9th Door Downtown

1st time experience described here! Atmosphere: Romantic but not stuffy. Warm, inviting, dimly lit in the evenings. Quite delightful actually. Ease of Menu: Very straightforward and easy to comprehend. Service: Relatively attentive. Although our party of two (2) waited quite a while to be greeted by our server. When the server appeared, she said she'd be right with us and then walked over to the next table over to tend to their needs - but that other table was already eating and already had beverages. I thought it was a little odd she was in such a hurry to check in with them when we hadn't even had our beverage order taken yet. Food Quality: The quality of food per our selection of cold and warm tapas was pretty high! The meatballs we ordered were a bit lack-luster... just kind of standard meatballs, honestly. They were good but not worth bragging about. Culinary Suggestions: We had a party of two (2) but almost every tapas we ordered had three (3) tapas portions. Would it really have been difficult to add a fourth (4) portion to the tapas plates? If there are only 2 at the table, just add a 4th meatball... a 4th date nut, etc. This is one of my most direct suggestions generated from my disappointment with the portions. Also, we received a bread basket which was nice but had to ask for butter. Why not bring these out together? Our cold tapas of olives and roasted almonds came on a ramekin of three (3) sections but only two (2) sections contained food leaving the third (3) section empty. The empty third section made the starter look really cheap. Why not fill it with something else? Why not fill the outer 2 sections with almonds (more of them if necessary) and the middle 3rd section with the olives? This is a solid suggestion that would help the menu selection have greater quality. Don't just leave one section empty. Tacky. Quality Vs. Price Point: The quality did not match the price point. The food was simply way more expensive than it was quality. Our trip to The 9th Door included one (1) wine glass of which the pour was below average (I'm from Southern California's wine country), 4-5 food selections from the tapas menu and it cost over $50 AND we left hungry. I totally understand tapas portion sizes but I don't agree with the pricing for the food here. A trip to neighboring restaurants would have been a better option for us. We were contemplating dining at Tamayo where we could have spent the same amount of money for double the food portions and that establishment has raving reviews. So... That's my feedback. Random Notes: The men's restroom is awkward and could definitely use some work AND a thorough cleaning. On a Tuesday night when I was there, it should be spotless. The mirror was filthy. It looked like the entire men's room had been overlooked the entire day.

FOOD WAS AWESOME!!! But our waitress was terrible. We were very forward with her about our plans for the night, and we had PLENTY of time for a tapas dinner but she'd do things like come to our table to clear dishes twice after we asked for our check with 30 minutes before our show started at the Performing Arts Complex. And it was not busy. It was early. Bummer that she left such a bad impression because the ambiance and food were great!

THEIR TAPAS ARE SO GOOD OMG. We saw so many things on the menu we wanted to try, we already had our next visit planned out. Really nice atmosphere, would be a great date spot. Service was great, food was incredible. They have a decent wine and cocktails list. 10/10 would recommend.

My husband and I went here and loved the dim lighting and romantic ambiance. We shared 5 plates and had the creme brulee for dessert which was fantastic. I appreciate that our waitress was always there when we needed another drink or more food without hovering over us every second. I did think it was a little pricey for how small most of the portions are, but everything else was great so I'll let it slide. If you plan to go on a weekend definitely make a reservation.

The dining experience was pretty good up until the calamari, which should not have served, let alone come out of the kitchen. Super small fragment pieces that were way overcooked - unacceptable. Ambience is decent and it's a nice restaurant with a full scale spirits bar. If you are a solo diner than this is also an acceptable spot as the bar top is adequately sized. The service was friendly, courteous and professional. Check out was quick and effortless. I would have rated them higher but the "small" plate of fried squid was that bad.

Had a bottle of wine and four of the tapas and the food was amazing and so was the service. Our waitress, Tori, literally watched how far we were into each tapa before bringing out the next. It was amazing. Highly recommend especially if you're a fan of scallops and wine!

Very high quality food. Unlike other places the food here is NOT oversalted! Mel gave us an excellent service! The Spanish guitar music was not loud and very appropriate. You can enjoy the Paint It Black in Spanish arrangement! Also, this place was not overcrowded even on Friday evening.

Amazing food, poor service. The food was fantastic, overall our meal and drinks where great. The server however, was the major disappointment almost so I would skip this place on service issues alone. We tried 14 dishes, smoked salmon with asparagus, olives and almonds, ribs, beef skewers, artichoke and more. I would have liked more sear and browning on the scallops but the fact we sat with empty water glasses for nearly half our meal was not acceptable. Did I mention that the service was just bad and the restaurant was less than 50% full, should have been fantastic service, good food takes time but an empty water glass is not acceptable.