The introduction of the casual, more convivial form of small plates dining in an otherwise very business-like hotel is a great idea. Unfortunately, the result here is more corporate than Catalan. The frozen smiles of the impeccable waitresses and sometimes painfully slow service can turn the whole experience into something more like a 3-hour-long, 12-course degustation menu than a modern take on the Spanish tavern. The food is good, but not that good. Hence, the crowd is made up of slightly bored tourists and businessmen on expense accounts, in various states of inebriation. So would one still pick Tapas y Vino over Bangkok’s existing tapas establishment, twin restaurants Tapas (Sukhumvit Soi 11) and Spanish on 4 (Silom Soi 4)? Possibly. Tapas y Vino has a cheap all you-can-eat deal and free-flow house wine (Chilean stuff) for B880 net. Too bad it’s near-impossible to stuff yourself with the kitchen working in slo-mo (wine service, mercifully, is much faster). Tapas y Vino’s plates are also more sophisticated in their presentation than you’d find in your average tapas joint. For example, the classic diced potatoes, patatas bravas (B120), are artfully presented as six small hollowed out, inch-long potato cylinders, stuffed with a wonderfully tangy mayonnaise. The sophistication isn’t just in the plates, either. There’s a certain sense of occasion, dining under the big Spanish chandeliers, with a wall of wine to one side and the cooks busying themselves behind a long zinc counter on the other. Unfortunately, some of the fancier, more original dishes can fall flat, like the beef yakitori with purple eggplants: a great combination but the miso sauce is just too sweet. The scallops with chorizo (a la carte only) are off-balance, too, the smallish chunks of seafood overwhelmed by the pleasantly bitter orange sauce and the powerful slices of spicy sausage. But overall there’s a lot of simply great stuff to be had here, from the wonderfully light, fragrant gazpacho to the superb cold cuts (a la carte only). As long as the free-flow, all-you-can-eat deal lasts, Tapas y Vino can make for a fancy, boozy and affordable date—if you can live with the idea of turning something as fun as tapas into a more straight-laced affair.
