Bodega 13

Wow. What a great little find. Drive on up to carefree and try a bit of Paradise. The service was amazing! Food. To die for. Don’t even get me started about the beautiful ambience! Check this place out ! It’s MEWOW

Service gets a 5, the bartender was fabulous and very friendly.
Food was okay nothing phenomenal and we tried several dishes.
The patio is underwhelming. Nothing special, no view. It’s amazing that people rave about an outdoor patio with lights strung. That’s literally it.
Also it’s next to a cigar bar which smells from the outside, so if you like the scent of a stogie infiltrating your dinner I guess that the patio ambience for you, not so much for me

Mixed feelings about this place. Server was very friendly, but very slow (and the restaurant was empty). Some of the food items were wonderful (lamb, stuffed dates), some were so-​so, and some were not very good at all. We’ll probably try coming here again, but certainly in no rush to do so.

Somehow my previous review of this place disappeared? So to recreate a few of the things we ordered, lobster bisque promised pieces of lobster, I had one piece. Stuffed dates, 5 to an order, they think it’s, «fun» for you and your date to fight over the last one! –That is what the waitress told us. OK???
The beef tenderloin? 3 bites worth? Was it made of a royal cow for $ 14.00? My husband wanted to stop at Wendy’s on the ride home because he was still starving after $ 60+ in food. I get the tapas thing, but we ordered enough not to be hungry when we left. Go for drinks, not the food.

Bodega 13 Restaurant is a quaint little tapas style restaurant. Minimum comfort. Main dining room is in basement and outside patio. Kitchen is upstairs. Service was friendly. Portions are small and expensive. Tasty food. Would recommend for those who not too hungry and have «deep pockets».

This is a nice upgrade to the former Cellar 13 with expanded Tapas menu and a more complete wine list. It’s a cozy venue with a main level bar and group table, a downstairs dining area and nice outdoor patio area. The Tapas menu features dishes from all over the world and most are quite good tasting and well presented. I enjoy the ceaser salad, duck tacos, chicken skewers and most of the shrimp and meat plates. The Paella is also quite tasty. Live music on the patio on weekends.

The chorizo was out of this world good, and I don’t usually like sausage. Also, don’t miss the pork tenderloin.

Everything was wonderful — the hospitality — owner literally dragged us in from the street and are we ever glad he did! All the food was amazing!

The back patio is like a private Spanish courtyard. Service outstanding (owner is very personable). The chef is German and has won awards for several of his dishes. Duck taco, lobster bisque, Seafood paella all amazing. Pomegranates on the duck taco were delightful. An excellent example of the chef’s genius in the kitchen!

Every tapa dish was outstanding. Loved the music choice and ambiance of the back patio. Service was excellent as well. Best mark in Carefree, AZ.

I organize a once-​a-​month dinner outing for our condo complex called «Check It Out!». We experienced a great time, cool atmosphere, amazing food and warm and wonderful service. They treated us like royalty with beautiful plated food presented throughout the evening. I frankly loved the paella, although different from what I have experienced. It was a magically evening. The only regret is that I forgot to express this to the owner and staff before I left. I know I, personally will be back with friends. I left with 18 very happy members of our group with all of them saying this was the best of the lot. Thank you Bodega 13 for your very warm hospitality!

Great atmosphere and awesome food. Live music on some nights just adds to the atmosphere. Wes was a great server and really nice guy. I will be back for sure!

After visiting friends in the Carefree area this past weekend, we found this very cool little restaurant called Bodega 13. We stopped in for dinner and a glass of wine… The smoked scallop under glass with brie cheese was original and awesome! We also tried the lamb chops, chicken skewers, tenderloin with asparagus and mushrooms and grilled shrimp with pineapple. All were very good!

What a great find! Love the Paella, in particular. The staff is extremely friendly. Really enjoy the live music on the weekends.

Bodega 13 is a new hidden gem… it’s quaint and warm. Depending upon the night they have live music. The food is consistently good and wine list is great. Some items are a bit over-​priced. The wait staff are friendly and attentive. We have been 4 times now and will continue!

Everything was tasty & fresh! We had the salmon citrus salad, lobster bisque, glasses scallop & mussels. Lobster bisque was creamy with lots of lobster chunks. Mussels were tender in a light broth with garlic & tomato chunks. The live music was a bonus. We had a delightful evening sitting on the patio.

The good? The food was delicious. The bad? It’s pretty spendy. The lobster bisque was DELISH as was the smoked scallop under glass — but at $ 9 a pop, it’ll leave you wanting. Drinks were also tasty.
Another reviewer mentioned the cigar smell and we noticed it too. It is unfortunately pretty off-​putting to smell that while you’re eating. I’m guessing eating outside might be better?

What a refreshing change for Carefree/​cave Creek! The food is awesome. Service (Yanies!!!) is wonderful and the atmosphere is spot on. Love sitting at the bar or the chefs table — we are excited to go back for live music and seafood paella !! Yum

Well… We would like to say 4.5 but can’t. We are very finicky with our Spanish Tapas so they had a high bar to hit.
Starters: Caesar Salad, Lobster Bisque, Stuffed Dates and Scallop under glass. Good was the salad and soup. They were not bad but just good. I LOVE LOVE me stuffed dates. These had a little too much blue cheese for my liking and not enough wine reduction sauce which was very good. Now, I am not a big seafood person but WOW WOW WOW for the Scallop under glass. They smoke it with Applewood and add crab, truffle butter and lobster. It was a fantastic flavor. Must try this when you come! This was easily the star of the show!
Main dish: we tried the Chicken and Chorizo Paella. It was very good and just spicy enough. If we had to change one thing about it, we’d substitute dry cured Spanish Chorizo for the loose chorizo, but this was still really good.
Will be back for sure very soon!!! You will not disappointed if you like traditional Spanish and international tapas.

Wow! What a great experience. My family and I came here for my birthday and had a marvelous time. The décor was cozy and we loved the jazz playing throughout the night. After we sat, we chose a lovely wine from the extensive wine list and started deciding what to get. We decided to go for family style, sharing the tapas and small plates.
The marinated olives had great seasoning and were easy to share. The stuffed dates were as well. We ordered the mussels. This is a must get and must share! There were a lot of mussels in the bowl and the broth was rich. I like that they also gave us some bread to soak it up.
The duck tacos were a nice kick but hard to share (keep them to yourself ;)) and the lamp lollipops were hard to share because they were so good! They were ordered medium and came out cooked to perfection. Chicken tandori was also wonderful — we ordered twice. Great sauce to pair.
My mom who was dietary issues ordered the salmon salad — surprised on the portion but wow! The dressing was subtle yet so good. The salmon perfectly seasoned as well. The tomatoes were an awesome bit of acid
Honorable mention to the tuna tetaki with amazing wasabi potato salad. It was a perfect pairing.
Our server was so helpful and friendly. She even brought us a free duck taco! It was an awesome experience and we will definitely be back!

This was our first visit to the former Cellar 13. I didn’t so much notice a change upstairs, but downstairs the cozy lounge ambiance is gone. The new space has tables and chairs and some banquette seating — there’s a fair amount of space running down the middle, so it didn’t feel snuggly at all. Because it was nippy and — to us — the music on the outdoor patio was loud, we chose to eat at one of those small tables. There was a goodly crowd outside and about a third of the table downstairs were filled.
Service was quite good. Food was okay. In no particular order, we had: vegetable taco, scallop under glass, shrimp and chorizo, tuna tetaki, and stuffed dates. DH was drinking the Jade Mountain Merlot (they only offered one merlot by the glass) and I had the Edna Valley Pinot Noir.
The stuffed date was a POW of flavor. We could have eaten a dozen of these. The scallop under glass (mind you, ONE scallop) was tasty, but was presented too quickly. Our server whisked off the glass cloche and the smoke dissipated before we could get a good sniff although there was a faint smokiness to the perfectly cooked scallop. The tuna tetaki was perfectly seared. Basically, we found everything to be tasty, but for the dates, sadly under-​seasoned. (However, we have found this true of many restaurants in Carefree — they must ban salt at the town border!). DH finally did ask for and get a salt shaker.
So, we would return (although DH says we are bringing our salt grinder with us!), but we aren’t going to fall over ourselves to do so. It’s a good fall back for when we want something tasty and don’t want to travel too far or be in the mix at a large eatery. It is a bit on the costy side — we each had one glass of wine and our tab was $ 78.00. I do miss relaxing back in a comfy chair and nibbling and drinking, but I guess that didn’t work or Cellar 13 wouldn’t have gone away.

Yea tapas in the neighborhood! Finally a restaurant that isn’t bar food, pizza, or $$$! Good wine, good food.

We ended up running into this place tonight because another restaurant we had stopped at was absolutely rude and awful, so we left and found Bodega 13! It was fabulous! We had our 3 daughters with us, I loved the tapas style food. Everything we ordered was yummy! The service was exceptional. The wine was fantastic! Totally recommend the food, service & atmosphere in this place. Will most certainly be back!!!

I really wanted to give them 5 Stars as the staff was friendly and we need more great restaurants in Carefree, but I can’t (YET) for the following reasons:
I ordered a Margarita, and was told they had a blender. Server came back and said, «No blender, can’t make a frozen margarita». Ok, they’ve only been open two weeks and their staff hasn’t been trained yet, I can live without a frozen margarita.
So I ordered a mojito, as mojitos are my favorite. When it was served, it looked good but unfortunately it was undrinkable. Without a doubt the worst mojito ever, and I can’t even call it a mojito as it was so sour I had my server taste it so she could confirm. I didn’t order a remake as clearly the bartender does not know how to make a mojito. Again, maybe the bartender is still in training?
Sent it back and ordered Santa Barbara Chardonnay. Excellent wine. Highly recommended. No training needed to pour wine into a glass!
On to the food:
I specifically came for the lobster bisque. It was good as promised, with chunks of lobster meat. My partner ordered the minestrone. Very tasty.
2^nd course: beef tenderloin carpaccio with «greens». I had to do a double take as there was literally one teeny tiny piece of micro green (the size of a quarter) in the center of the plate as a decoration and no bread was offered OR served. HUGE disappointment. The meat was tender (no complaints there) but if the owner or chef is reading this review they need to visit The Scottsdale Quarter and order the beef carpaccio at Brio. I’ve NEVER tasted carpaccio as fabulous as Brio’s and they serve it with parmesan toasts and plenty of greens, which is the way carpaccio should be served!
3^rd course: tandoori chicken. 4 small pieces of chicken (2″ long) best described as tasteless. My first bite was crunchy and I thought for a minute that I was eating a shrimp, but then I realized it was RAW chicken so I quickly spit it out. However, the other 3 pieces were cooked through, so I did not complain.
My biggest complaint, which I DID mention to my server: the tables are too low. (At first I thought maybe the bench seat was the problem, but I also tried sitting in a chair and still the table was too low) Sitting for an hour was very uncomfortable. I was totally hunched over my food and someone needs to rectify this issue otherwise no one is going to want to sit downstairs. In fact, we were the only diners downstairs. Perhaps the upstairs bar and the high top tables on the patio are more comfortable?
Bottom line: we left hungry and disappointed. Because it is located next door to a cigar bar, the aroma of cigar smoke as you enter and exit is not an ideal situation.
NOTE: we did not smell the cigar smoke downstairs but outside on the front and back patios you can definitely smell cigars. So if they don’t raise the height of the tables so you can sit comfortably inside, then I don’t know how they are going to make it. Tapas bars are tricky. When you are spending a lot of money for a little bit of food you need to have something special to lure customers in. The atmosphere is funky cool and the piped in music is retro fun but the food needs some work. Again, it’s only been two weeks so I’m hopeful they will get the kinks worked out while I get the kinks worked out of my back from hunching over my food. LOL
I think Bodega 13 is an unlucky number but I wish them luck. If they raise the table height and serve their carpaccio with Parmesan crisps and some greens I’d most definitely return!

Cellar 13 closed in May and a wonderful new Tapas restaurant has turned the place around with a whole new look, great outside dining in the back patio with live music on Fridays and Saturdays. The lobster bisque is to die for; having huge chunks of lobster in it. The lamb chops are amazing having a tasty marinade on them making you want more. The bacon wrapped dates are great with blue cheese. Next time I want to try the Paella which looks wonderful and very large. Best crème brûlée I’ve ever had slightly warm and so very fresh. Great service everyone even the owner wants you to be comfortable and makes sure you are happy. There is a full bar and a great selection of good wines. We will certainly return soon.

Stopped in on a whim after stopping next door for cigars. Decided to celebrate my birthday and ordered the mussels, bacon wrapped dates, carpaccio and a bottle of Smashberry wine. All delicious. The mussels were excellent and fat in a nice sauce. Loved the Smashberry vintage. Just wish there were more of the dates! :)
Then the Seafood Paella arrived complete with smoking sage! Really good with big chunks of lobster, mahi-​mahi and shrimp. Delicious!
We loved the old Cellar 13 and missed it a great deal. So happy the location is open and serving up wine and tapas next to the Maduro cigar shop!

First visit this evening. Really happy to have a new addition in town and hoping for a good meal.
Service — prompt and efficient
Menu — tapas and choices felt unsatisfying and lacking somehow.
Flavor — quite good. Ordered the shrimp and chorizo, salty but good. 2 shrimps, $ 10. Served with one measly price of French bread… Olives, about 8 with two pieces of small artichoke heart and some red pepper and 1 piece of bread… $ 6, that’s fine. Caesar salad — approximately ½ cup of lettuce to the order $ 8. Tandoori chicken — good flavor. 4 tenderloins at $ 9 (I believe). Probably the best value. All in all the food was fine but, a terrible value. I have no problem paying but, give me value! ½ a cup of lettuce… really. That’s garnish not a salad and 1 slice of tiny bread? An okay but measly meal — we left hungry. Came home and ate cheese and salami. Funny the table next to us asked for more bread and were told they would be charged for it. They passed. I’ve been to loads of Tapa’s bars and never been serves such tiny amounts.

Great tasting food in a neat space. The bacon wrapped dates are fantastic! Best thing is you can order a few things to try and not feel gorged. Definitely will be coming back on a regular basis.

What a pleasant surprise and evening. We decided to give this restaurant a try. This is the third night since it’s opening and all I can say is WOW. The food was amazing. We tried 5 different items (it is a tapas bar) on the menu and each one was superb. Duck tacos, chicken skewers, tuna tetaki, lamb lollipops (2 orders… they were that good), lobster bisque (wish it had a bit more cream in it). It is difficult to pick a favorite because each was excellent. Love the wine choices we made too. We just moved to Carefree and we will go to Bodega 13 often.