Hispania Tapas Bar & Cafe

Marcos Fernandini

Being from Alicante, Spain, this is the closest I've seen to a tapas bar in say quevedo, Madrid or la Rambla in Alicante. Truly delicious food. As for the critique of taking too long or a microwave in the back, you obviously have no idea about bares de tapas. This is the norm. Food is cooked daily and tasty ready to be served. Please don't criticize what you don't know. Awesome awesome job, Hispania. Keep up the good work

Anne Wildermuth

This restaurant was very disappointing; it has one of the strangest menus ever. The sign outside advertises vegan and organic food, but they only had a few vegan and organic dishes - essentially all of which were various potato dishes. They happened to be out of potatoes, making the already short menu smaller. Everything was served on plastic plates, paella included (which definitely wasn’t crispy in any way). The food lacked seasoning, and when we asked for salt we got a giant, industrial sized salt shaker delivered to the table. The spinach empanadas were dry and tasteless (something isn’t right with the dough), and the sautéed mushrooms were lukewarm and not seasoned well. The service was fairly awful - we had to ask for water 3 times and a second glass of wine twice. The table next to us ordered a pitcher of sangria and was brought a single glass of it. The waitress was emptying pita chips out of a store bought bag into a plastic bowl to serve with manchego cheese on a plastic plate. I would definitely not recommend this restaurant for the food, ambiance, or the service. Also, there’s not much else around in sleepy, desolate “historic Clearwater” to round out the night.

Nicole M

I absolutely love tapas restaurants and was excited to discover Hispania Tapas Bar & Café in downtown Clearwater. We visited on a Friday evening and had made reservations in advance online. There is no parking lot attached, so you’ll have to find street parking, or you can park in the nearby library parking lot in the evening (a 2-minute walk). The restaurant is decorated with beautiful paintings of flowers covering all the walls. I believe they were painted by the owner and are available for purchase. When it comes to seating there is a small bar area and several tables spread around the restaurant. It could probably fit twice as many tables, but the current layout helps so you don’t feel too crowded and keeps the noise level down as well. The only downside is that you may want to make reservations in advance to ensure you get a table and don’t have to wait long, especially on a weekend. I love tapas restaurants because they give you the opportunity to try a variety of foods without having to commit to a full meal. There is nothing worse than ordering an entrée and finding out it wasn’t what you expected. Not only are the portions here sized perfectly for tapas, but the prices are also very reasonable – especially for downtown Clearwater. I started with a glass of red sangria, and it was amazing – and a bit stronger than I expected (compared to other restaurants). When I checked in to Yelp while eating dinner, I was happy to learn that I got the glass of sangria free with my check-in! Now to the most important part, the food! We tried to order a variety of foods to get a good sampling of what they offered. Originally, we were going to skip the empanadas because we can get those anytime we want close to home. However, the server said they had lamb empanadas hot and ready if we wanted some right away, so of course we had to try them. When they arrived, it turned out one of the empanadas was actually spinach, but it was tasty so we kept it. This was the first time I had a lamb empanada, and it was even better than beef empanadas I have had in the past. On our next visit I will have to order some extra lamb empanadas to bring home. The garlic shrimp plate was my second favorite dish, as it was filled with about 8 large pieces of well-seasoned shrimp that were cooked perfectly. The octopus vinaigrette plate was served with a bowl of chips and tasted good – my husband really liked this dish. I was pleasantly surprised to see paella options in a tapas restaurant – normally at restaurants, paella dishes are $40+ and note that they will take 40-60 minutes to prepare – so we had to try one. The seafood paella was OK, not my favorite dish as it did not have a lot of seasoning but did include a few large pieces of shrimp. For dessert we shared the tiramisu with vanilla ice cream, which I recommend trying on your next visit. It was different than the Italian tiramisu I am used to, but still very tasty. One important thing to note is that they have limited hours (5-9 pm). I am not sure if this is because of Covid, or a personal choice of the owners. Unfortunately, they are not open for lunch, which is disappointing because it would be a perfect place to stop when in downtown Clearwater during the day. When we were there, a couple came in around 8.30 pm and after talking to the server they turned around and left. I am not sure if they were turned away or decided they didn’t want to wait (although many tables were open), so again, I strongly suggest making reservations. If they added more tables, more servers and extended their hours, I am sure they would find the customers to fill those tables during the extended hours. Hopefully down the road this is something they will do so we can all enjoy their delicious food even more. Hispania Tapas is now on my list of places to take friends and family from out town when they visit. The only complaint I have is that I wish they were closer to my home so I could visit more often!

Terra Williams

Food had good flavor. Meatballs were barely warm and shrimp was just a bit above that...not sure if it had sat too long before bringing out or not heated up to right temp before serving. Sangria was very good. I'd definitely give it another try.