Dinner at La Tasca – Baltimore, MD

I had a DELICIOUS dinner a few weekends ago at the Inner Harbor. Luke and I picked up a living social deal for a Taste of Spain dinner at  La Tasca a few months ago, which entitles you to a pitcher of sangria, 1 starter, 5 tapas, and 2 desserts. We originally planned to visit the DC location (a few of my friends have been there and gave it rave reviews) but Luke was at a conference in Baltimore so we went to that location instead and I’m super glad we did, look at that view! I definitely want to go back when the weather is warmer and sit outside.

Probably the hardest decision to make was which sangria we were going to order. I’m not kidding when I say every single option sounded delicious (the sangria alone is reason enough for me to go back to La Tasca again).  We ended up going with the sangria tinta, a traditional Spanish sangria with red wine, apples, and oranges.

For our starter we order fried eggplant (berenjenas fritas) that came with a cabrales dip. The eggplant was delicous, slightly crisp on the outside but super soft and tender on the inside. I liked the sauce, but I didn’t think it went super well with the eggplant, but I would still order this again, the eggplant itself was just sooo good.

The tapas menu is also pretty extensive, but I knew right away I wanted paella mixta (because hello, it’s a Spanish restaurant, you basically have to get paella) and beef empanadas (empanadas de carne) because empanadas make me nostalgic for my study abroad days in Argentina.  The paella was full of chicken, chorizo, mussels, shrimp, and octopus.  It was pretty good, although to be honest I thought it needed a little more seasoning. I really liked the empanadas, they were so flavorful with lots of melty cheese and savory beef.  They had a lot of sauce, which is a lot different than Argentine empanadas, but I would absolutely order these again, maybe next time I’ll try the pollo (chicken).

Next up we ordered the rulada de salmon, which came in a pool of asparagus sauce that complimented the perfectly cooked grilled salmon very nicely and the pastelitos de cangrejo (crabcakes) which were super rich with very little filling and were served with a delicious aioli. They were both so good!

For our final dinner order we got mejillones con chorizo (mussels with chorizo). By this time I was pretty full and I wanted to save room for dessert so I left most of these for Luke, but they were really good and the ginger broth was quite tasty.

Speaking of dessert we order churros con chocolate and crema catalana (we wanted the trufa de chocolate but they were out, and then we were gonna get the tarta de pera but they were also out of that, so we settled on this).

It was a great dinner, and I would highly recommend La Tasca if you’re in Baltimore, we fully enjoyed it.