We've been in Santa Pola for about 7 days and 7 more to go. Eating out was getting monotonous,…read morethen found this little gem. The other restaurants that we've been to with high ratings, seem to take the customer for granted, rushing, impatient with clarifying questions, or downright rude. Not here. We found this restaurant on TripAdvisor where it's very highly rated and were surprised there was no review here.
Having said that, we've now been here twice, this review combines both visits. Here's the review:
SERVICE:
The service here is much more what I'm used to as a Southern Californian. They're pleasant, genuinely nice and they appreciate our business. Every special request (another side salad please? No sauce? Ordering stuff not specifically on the menu: side of roasted potatoes, etc.) were all met with a gracious "of course."
DRINKS:
--Cava reasonably priced, nice larger pour, tasty.
--Tap beer "Caña", reasonably priced, hits the spot.
--They have a cocktail with Cava and some bitters, I was expecting mostly Cava with a splash of bitters, but there was so much other stuff in there, there was no effervescence at all from the Cava, I returned it, I wasn't charged. I won't order it again, but thankful they swapped it for me (this would be standard in L.A., not so in Spain).
--Margarita, as good as any I've had in SoCal.
--Water, we've had both flat and sparkling. They're both "mineraly" with the sparkling being VERY much so, just FYI
FOOD:
--Smoked salmon "tostada" or toasted bread with cream cheese, dill, capers, caviar. We liked it, the portion was very generous.
--Empanada was served cold inside, sadly a rookie mistake, hopefully they'll figure that out We sent it back and they warmed it up properly, it was tasty once served warm.
--The burger is beautiful with lots of micro greens, tomato, gorgeous bun, and a side of roasted potatoes with some seasonings that rocked it.
--Spaghetti with meatballs, the pasta was fine, the meatballs a bit mealy. We're not big meatball fans, and nobody in our family liked these either, we didn't eat them. My son ordered pasta on our next visit with just butter and parm and that worked for him.
--The pork ribs were delish, not the baby-back that we're used to, but every bite was eaten! It was too much for my middle son and so we all got a bit to taste.
--The chicken breast was *surprisingly* tasty. Usually we try to avoid chicken breast because it can be dry and tasteless, but they pound it flat, making it cook evenly and then they grill it and it picks up a *fantastic* grilled, smokey flavor.
--The side salad of greens is dressed lightly (perfectly in our opinion) with a balsamic dressing.
It was so good, my teen son wanted seconds!
--The side of baked potato with Roquefort cheese is good, but my husband thought it was almost a meal to itself, too much along side his pork ribs (he did eat every bite though, haha)
--The sausage was good too. Hubby ordered with a side of the roasted potatoes and that made a nice meal.
--The skirt steak, the best of what we had here, YUM! Strong beefy flavor, very smokey cooked to medium perfectly, my husband shared some of his roasted potatoes, it was a great match.
DECOR
Downstairs: The bar downstairs has a great view of the ocean and has a very cool decor, lots of thought taken, comfortable. My kids enjoyed the videos of snowboarders.
The patio: Nice in that you smell the grill going and it smells great. The decor up there is like a complete afterthought, or they left grandma's decor up there. This really needs attention to make it truly comfortable. There are foux plants on the walls, hopefully they will get around to decorating it soon. You actually do NOT get a great view of the ocean up there because of the way it's set up. But if you want to dine al fresco, it's there.
SUMMARY
The restaurant is small, if your group is larger than two, I would highly recommend calling and reserving a table, or at least calling and make sure they have a table before you head up. They don't have lots of tables for 4 or 5.
I don't think they have a web site, other than their FB one, here it is, yelp won't let me put it under web site address.
https://www.facebook.com/ohanagastrobar
Though there is room for improvement (decor in patio and empanada temp), for what they are doing: the food, quality of ingredients, gracious service, and reasonable prices, they get five stars from me AND my family!
