PRICE:
Frommer's Very Highly Recommended

This festive restaurant casts an irresistible spell -- it's noisy and inconvenient, accepts only limited reservations, and still fills with people cheerfully waiting an hour or more for a table. The bar offers plenty to look at while you wait, including gorgeous tiles, carved wood, and eclectic artwork. The payoff is authentic Spanish food, notably tapas -- little plates of hot or cold creations that burst with flavor. Entrees include excellent paella, but most people come with friends and explore the three dozen or more tapas offerings, all perfect for sharing. They include patatas ali-oli (garlic potatoes), albóndigas de salmón (salmon balls with not-too-salty caper sauce), setas al ajillo (sautéed mushrooms), and lomito al cabrales (pork tenderloin with blue goat cheese and mushrooms), plus monthly specials such as beef and sweet potato pie. The helpful staff sometimes seems rushed but never fails to supply bread for sopping up juices and sangria for washing it all down. Finish with "ubiquitous flan" or luscious tarta de chocolates. The owners of Dalí also run Tapéo at 266 Newbury St. (tel. 617/267-4799), between Fairfield and Dartmouth streets in Boston's Back Bay. It offers the same menu and similarly wacky decor in a more sedate two-level setting.

Copyright: Excerpted from Frommer's Boston 2009, (c) 2008, Wiley Publishing, Inc.

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