Welcome back Phins to this week’s From Pham to Table. This week’s featured restaurant is Laci’s Tapas Bar.

 

Laci’s Tapas Bar is Syracuse’s only tapas bar with a multitude of different dishes available to taste. When you walk up to the restaurant you are greeted by a beautiful fire engine red door with signature ”LC” door handles. Inside the restaurant, it’s dark, cozy, comfortable, and above all, intimate. Inside as you walk in you are greeted by the host who’s absolutely bubbly and sincere. She’ll bring you to your table and introduce you to your server for the evening with a flourish. I will warn you, if you don’t have a reservation especially on weekends, you might not be able to get a table as it’s very busy.

 

Now if you haven’t eaten at a Tapas restaurant before, it’s different from a traditional sit-down restaurant. The dishes are intentionally small but the flavors are significantly more intense and flavorful. It’s designed for sharing between people, so two people might get four dishes to start with to split and they might go back for additional plates. The food does come out as soon as it’s ready but spread out over time, so you might get one dish to say every 5 minutes so. It’s a beautiful experience and I personally highly enjoy this type of eating because it allows for discussion and conversation about the dishes throughout the meal.

 

My friends and I split a total of 7 dishes between us and we felt more than full and satisfied from the options that we tried. They got us started with their signature infused cucumber water and a sample of their Laci’s Luscious Sauce. The sauce itself is so hard to describe but it was perfect in all senses. It had the right amount of tang, sweetness, saltiness, and umami.

 

We were introduced to their drink menus which is pretty expansive. They had a large option of wine, which includes countries of origin such as Spain, Italy, South Africa, New Zealand and a mixture of domestic wines as well including a few local ones. They also had multiple drink flight options such as wine flights based upon regions, beer flights, liquor flights as well. I personally had the Black Cherry Mojito which had the perfect blend of cherry to lime.

 

In terms of the tapas, the menu is divided up into multiple categories. The options include carnivorous tapas, herbivorous tapas, tapas of the sea, sliders, flatbreads, salads, and soups. They also have options that can be made gluten or dairy free with multiple options for vegans as well.

 

For the carnivorous tapas, we had two plates. The Chipotle Chicken Tacos, which are served with roasted sweet potatoes, corn and ginger aioli. The added chopped up roasted sweet potatoes added a nice touch to the dish and the corn was fresh and sweet.  As well as the Duck Drumettes which are Maple Leaf Farms duck drumettes, with a sweet Thai chili sauce. The sauce was a perfect pairing and duck is known for being oily and these weren’t at all!

 

The herbivorous tapas surprised me by being my favorites of the night. We had the Butternut Squash Risotto, which is exactly what they sound like. It’s the perfect texture balance and I could eat probably a hundred of these if I could. They were just that good! The college kid in me couldn’t help but order the Mac n’ Cheese Eggrolls, which had a dip of smoked paprika aioli. These were perfect in terms of the right amount of gooeyness inside from the cheese and the crunch of the eggroll wrapper. We also had the Brie to start with which is served warm with a raspberry jam and fresh pear and apple slices.

 

For sliders, we tried the Spanish Sliders which were served with garlic aioli, cheddar cheese, tri-colored peppers, and caramelized onions. These were perfectly cooked and I’ve never had a better burger in my life!

 

We were also served the Luscious Pig flatbread, which had shredded pork, mozzarella cheese and their signature Laci’s Luscious sauce. These were interesting but the texture of the pork could have been more finely shredded or tenderized. This, unfortunately, was my least favorite dish of the night and I had higher hopes for this.

 

I took a look at the after dinner and dessert menu but I honestly was too full for any more. If I could I would have tried the Hot Irish Kiss which is a coffee-based alcoholic drink made with fresh coffee, Jameson Irish Whiskey, Amaretto, and Frangelico. The desert that almost made me order it was the Brownie Bite Heaven which is served with a bourbon whipped cream.

 

All in all, my expectations, for the most part, were met, and then some! The atmosphere was lively without being overwhelming. The servers and host were impeccable. The food and cocktails were great. Something to note that it is a little more expensive than some other restaurants out there in Syracuse but when compared to other tapas bars I’ve been to, the price is similar or on par.

 

I can’t wait to come back and try their other dishes and any of the new dishes that they rotate in and out!

 

I hope this inspires you guys to check out Laci’s Tapas Bar sometime and to try out some of their amazing dishes! If you do, tag me with #FromPhamToTable