FoodNuts!

For our 23rd anniversary, my wife and I decided to finally take the plunge and visit Cafe Sevilla, in Long Beach, CA.

This Spanish restaurant features a flamenco show, various Spanish dishes and wines, sangria — all the things you’d expect from their name.

Sitting on the patio out front, we had a great time watching folks arrive for the show, and the local nightlife going up and down Pine Ave. This area of Long Beach has changed greatly from the days when we lived there; redevelopment has made this a wonderful night time hangout, preserving the best of the Art Deco and Art Modern buildings while adding new, updated features for a lovely destination.

We decided to keep things simple, and ordered wine for me (Red Guitar, very nice and reasonably priced) and the house sangria for her (the further down the glass she got, the more she liked it, although loyal as she is, she still proclaimed that my home-made version was still better)…

We started with bowls of gaspacho, a cold tomato-and-bread based soup; this came with some lovely fresh bread sprinkled with olive oil.

While eating the gaspacho, we ordered the tortilla. This combination of potatoes, egg, and onions is a Spanish classi; we wondered what the difference would be in the California version.  When it came, we were delighted to find marinated mushrooms and goat cheese garnishing this Spanish classic.

While we anticipated the imminent arrival of the tortilla, we ordered a shrimp dish – this arrived at just about the same time as the tortilla, which turned out to be a good thing. The shrimp ajillo, sauteed in garlic and spices was outstanding (if a tad messy as finger-food) :

For our finale, we ordered a cheese course of Spanish blue goat cheese that came with bread topped with gaspacho, apples, fig chutney, and an apple bite that went unnamed. This turned out to be a great “dessert” to round out the meal.

The service was excellent; we had a great tapas dinner for two for around $50.

Although some reviews we found online were very negative, I think that with a little knowledge of common Spanish tapas, you can fashion a wonderful, romantic meal at Cafe Sevilla.

We will go back again, soon.

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