Manolos

Took off with friends last night in search of a restaurant which had been recommended, but I couldn't remember the name, exactly where it was located, or what type of food it served.  Just knew it was on Tarpon Ave. Turns out we found it quite easily: Tarpon Springs is just not that big and anything east of Alternate 19 is actually away from the main restaurant drag.  It serves "Mediterranean" food, one special corner of the menu reserved for Spanish food.  Manolos is the name of the place and the chef/owner.

Manolo himself greeted us and he pushed the wine quite heavily;  since wines are a very BIG profit center, I can understand why.  He even brought a glass of white sangria for my husband to try.  I found it too bubbly and too sweet.  We stuck to water and his disappointment was palpable.

He brought a basket of bread that was more like an instant bread rather than a traditional yeast bread and the ubiquitous olive oil with spices.  When someone asked him for butter instead, we got a little lecture about how butter was an inferior product.  And that, BTW, he did not serve coffee Americano, either, only espresso or cafe con leche or cappucino. 

I ordered the Churrasco (skirt steak), grilled medium, with chimmichuri sauce.  It came medium rare, and heavily charred, swimming in well seasoned chimmichuri sauce, sitting around a bunch of spinach and sitting on top of four sliced, roasted potatoes.  It was very tender.  When the chef/owner came  by to see how we liked our food, he asked how my steak was and when I said good, he immediately asked if he could cook it a bit more.  He knew it was too rare.  When he took the plate away, he said, "Perfect color."  But for me, it wasn't "perfect."

Two people ordered the Zarzuela de Mariscos (seafood stew) served on a bed of linguine, which they both pronounced excellent.  Shrimp, scallops, squid, snapper, clams and mussels sauteed in a tomato, saffron and lobbster sofrito.  The menu says it is served over rice, but the owner told us it would take 35 to 45 minutes if it came over rice because he did not have precooked rice.  It could be served, instead, over the linguine.  Since we were not ordering appetizers, they opted for the linguine.  It looked and tasted beautiful.  And one person ordered the Pargo a la Sidra (red snapper), which came in a very tasty broth of apple cider, yellow onions, cilantro, and lemon juice.  It also sat on roasted potato slices.  The broth was excellent and delicate.  There were a few tiny bones, though.  Dinners came with a very small Caesar salad. 

Dessert offerings consisted of two items: tres leches cake and chocolate cake which he said were his own family recipes and made right there, so we ordered one of each.  They came our with four spoons on each plate.  (And with the spoons for our coffees, we suddenly had 10 spoons on the table at the end of the meal!) The tres leche cake was extremely sweet, but very moist and spiced up with a sprinkle of cinnamon.  The chocolate cake filling was a bit too gummy for me and did not have a deep enough chocolate flavor for me.  In the future, I will avoid both.

Coffee was good and hot, though I did get a cappucino even though I ordered cafe con leche. 

The place had been open for a little over a year, but there were not many diners the night we were there.  It was a long and narrow place and our tables were smack up against a very rough brick wall.  So close that when I sat down, I scraped my knuckle. There was additional seating upstairs.  Only one table would be able to accommodate six people on the first floor.  I'm not sure about upstairs.  Prices were moderate.

Verdict:  We would definitely go back.  I would not order my skirt steak again because the char was too heavy for me and the dish sat in too much oil. I would not order the desserts.  But I would try some of the other interesting main dishes, most of which were Italian, and not Spanish in nature. 

All in all, it was a non-chain place I would return to at least once more.  But the owner could back-off a little.