Xunta – Tapas España

What a great find! The service, food, and atmosphere were all terrific. If you looking for a great tapas restaurant, look no further. The short ribs, dates, and everything we had was awesome. The place is a little small and loud, but this isn’t a big deal. We will absolutely be back again!

My girlfriend and I went here last night and parking was so easy, just behind the restaurant and free! Our entire experience was great, we shared four tapas (croquettes, skirt steak, chicken Kebabs, and spicy potatoes — which Carmen recommended to us and they were amazing) and had dessert. The food was perfect and the prices were even more perfect. We will definitely be coming back!

The first time I went the food was very good but the waitress was awful. She was pushy while recommending all the most expensive items on the menu, dropped a plate, and the service in general was not good. The second time I went with 4 adults (including myself) and one well behaved child. They were busy but we were the only people who would have been waiting for a table. The same waitress took one look at the child and told me they could not accommodate us– not 20 minute wait but just NO. I found it rude.

First and foremost, I want to say that the food was amazing. Everything was delicious and I would it was priced right for the portions.
Now to the bad part.
I’ve never encountered a more rude and nasty wait staff than I have in this place.
Living and working the the West Essex area for the past 20 years, not only do I eat lunch at most of the restaurants in the area, I also take business associates out to dinner at most area restaurants.
Sad to say that this was the first and last time I will step foot in this restaurant.
Its a shame.

What an incredible find!!! We were seated right away without reservations on a Thursday night. My party ordered the Serrano Croquettes — DELISH — what a way to start the night. Then we ordered the perfectly cooked skirt steak, squid in ink, manchago cheese, and finished it off with CHURROS… Absolutely delicious! Make sure to bring a well balanced wine as its BYO. Great find, highly recommend, and will definitely be coming back. if going Fri/​Sat it was recommended to make reservations.

The food here is all delicious and tastes authentic. The atmosphere is cozy and perfect for a date night. The service is good as well with quick service and waiters that check up on you often enough. I have been here several times already and plan to keep coming back here as often as I can.

Great food, pleasant staff. Very clean. Will definitely be coming back. Brought our own wine and had them make sangria. Delicious!

Came here last year with a girlfriend for a small celebration and ordered 6 – 7 small plates. I remember being pretty impressed with some of the dishes but was not particular fond of the skirt steak dish. We also ordered the mussels, chicken, and croquettes, which were good. I can’t remember the other dishes. The churros were good too but probably not worth the price. I do plan on coming back, but I will also be searching for other tapas places in the area.

Really loved this place!
My friend and I started out with their cheese and meat plates. Perfect for sharing and really great flavors in the cured meats. The manchego cheese was great and served with a little date purée. They were a perfect compliment. Next on to multiple tapas.
My favorite were the prawns! A light sause with just a little kick of spice at the end. It was wonderfully presented and just the right amount of food. Their BYOB policy made it easy for us to enjoy a good compliment of wine with the dinner. If you are going to try and wine pair I would reccomend bringing a bold or spicy red and a easy drinking white; this way you can explore the seafood and the rest of their menu.
We will be back!

Everything is delicious! BYOB and for wine they can turn it into Sangria :)
Small restaurant with incredible service and the food is unbelievable !

Wandered in here completely by accident the other night and am more than happy we did. This is a small, well decorated place with great food and outstanding service. In interest of full disclosure, it was around 6PM on a weeknight and they were pretty much empty. Not sure of how that might change on weekends because we were told they get packed, as they should.
I have some sort of cuisine ADD. For me, small plates with a variety of textures and tastes work best to hold my gastronomic interest. I also love BYOs because my taste in wine tends to run high and I would rather not fork over a couple of hundred dollars for something I can pay $ 60 or $ 70 for at Bottle King.
This place wins on both levels.
It’s always great stumbling upon someplace local with no preconceived notions and being thrilled with the outcome. I have already recommended them to a few friends and will certainly be paying them another visit in the not so distant future. While parking is a bit of an issue, I assure you that it’s well worth the search for a spot. We will see you again soon, my friends :)

Have been to Xunta numerous times with just my wife and I, with couples. Family of 11 and party if 45 men I am restaurant chair. This is my go to place for tapas from Galicia region of Spain. By now I think I have eaten everything on menu and all excellent the kale beet salad is a must start the fish or meat are equally great in the skilled hands of chef owner Alfonso and the spicy potatoes are to die for. Hosted by Carmen who is very k knowledgeable of the food and her charm makes it a perfect place for week night or weekend. Byob but will give you mix for sangria with own wine. All In all must go and enjoy

Went here on a Friday evening; place is cozy and the décor is nice;clean lines with warm colors. really great photographs of Spain on the wall.
I am familiar with tapas and have had my share of them travelling to Spain so the menu wasn’t foreign to me.
I like that the serving sizes are spot on; the idea is to be able to nibble on various «plates» to get a variety of flavors while sipping on your favorite vino/sangria.wait staff is attentive but not intrusive.
My dining companion and I ordered 5 tapas; the croquettes and stuffed piquillo peppers were the best of the bunch; I felt the pork tenderloin and empanada were flat in flavor. Speaking of the empanada. it reminded me more of a pastellito than of the empanadas I have eaten because it was wrapped in almost a puff pastry type of dough instead of the half moon pockets I’m used to but that could just be my ignorance on Spanish empanadas as opposed to Carribean types I have had. The dates stuffed with blue cheese and wrapped with bacon were served at such a high temperature it was difficult for me to discern the flavors so that was a bit of disappointment for me.
5 tapas came out to $ 50+ bucks not including tip.
I left my wine bag at the establishment; when I realized I had left it there and arrived about 30 min later it was gone.bummer.
I would give this place another shot because I like that it strictly focuses on Spanish tapas; I will order different things and see how that goes.

The menu has gotten better since I’d been a year ago. This time I took my 7 year old along because he has a good palate.
Also love the fact that 80% of the items are gluten free.
We ordered the bacon wrapped, blue cheese stuffed dates. Teeny tiny yummy plate but very delicious. Loved the reduced balsamic glaze.
Next was the mushrooms in brandy and onions, didn’t really need this dish. It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t needed.
Racion of brazed short ribs– overpriced at $ 23 but succulent and perfectly balanced in tenderness and flavor.
The chicken was too spicy for us to enjoy but they offered to redo the dish which was very gracious. The re-​do was still very flavorful and much more palatable for a kid.
Dessert– my fave Santiago cake.

Quickly seated, attentive staff, lots of options. A few of the dishes were underwhelming but their spicy potatoes are incredible. My boyfriend’s pork tenderloin with potatoes were also great, according to him. Great dessert options & they make sangria out of your BYOB wine.

This is an update to my previous 4 star review. This restaurant has only gotten better. The food quality, service promptness and staff is outstanding. It’s a real treat! Five stars!
I really liked the mussels, mushrooms, potatoes and skirt steak. Wow!

Great tapas place!!! We made reservations for 7pm on Friday night and the restaurant wasn’t very busy when we arrived. It filled by 8pm tough.
We parked at the back and entered the restaurant through the back door. We passed by the open kitchen that looked very clean and organized — great first impression.
We ordered 4 tapas for 2 of us and all of them tasted amazing! It was croquettes filled with Serrano ham and cheese, dates stuffed with blue cheese and wrapped in bacon, skirt steak and chicken empanada. The smoked paprika sauce that came with croquettes was amazing! The skirt steak was made to perfection!!!
We ordered almond lemon cake for dessert — it was the right level of chewy and soft combination.
The place is BYOB so then bill was very reasonable given the quality of good.

Great Tapas. These tapas are Galician style, slightly different ways of preparing things than I’ve experienced before.
Patacas bravas, larger pieces of potato tossed in the aoili, really delicious, some pieces were a little undercooked; Morcilla (blood sausage) great texture and flavors, complimented by sauteed onions; Croquettas, perversely cheesy and delicious; Cheese plate, a nice variety, loved the drunken goat. Bacon wrapped dates with blue cheese, sweet and savory;
The Sangria is really awesome too, we went with a young portugese wine to accent the fruit flavors.
The service was okay, a little short with us at times. We ended up ordering about 9 plates for the table, it was more than enough. Really nice experience.

Xunta was the first time I had a true tapas dinner and we’ve now been back three times!
It’s BYO and they will make you a pitcher of sangria with your bottle of wine for $ 12 so buy a cheap bottle next door at Jack’s and get the full experience.
We were hesitant at first not knowing how much to order. For two of us we found 5 – 6 things was good. Some are smaller portions than others despite all being the «tapas» size. For example, the spicy potatoes are a huge pile but the dates are 4 – 5 small dates. Might be trial and error at first but that’s part of the fun of tapas.
My favorites so far are the spicy potatoes (good to order while you’re looking over the menu), chourizo a prancha (small size is one link, so good you should just go for the racion size) and the stuffed dates (small but very flavorful). YMMV but I didn’t think the pan con tomate or the drunken goat cheese were worth the price.
There is a parking lot in the back and you can come in the rear entrance.
They take reservations — may not be necessary for two as I haven’t seen the place full yet but for larger parties you may need the advance notice.

We were a group of 8. The restaurant is a small place, very nice décor and impressively clean.
The service was excellent, our waitress was well versed in the menu items.
We had many tapas and they were all delicious ! (patatas bravas and short ribs were outstanding).
They make sangria with your wine, really good !
A great experience at Xunta, love this place, we will return soon !

Went with a party if 3 and we all thought the food and the portions were excellent. The Sangria was average so next time I’ll pass on that and drink the wine straight. My only issue was the service. Walked in and a few empty tables and they asked if we had a reservation which we didn’t. They acted like they were expecting some reservation back up and for 30 minutes nobody came in and place was empty a little while later. Come this isn’t Il Milulino. The waitress seemed as about a disinterested server as I’ve ever seen and tough to find. She also forgot and order and shrugged it off like it wasn’t a big deal. Very unprofessional
With better service with a decent attitude an easy 4.

One of my favorite restaurants in Essex County. I try to order something different every time I come. It’s a great place for special dinners or to take a date. My favorite dishes are the short ribs with cilantro rice and the spicy potatoes. The short ribs are extremely tender and the meat basically falls apart. The spicy potatoes taste better than the ones I’ve had in Spain! All the dishes are simple, but still loaded with flavor. For dessert, try the caramel stuffed churros. It’s a great way to end your dinner. BRING WINE — probably the best sangria I’ve every had.
I would suggest making reservations, since it can get crowded at times.

Eh. I don’t get the hype. I was actually really pumped to try this place based on the reviews but was totally let down. Came here with a few other people and got a ton of stuff on the menu so we can try different things: the octopus, skirt steak, mussels, empanadas, croquettes, and scallops. Whomp whomp only really liked the skirt steak to be honest. The octopus had a weird flavor and was really fatty, the mussels had meh flavor, and the scallops were good but weren’t anything to trite home about. Its BYOB, they made our wine into sangria for $ 12 and it didn’t seem that strong.
Other than that the atmosphere is great lol. Glad I tried it for the experience but never going back there. Way too pricey for a meh experience.