish wines, which makes sense for the restaurant since it's Spanish, and is ok so long as you like the mild, anti-climactic flavors of Spanish wines. And I didn't mind the flavor, especially after tasting how incredibly salty all the food is! When we first went a few weeks ago, we ordered the following:

-Marinated olives (lemon, thyme, etc...ironically the least salty thing on the menu)
-Chickpea croquetas (6 pieces that look like steak fries, made of ground chickpeas and cheese; delicious but salty)
-safron rice stuffed squid (cooked perfectly, my favorite besides the olives)
-whole roast sole (pretty great, but on a bed of kale that was really salty!)
-quail (delicious, moist and gamey, but again--salty)

To drink I had the Tempranillo Reales which was $13 for a 1/3 bottle caraffe. It was mild, fruity, earthy...borderline bland. But it really did help cut the salt of everything else.

Last night we went back for happy hour because I had heard it was good. The menu was actually pretty meager= olives, chickpea croquetas, ham, patatas, and 1 cava, 1 red, 1 white, and 1 rose. Everything was $5, but somehow added up quickly and was not completely satisfying. I had the red, which was another Tempranillo, the olives, and the chickpea croquetas. I wanted something more to eat since this would count as my dinner, but they didn't have much to offer and I didn't want to risk getting something excessively salty again.

The highlight of my time there (besides the olives) was the fact that it was pretty much empty and the bartender offered us a tasting of another wine he had, a 2004 Alesia Pino Noir from the Sonoma Coast. The bouquet on this wine made my Tempranillo smell like water. It was fruity, floral, and just had a lot more going on than the Tempranillo. And of course, it wasn't Spanish and it wasn't on the menu.

In short, I like Laiola for its atmosphere and some of its small plates, but since Spanish wine isn't my favorite, Laiola needs something more to keep me going there (but not more salt, please!!!)