Bar Pintxo is on Santa Monica Blvd and Ocean Ave in Santa Monica. I've heard great things from my uncle about this place, so we made it in there before seeing Cirque Du Soleil this past weekend. They have happy hour from 4-6pm, featuring 6 tapas for $6! Now THIS is a great deal, but I didn't really care for any of the tapas featured on that menu (everything had either cheese and/or ham in it....boring!). Don't get me wrong, $6 is a great price and probably worth it, but I had to try their other more interesting items (which ended up being too salty and too expensive): garlic shrimp (3 for $9), scallops with fennel and cocoa dust (4 for $11), and seafood paella ($15). The paella was the only thing that was filling (because the rice) and not too salty. Luckily the cava I selected cut the salt pretty well for the other items though.
Wines: All their wines are Spanish, and their happy hour menu features 2 of them for $4-5 each, and also a sangria (which was watery and not worth it). I ignored these wines, and instead opted for a cava rosat at $11, then a regular cava at $9. The rosat was very interesting. Notes of cranberry stood out the most to me. The cava had more typical/expected nutty and yeasty flavors. I preferred the cava over the rosat, because it worked with my salty seafood a little better.
My conclusion: go here if you like Spanish tapas (salt, cheese, and ham). Don't go here if you're going to order other stuff on the menu--it's a rip off. I would definitely go here again and order the tapas. For $6, who cares if I don't love all of them?!? Also, I really appreciated that it wasn't crowded. On Friday night, at 530pm in the middle of happy hour, 6 of us could easily get a seat. I wonder why this is...no one's heard of it? Or no one likes the selection/prices...
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