The Tapas Fever

[Bond Girl]

This may be a little one sided, but there seems to be a general trend among new restaurants to serve everything tapas style. When I had dinner at the Spice market a few weeks ago, I was told that the dishes come in small plates, and therefore I'd need to order a lot of small dishes and share them with my fellow diners. Last week, my dinner date couldn't decide between a Korean place down in the lower east side that serve everything Tapas style or 'Inoteca, which is an Italian place that serves everything in small plates. And, over the weekend, I had drinks at Megu, which, of course, served Japanese in small plates. I realize that variety is the key here, but whatever happened to beautifully plated full-size entrees?

[newguy]

I had dinner at spice market on Friday, and I didn't find that the food was tapas style or that we had to order many dishes. I ordered Vietnamese spring rolls, a green papaya salad and halibut. My wife ordered a lobster roll, skate, and coconut sticky rice. The skate does not come with anything, so the rice was necessary. 2 desserts, and we were out the door absolutely stuffed.

Great meal.

Sorry to be off topic here.

[wagyuboy]

Are tapas-style menus also much more profitable for the restaurant? I remember reading some sort of post implying that this is so. As far as I can tell, most of the places (such as Bar Jamon, the cramped Casa Mono offshoot) that have tapas style menus offer each dish at slightly less than the average entree, but slightly more than the average appetizer. Each dish is really about the size of an appetizer, though, so you have to eat three or four (or five or six) in order to be satisfied or anything closing in on full.

Edited March 23, 2004 by wagyuboy (log)

[Lreda]

You know, in retrospect I should have finished this on the Veritas topic but once again the subject of much apps vs. app, salad/pasta & main course has reared it's ugly head. Does the restaurant frown on this, should we do it at the bar, should we share apps, pasta, blah, blah. Being in the business, I think perhaps the only problem that ordering only apps would be frowned upon,are places like Babbo, DB, Craft, Le Cirque and, well you get the idea. Although Babbo and the others serve tasting menus which should help those that are undecided on the appetizer issue.

If in doubt, call in advance and ask.

[Stone]

Are tapas-style menus also much more profitable for the restaurant?

Based on my unscientific observations, tapas are more profitable. Call a small dish of shrimp an appetizer, and the restaurant can charge $8. Add one more shrimp and call it a tapa (tapo?), and the restaurant can charge $12. Turn a $4.50 side order of potatoes into a tapa and it's a $7 menu item.

[Bond Girl]

I forgot all about Casa Mono! Now I am seriously convinced that Tapas size plates comes at a higher margin.

[JPW]

It's not just NYC that is experiencing this craze.

Following the huge (and well deserved) success of Jose Andreas in DC with Jaleo, and more recently Cafe Atlantico and Zaytinya, it seems as if everyone and their grandmother in the capital is offering a tapas/meze style menu.

[Bux]

I think it's quite possible to make a tasting menu out of a selection of tapas, but only if the restaurant is willing to bring the plates out in successive courses. In a typical tasting menu, the courses are smaller than in a regular three course meal and although the amount of food may not be more than one gets in a simpler meal, the cost will be. There's greater kitchen costs as well as serving and dishwashing, so it's not all profit to the owner. Where the food is often scooped from stew pots rather than plated artfully, there may be far less additional overhead and far more profit to the restaurant when a tapa is not much more than an appetizer portion, but priced between an appetizer and a main course.

In any event, one should always be prepared to pay more to fill oneself when ordering many small dishes than when eating a regular meal of the same quality. It's fun to graze, but there's something about a well composed meal, presented in courses, that's just not part of sharing small plates. Why, by the way, have we come to accept that smaller plates are ideal for sharing? It seems intuitively perverse to share tastes, rather than larger portions.

[SobaAddict70]

Actually the small plate "craze" started a lot earlier.

Honmura An, for instance, has been offering small plates/large plates of appetizers and some mains for several years now. Tabla is another instance where the small plate phenomenon took hold.

I think the current trend is an outgrowth of what was offered in years past. It's just like evolution, yet very retro. Unlike retro, it's probably here to stay.

Soba

[jogoode]

Actually the small plate "craze" started a lot earlier.

Honmura An, for instance, has been offering small plates/large plates of appetizers and some mains for several years now. Tabla is another instance where the small plate phenomenon took hold.

To me, a restaurant's menu reflects the "tapas craze" if it encourages diners to make a meal out of small plates. Sumile and Casa Mono don't offer entrees and the only way you can make a meal is by ordering 4 or 5 dishes. At Honmura, the main attractions are the noodle soups. I can see ordering a couple of small plates along with my soup, but I wouldn't have a meal composed only of their appetizers.

[SobaAddict70]

Like most things in the resto industry, the pendulum will swing back to full-size dinner entrees eventually.

There was an article in the Times that was written up not too long ago about the small plate trend. Unfortunately, it's probably been archived by now so its not simply a matter of getting off my duff and doing a web search.

Soba