Pata Negra Spanish Tapas Bar

The Key Details:

Where: 73 MacGregor Terrace, Bardon

On the web: barpatanegra.com

Instagram: @patanegrabrisbane

Hours: Wednesday through Sunday from 3pm to late and Weekend Brunch from 8am to noon

The Summary:

Pata Negra Spanish Tapas Bar, unsurprisingly, as the name suggests is a Tapas Bar based in Bardon in the inner north of Brisbane. To say our experience at Pata Negra was one from the “top shelf” would be an understatement. Right from the moment we pushed the door open at a couple of minutes after midday last Saturday and the owners graciously agreed to serve us lunch despite the restaurant being ostensibly close our dining experience was as close to perfect as one can get. The take away for readers is simple: visit this place as you will not regret it.

The Menu:

Whilst the menus change semi regularly (based on our discussion with the owners), I am happy to say that everything I saw on the menu looked great to me. I ordered the following (descriptions from the menu):

• Iberian meat and cheese platter
• Spanish Sliders

The meat and cheese platter was simply perfect with the truffle salami the absolute highlight. To be honest this platter is large enough to be a meal for one person on its own. The Sliders, served on a single slice of fresh bread rather than in a small roll, were light and tasty and presented a great mix of Spanish flavours.

I can make no complaints at all about the food served. It was spot on.

The Service

I have already commented on the fact that the owners of the restaurant stayed open for us to have some lunch and the service standards, if anything, got better after that. The owners served us and could not do enough for us from recommending menu items to just generally having a chat about Spain. The food came out quickly (to be fair we were the only ones in the restaurant so that ought not surprise).

The Space

Pata Negra has both indoor and outdoor seating with a cosy dining and bar area inside and generous tables located outside. The bar is fulsomely stocked and it is possible to sit at the bar for the beverage before heading to your table.

The Price

The pricing of our meal was quite reasonable with most plates on the menu (other than the platters) in the $15-$20 range. A big plus for the team at Pata Negra is that they do not charge for sparkling water (nor flat water to be clear) which, as a non-drinker, definitely appeals to me!

What Next?

As I said in the summary, it is simple really: get to this restaurant as soon as you can. The owners let us know that they are generally quite busy on Friday and Saturday nights so it is probably best to book. If you sign up to the restaurant’s mailing list you will get notifications of events like the paella nights (which I will certainly back to attend).

*Postscript: normally I would have a photo of some of the food eaten with each review but this time I did not get around to it. I promise to get back in the flow of this for next time!