Before even walking into Alegria, there are latin sounds and the fragrance of latin flavors that invite you in and tell you that you will be having fun here, you will be entertained, have good drinks and delicious food. There is a host waiting outside for seating and welcoming and I was pleasantly greeted. after being shown to my table, i looked and around and admired the fun decor of spanish words on the wall. was i in a spanish restaurant? upon looking at the menu and the list of tapas, i noticed that this wasn't a typical spanish restaurant--more a latin infusion restaurant that uses both spanish and latin american flavors in their dishes. the waiter was very kind and helpful and recommended the Sangria. He informed us that Alegria's Sangria was an award winning recipe since 1994 that was made with red wine, brandy, sweet vermouth, fresh pears, apples & oranges and aged for two weeks. So we ordered a pitcher and at $25, it is an excellent price for the high quality of sangria. The sangria was very tasty and it complimented the conversation as well as the dinner. To start things off, our waiter suggested a tapa as an appetizer, so I ordered shredded duck with tomatoes and onions served a some grilled bread, it was very savory. After the tapa, we had salads. I ordered their Alegria Salad that has mixed organic baby greens, tossed with fresh seasonal fruit and walnuts, with a Brazilian raspberry vinaigrette dressing. This salad is more and the sweet side as the sweet and juicy fruit and the tangy sweet dressing is a refreshing and sweet summer type salad. it was a nice choice to go from savory to sweet and have such an explosion of flavors. For the main course I ordered the Zarzuela de Mariscos. The Zarzuela De Mariscos is a Spanish fisherman's favorite meal, fresh catch of the day fish, fresh manila clams, mussels, crawfish and tender calamari, all stewed in a light spicy saffron tomato broth served with grilled country bread. This is like an spanish version of Cioppino. The soup was in a tomato and seafood broth and was served in a good sized bowl. This soup was extremely satisfying, especially on those days when it is cold outside and you are looking for comfort food to warm your soul and fill your belly Spanish fisherman style. I didn't think I had any room for dessert, but after being tempted by our waiter to try the tres leches, I couldn't refuse. I had hot coffee and it went perfectly with the dessert. Their version of tres leches is a very moist chocolate cake, topped with a velvety chocolate mousse and drizzled with a wild raspberry sauce. It was so good ending the night with this popular latin dessert. it was like the cherry on top. if you usually have flan, and have never tried tres leches, i would highly recommend. Afterwards, the sangria kicked in and got the best of us, while we tried some Karaoke. all in all, it was a wonderful and fun latin dinner that really spiced up our Wednesday night. The restaurant didn't get 5 stars, mainly because i never really got a sense of the food being exceptional, although it had some moments. also, i'm not really picking up on their specialty, but rather trying to do lots of things good, but not exceptional. read more