Sutirtha B.
Yelp
I have mixed feelings about eating at places that are rated #1 in any given location, as Spain Wine Bar currently is as of December 2023. The reason for my reluctance stems from the fact that occasionally those high rankings go to the heads of the people who work there, and they act either as if they do not care or, in the alternative, end up following a script that's passed on to them so religiously that the personalized experience of dining out loses some of its charm for me. And here while our server, Laura, did seem to care, nonetheless given the large volume of patrons being served at the restaurant with clock-like precision, a small part of me felt like being cogs in a wheel.
Nonetheless, in spite of any mixed feelings I may have about eating at a place that's wildly popular, when it comes to the quality of the food, I have to confess that Spain Wine Bar's reputation is well deserved. Their tapas selection is among the most extensive I have come across in a really long while and it would be very hard to come by such a wide range of tapas at restaurants outside of Spain. For my wife who loves tapas (that is, loves with a capital L), Spain Wine Bar was a dream come true. From the tapas, we ordered the crab stuffed peppers, the calamari, and the lamb chops. I personally am a fan of eating a single entrée with larger portions (as opposed to tapas) and so reflecting those preferences, we also went with an order of the seafood paella. My wife raved about the lamb chops and my daughter, who adores calamari, liked her dish as well. Unlike a restaurant we tried out the very next day where the calamari were a bit too oily, that wasn't the case here. For me the paella was nice, but it lacked kick. I ended up requesting some tabasco and with that, I found the dish to be to my liking. Although the paella we ordered was the smallest size of the three options (and priced at $39), it was a very large portion. Even though I stuffed myself full, I had at least about a third of the dish left over that we ended up bringing back to our hotel. While we were very full, having been impressed by the quality of the food, we decided to try out one of the desserts and based on our server Laura's recommendation, went with the olive oil cake. The cake reminded me significantly of some cakes that my mother would bake - always a nice touch - and my daughter, who can be a picky eater, enjoyed it so much so that even after we had finished it, she wondered if there was any more of the cake left!
Our bill, that included the above food items, along with a glass of wine for both of us, came to $155 with tax and tips. That was the most we spent of all our meals during our three-day trip to Ocean City, and with only three people in our party, including a 4-year old (who, to be clear, did not order drinks!), the bill came to more than $50 a person. Thus, Spain Wine Bar is not cheap by any stretch of the imagination and frankly, given a choice, I would rather try out other restaurants that are similarly highly rated and specialize in Maryland specialties like crab cake to a greater extent than Spain Wine Bar does. However, from the perspective of my wife, this was easily her best meal in Ocean City, and I knew that if we had stayed here for one more day when the restaurant was open, she would have undoubtedly dragged me here and tried out more of the tapas items that she did not get to try on our first visit. In the end, I think the restaurant, while pricey, deserves a try if you are in Ocean City and should you be the kind of person who fancies high-end dining and/or likes tapas, you will easily have one of your nicest meals here.
