Meson Ria de Vigo

Excellent Spanish restaurant. We are repeat customers, and we particularly enjoy de Zarzuela de Mariscos, although just about everything we’ve ever ordered is out of this world.
If you go on Friday or Saturday night, Jaime (‘the Catalan Gipsy’) will entertain you with classical spanish songs and lively banter.
Not to be missed.

I visited this restaurant on October 24^th, 2014. The food was incredible. I ordered Dorada a la Sal and it was just perfect. The boquerones, croquetas, and papas alioli were awesome. We had a great time with the music. The guitar in the background was very pleasant. And then the show began with Jaimito and his castañuelas and typical Spanish songs. We knew them since we frequent Spain. Totally recommended.

I can see how the ratings can go from 1 star to 5 stars, went with the wife and would revisit, but it was not something I left saying to myself, «we have to come back» I am not a fan of rest. that have the live mariachi wannabe music or Spanish classical or what ever you want to call it, I like to carry a conversation with people when I eat. Now for the food: it was good, but I can honestly say, I don’t remember what I ordered. My wife was in love with her appetizer. For me its a flip of the coin, sorry, read other reviews for a better review on other food items.

The food is pretty good considering we were over 20 people. They were a little too generous with their salting of the steak. But everything else was pretty good. Attention to the customers was a little lacking as well. Did not bring in appetizers as asked.
I would like to see what they can do with a normal sized group.

First time here based on recommendation of good friends. I had the lamb shank, my wife had the rabbit stew, our friends had the churrasco and the cod. The portions were Huge! The waiter suggested a lovey dry citrusy wine and if was perfect with the meal. We had three orders of tapas, including a seafood cerviche, procuitto, sausge and cheese. It was perfect. The service was slow but not unappreciated as dinners in Spain are two –three hours routinely. We were there on a Saturday, not many eatingbut the music made the dinner even more enjoyable. The menu is vast and quite reasonable as our bill, including wine, beers, tapas, main course, with tip included was $ 180 for four. The staff was pleasant, the waiter excellent and very attentive. I’ll be back again soon

I am from Spain. When I saw in the menu that they have ceviche (a recipe from Peru that nobody cook in Spain) I felt doomed. And I was right. This is the worst Spanish restaurant I was in the USA.
The croquetas were frozen and industrial. That’s a sin in a Spanish restaurant, every chef is proud to serve its own recipe for croquetas.
The «pulpo a feria»… Well, for starters the name of the plate is Pulpo a feira. And for a restaurant called Ria de Vigo (a city from Galicia where this plate is a religion) should be ashamed by that mistake… And specially because it was the worst pulpo a feira I ever tasted. Horrible, we didn’t finish it.
We also tried the tortilla española, and the truth is it was good. Let’s say it deserves a 6,5 over 10, it was the only thing that you can tell that comes from Spain in this place.
The pimientos rellenos de bacalao where another bad choice.
The overall experience was a nightmare. You guys don’t deserve to have that name (Mesón Ría de Vigo) or to be an Spanish restaurant. Please, change it and become a Peruvian one, everybody will be happier and you will have more success. :(

If you are looking at the reviews you will notice contradicting ones. I would recommend you to go by the bad reviews and save your money. Hope that the owners take a minute to read this.
Let’s start:
The menu: very sneaky. The paella said 22.95 which was ok for two. When the bill arrived it was 22.95 each. That paella was not worth that. But more on that next.
The food: Tostones rellenos with shrimp were very hard. Shell refried. The souce bland and flavorless. The cod croquettes were alright. The paella was infamous. I made a better paella the first time I tried making one. The rice wasn’t the right texture. The flavors were not mixed. The seafood was mostly fish and calamari. Not good not even if it was 22.95
The ambiance: the music was horrible. Think romantic latin music from the 90s. The place also smelled weird.
We should’ve taken the hint by the place being empty. Never again. The owners need to step up their game or they will be out of the business soon.

This place is not deserving of an average of 4 stars.
We were a party of 4. We ordered two tapas plates and three entrees total, and split them. The entrees were decent – but the side dishes were straight from the freezer! I mean, crinkle-​cut fries and a «vegetable medley» that I could have bought at Costco? And you’re charging me $ 25 a plate?
Service was slow – but they happily decided to grant themselves an 18% tip anyway. Seriously? For a party of 4?
Real Spanish food does not come from a Sysco freezer bag. Go somewhere else for tapas. This place isn’t worth it.

While the food was great and the live entertainment was good the service was abysmal. The wine had a different price on the wine list compared to the check and then they produced a different wine list with the higher price. The server forgot one of our tapas and not once did he come to the table to pour the wine or ask if everything was ok or if we needed anything else. To add insult to injury the tip was included on the check. To bad bad service and dubious business practices spoil an otherwise good meal.

I have been to this restaurant a few times.
Mostly because they have a spectacular Executive Lunch special! For $ 9.95 you get a 3 course meal on weekdays. The food is excellent and there is never a wait to be seated.
Very authentic spanish cuisine and everything i have ordered has been great. The «crema de malanga» is outstanding. Parking is not ideal since the store front is right on coral way, but they have free parking for the restaurant across the street with validation.
It is ideal for business lunches or if you just feel like treating yourself in the middle of the week to gourmet cuisine at a very reasonable price.
Oh! and the sangria is AMAZING!

HOLY COW, the taste was amazing.
We tried 4 types of the Hot Tapas. Spinach Croquettes, Flaming Chorizo, Spicy Potatos, and Garlic Shrimp.
They even tossed in some Sangria at the end, that was smooth, and hit the spot.
Service: Outstanding, but don’t be surprised if your waiter doesn’t speak english.
Food Quality: Outstanding, everything tasted great, and was cooked to perfection.
Value: It is on the pricey side, but it’s worth it!

I mean, I am mostly rating the ambiance here because I don’t think I even stopped to eat, since I was entranced by the music. (Also, I was here the day before St. Patty’s, which means I had already started on the early «celebrating»)…
I don’t speak Spanish very well, and in my slightly inebriated state, I may or may not have grabbed the microphone and said something about how Albanians kiss better than all the Spanish speaking people in the world. Okay, I definitely did. Don’t blame a girl for being excited, man.
The bread was delicious and warm, and the butter that they offered had some sort of dried tomato and garlic taste to it… delicious.
The croquetas de bacalao were also amazingly delicious.
The chorizo tapas was okay; nothing too special.
The rest of what I ate is kind of a blur, but I remember thinking it was delicious.
HA! Just kidding. We also had the gambas al ajillo, which were kind of pedestrian… the same old recipe, executed in the same old way. We ordered the champinones – same comment as above.
Finally, we had the entrecot de novillo (young bull… I ate young bull)…which was okay. A little red for my preference, but very tender.
But the music was worth much more than the food. Fun ambiance.

sadly, meson has lost a star… actually, more like a star and a half.
the bread remains the same (thankfully), but the garbanzos fritos and the patatas bravas tasted really different, and not in a good way.
i can’t quite put my finger on what changed about these dishes, but they are certainly not as good as i remember and i was pretty disappointed upon leaving.

I was about to leave the place after 10 minutes. This is the bad part: ignored by the waiter first, then he came with almost an attitude.
We ordered a few tapas from the list. He came back a few minutes later saying they didn’t have a few of our selections. «get something else» he said, no apology.
My wife and I sort of overlooked it as we were were on a short 3 days getaway in Miami and were having a nice time, so my lovely wife kindly implored me «not to kick his ass»…talking about the waiter.
Things got better though.
Actually the waiter became more attentive and nicer, I don’t know if the change occurred when we started to speak spanish to him.
The food: the tapas were from okay to pretty good, no real miss, nothing to die for, but overall good. We then ordered an entrée, I had the filet mignon, my wife had some seafood mix. Her was very good, mine was poor. The meat was notjhing like a filet mignon, I left half of it (but I was also a little full because of the tapas).
The wine selection was poor quantity-​wise, however we tried a bottle of red and it was pretty good and at a very reasonable price. I am copying and pasting from my wine list commentary (I write down notes on wines so I have a «library» for personal reference):
RIOJA Campo Viejo Reserva Spain 2006 rate 3.5÷5.0 Grapes tempranillo 85% graciano 15%, Cherries oak, nice wine medium body
.
Hey, it’s just my personal note, I don’t rate wines for a living, so it’s short and to the point.
Anyway, the evening went on with a crème-​brule kind of dessert, that was nothing special, some live music and we were offered a taste of a peruvian strong liquor (pretty good).
Bottom line:
tapas: good, nice size
entrees: filet mignon big miss, seafood good
wine: not much to chose from, but we got a good one at good price (35)
service: sluggish start, we ended up having a nice conversation at the end with our server. I’ll rate it 3 overall.
Atmosphere: good for a date, intimate, quiet, nice for conversation.
Oh, final note: I put «casual» for dressing, as «dressy» was too much. However, consider a european or latin casual, not US. You might feel out of place in jeans and t-​shirt, even the waiters wear shirt and tie.
No need to go overboard with jackets/​suits, business casual will do.

The tapas were very good:
Croquettes: yummy
(the cheese, and the ham ones were good; the spinach was so-​so)
Fried plantains: yummy
Sausage: decent
Fried chick peas: forgettable.
Mushrooms: forgettable
The tuna salad was awful. The salad looked like high school cafeteria food and the tuna looked like it’s fresh… out of a can. Perhaps, we were there really early.
The waiter tried to be helpful except he doesn’t speak english well enough to explain the menu. It’s a little trying to order.
It’s nice to try it once, but I am not sure if i would visit again.

I visited with a party of 20, on a weeknight. The only others in the restaurant was another large party, celebrating a birthday. Despite overwhelming the kitchen, everyone was friendly and helpful. The food was exceptional; and, as we shared plates, it was impossible to keep track of what was ordered, everything I tasted was very good.
The restaurant is very small, but has an intimate feel to it. It’s quite unassuming from the street, don’t let it’s appearance deter you; you are in for a treat.

I went almost every weekend for a while for their paella with my parents. But the most special night we visited was for my grandmother’s birthday. My grandmother is from spain so she was excited to try this place we have been raving to her about. Lets just say this place is so authentic that my grandmother got emotional and burst into tears when the entertainment began while she was eating some tapas. It was beautiful and sad all at the same time.
I love this place for its authentic food and entertainment and warm ambience and service is outstanding! you get that family owned service. FIVE STARS!
Viva España! :)

I frequent this Spanish restaurant for 4 reasons:
1. the food (including the bread!)
2. the wine
3. the cozy atmosphere
4. the entertainment
The food: the croquetas are divine, the garbanzos fritos are delish, the patatas bravas are also very tasty. One of my aunt’s had what seemed to be a very good deep-​fried whole fish.
The wine: the last time we went we had a few bottles (we were a big group) of both red and white. Their house wines are very good.
The atmosphere: when you walk in, you are greeted by several members of the staff and you are catered to. The restaurant is small, but comfortable. The smell, decorations, and people make you feel like you’ve walked into a restaurant in the middle of Spain.
The entertainment: Starting at 8 PM on Fridays and Saturdays the restaurant hosts a flamenco dancer and guitar player. It is an amazing show! The only thing you need to do is reserve a table a few hours in advance (or maybe even a couple of days just to be on the safe side) and enjoy the show!
I really enjoy eating at El Meson and if you’re looking for real tapas, this is the place for you!

I came here for dinner and the tapas here were surprisingly good — and I say surprisingly good because I’ve had several ‘okay’ tapas from other Spanish places. The Spanish tortilla ($ 4.95), gambas al ajillo ($ 9.95), cazuelita with shrimp and mushroom ($ 9.95), and stuffed peppers ($ 9.25) were all tasty. For dessert, I had the $ 3 flan and it was good.
The service was good, and in case if you can not speak Spanish well, the owner who is bilingual would be more than happy to help you out with your order.
The ambience is that of fine dining and a sit-​down restaurant. There’s a patio in the back but it lacks an atmosphere if you asked me.
It doesn’t get a 5^th star for two reasons — the prices are kind of high for the portions you get and also the wine list need more wines by the glass option.
But otherwise, these are good quality tapas!

From the «tapas calientes» menu, the gambas al ajillo were fine, a bit too much oil but just enough garlic. The calamares fritos were done just right, crunchy and well done yet not chewy. The papas a la brava can be a touch spicier to make them really authentic but all in all quite acceptable. Tortilla espanola, yum… quite good.
This is a small place so do call ahead and make reservations or try a later lunch, you will have a very good dining experience. Their service is warm and friendly and I find it to be quite consistent which is a great plus.
All four Paellas are very good, just keep in mind that they take a while since they are made to order which is a good sign.