Capitan Torres Spanish Restaurant

For $ 40 I had disgusting food, had prawns that were over cooked. Garlic bread that I could of bought from KMart, the service was horrid & slow. The host was only nice & talkative to Spanish speaking folks. It was dead inside but still slow. Just one of the worst food experiences of my life. The staff on a slow night at least could of been talkative. Considering it was Saturday Night. Lol!

I was so thoroughly unimpressed with this place. From the staff, the layout, the food and the overall atmosphere.
The layout of this restaurant is really quite bad. All the tables and chairs are so damn close together you can’t get in or out and waitstaff can’t even bring you your food properly. If they took out a few tables I really think it would improve the comfort of diners as well as ease the staff a little bit. Seriously, when two chairs were back to back both tucked in as much as they could be there was about 10 cm between them. Ridonk!
The food. Meh. I ordered a steak with mushroom sauce, vegetables and onion rings. It honestly looked like something my grandmother would dump on a plate when she was in a rush. The mushroom sauce was watery, the potatoes that came with it were boiled (yuck!), and the steak was like eating leather. The rest of my mates seemed to enjoy the tapas dishes they selected, probably should have gone down that road.
The food is fairly over-​priced for what you get, I would honestly rather head up to Encasa on Campbelll street where I know the food, staff and prices are excellent.

Well this place has a lot to learn about customer service.
We turned up to this place and stood in a line as workers buzzed past. We finally got to the front and we seems to be ignored. Once we where acknowledged we had been pointed at the rear of the restaurant to tables that had not been cleared. When we tried to approach the person who pointed to this location they went about their business with little interest in us.
I would not recommend this place to anyone…

Very good Spanish restaurant! Though I haven’t been to any other Spanish restaurant… Still quite enjoy dinning here!
Meet ball is juicy and tasty!

After my not-​so-​successful last trip to the Spanish Quarter for tapas, this was a good find. We were supposed to eat at Encasa, but apparently they’re closed Sundays… oh well. So we decided to walk down the Spanish Quarter to find a replacement. Capitan Torres had several tables occupied, and I’d heard from a friend that her friend had recommended it (old school word of mouth, yo) so we decided to come here.
Upon entering, it’s like stepping into a dark pub from the Old World. Then we were ushered into another room, which gave us more relaxing in a villa-​type vibes, which was good since we were there for dinner.
We ordered:
— garlic shrimp. Very fresh. Now I used to be highly allergic to shrimp (couldn’t breathe, ER visits, that kinda thing) which I have fortunately gotten over. BUT every time I eat shrimp, if it’s the slightest bit not-​fresh I start getting itchy. With their shrimp — not an itch.
— chorizo!!! Mmm. Probably the best chorizo I’ve ever had (and I’m a sucker for chorizo.) Super tasty.
— garlic bread. Again, another tasty dish.
— paella. This was just OK for me, but my mom liked it. While the menu only indicated a price for two people, we ordered a single-​person serving.
— patatas bravas. This is probably the weakest link here. I prefer Miro’s down the road.
Now, this was a LOT of food. The prices were a leeeeetle bit higher than some of the tapas places I’d been to, but the serving size was also noticeably larger. And the food quality was also above average. Definitely good value for money. My mom said that it was better than some of the places she’d tried in Spain. Hmm. Never been to Spain so can’t comment on that.
Good service, great ambience. Overall good resto, a new fave in the area. It’s a toss-​up right now between this and Miro’s.

I stopped in because it was handy where I had to go next, and they had outdoor tables and I felt like people-​watching.
The waiter, a genuine Spanish bloke, made me feel comfortable, and immediately suggested some dishes and drinks. Some people may hate being told what to order, but from my time in Europe I quite like it when a server at least puts on the pretense of suggesting things I might like.
I declined some of this pricier options, but took his suggestion of the grilled flounder; the Spanish know seafood. And it was very good: lightly battered, grilled just right, flaky and tasty and moist. The side salad was big and crunchy, the bread was plentiful (though a bit stale), and the red wine he said he’d bring me was quite fine.
A long-​term regular set next to me and started to chat. He’s been going there since 1976; I figure that says something. He said that although the place has Chinese owners now they still know how to make a proper Spanish meal because of some of the long-​term staff. They maintain a European feel and obviously don’t want to mess with that success.