When Eric came in town to visit, I picked a restaurant I thought he’d like. We went to Cuerno, a 6-month old tapas place in Midtown Atlanta. The first problem occurred when we couldn’t figure out where to park. There was no sign for valet in front of the restaurant. We drove around the block and pulled into the parking garage that was in the same building as the restaurant. There was a sign there directing us to another parking garage. When we pulled into that garage, there was free valet. And then we walked across the street to the restaurant.
When we got there, our table was being cleared. We waited in the bar, and no one offered to get us a drink. This was flaw #2. We were seated within minutes, at a bar-height table. I hate sitting at hi-top tables. 75% of the tables in Cuerno were hi-tops.
We decided to get a pitcher of white wine sangria to split. It was fantastically large. Unfortunately, when pouring our first glasses, our server spilled sangria all over the table and a little on Eric. Whoops.
We decided to start with tapas, pimientos del padron fritos (deep fried padron peppers) and calamares (chilled calamari, fennel, celery and olives). Our server told us they were medium, but I thought they were pretty spicy. The peppers were lightly fried with sea salt on them.
The calamari was perfectly cooked, and I think serving it chilled definitely enhanced the flavors.
For dinner we got the paella for two. I’ve wanted to try a paella for a while, but I haven’t been to a place that specializes in them. We ordered the Paella Valenciana (shrimp, mussels, clams, chicken, rabbit and seasonal vegetables). The kitchen was able to leave out the shrimp (Eric’s allergic), so that was a bonus. The rice had a great crispy crust and all of the proteins were delicious. They were juicy and tender.
(photo from flickr)
The space is really small, which could work in the restaurant’s favor and make it intimate, but instead it felt crowded. I had to squeeze between the tables to get to my seat, and if I weighed more than an average person, it wouldn’t have worked. They had some interesting materials, but I think the owner got talked into some trend choices that aren’t going to last, like these light fixtures:
I’ve already mentioned the flaws in the service, so I won’t dwell on that.
Dessert was amaaaaazing. The flan was perfect. It was described as coming with a strawberry salad, which it didn’t. But it did come with some figs and strawberries around the edge. The actual flan itself was the perfect smooth texture and had a phenomenal caramel flavor.
zagat score:
food-25
decor-21
service-12
|#