i’ve kind of always wanted to dine at ipar’s, which is this spanish restaurant located in ramos street. i’m a spanish wannabe, right? so of course i wanna go there since i can’t go to spain until i’m financially and linguistically ready to do so. it’s the closest i can get to my dream country so i had really high expectations.

ipar’s interiors did not disappoint. i loved the coziness of the place which can only accommodate about 20-30 guests, if i’m not mistaken. i loved the upholstery — very chic. i like natural colors so the flesh and the browns were perfect for me.

i wasn’t a big fan of our table though, as my feet found it quite uncomfortable. otherwise, if you just look at it and not use it, it’s a fine table.

the paintings and the decors really added a nice touch to the room. my eyes were drawn to the colorful paintings depicting spanish traditions.

but enough about the interiors. we were there to eat. it was father’s day, after all. =)

first things first: i am not a very good food critic. i’m not a food critic, period, but i know what i like. i may be thin but i eat A LOT! i eat more than my friends do, no kidding. you can ask them and they’ll tell you the same thing. that, and the fact that i tend to eat rather slowly.

anyway, here are the dishes that we had:

gambas al ajillo
shrimps sauteed in garlic

croquetas de pollo
chicken croquettes

lengua estofada
braised ox tongue

ensalada mixta completa
typical mixed green salad

paella marinera
seafood paella

pulpo ala gallega
octopus served on a bed of boiled potatoes drizzled with extra virgin olive oil

flan al caramelo
leche flan

leche frita
fried milk squares

i’ll be honest. i found most of these dishes quite salty (except for the desserts, of course. duh!) even the salad was salty, although i wondered if the rock salt was supposed to give the dish an edgy taste.

i gotta tell you, that restaurant has an abundance of olive oil! no kidding. the shrimps and the octopus were virtually backstroking in olive oil! i don’t mind, though. olive oil is healthy. and it wasn’t like we slurped the thing like soup so i’m not complaining. olive oil is my friend. =)

one of the restaurant’s bestsellers is their paella, which you have to order an hour or two in advance. having ipar’s number would come in handy but i’m not gonna give it to you ‘coz i don’t have it. it was my sister who made the reservation. anyhow, i’ll give the paella 3 stars. some people might give it a 5 but then i realized i’m not so much into paella, something i discovered on that night. lol.

what i found totally divine, though, were the chicken croquettes which were almost like cordon bleu, except that they weren’t because they were so much better. (i told you i would suck at this! lol.) i loved it! just as much as i loved the lengua estofada.

i’m not a desserts person. i’m not really into sweets. but on that night, my sister and i decided to try their desserts. the leche flan was so creamy. it wasn’t watery like the (cheap) ones i am accustomed to.

the leche frita, on the other hand, was a different story. the milk was kind of bland but the crust tasted almost like apple pie with brown sugar on it. it tasted so much like… i forgot the name.

screw this.