Lizarran Tapas Restaurant

Good beer, nice place, would be better if the tapas came around more often. We tried the all you can eat tapas for 20 bucks and the plates only came around twice. Not really worth it. Maybe they’ll get better down the line…

LIZARRAN SUCKS!!! I went a few months ago with 3 other people. We were literally the only people there on a Thursday night. It took close to an hour for our food to be served. And that was waiting for 20 minutes just to have our order taken.
The food was super bland so we tried to send it back only to be told that Spanish food is supposed to be bland. Ummm okay. I lived in Spain and the food over there was flavorful and delicious. This food was practically tasteless. They didn’t even offer to do anything to correct the situation even though each of us had taken a couple of bites it was so bad. Instead they just gave us the bill for the full amount. My family owns a restaurant and if you’re not satisfied with your meal we will not charge you for it. I guess from lack of customers they must have been hurting for the money.
I wasn’t looking for a free meal, especially since I barely ate any of it, but some sign that they felt badly about the situation would have been appreciated instead of a crappy attitude from the waitress.
After asking to speak to the manager I was referred to the owner who promised to send me a gift card so we might give Lizarran’s another chance. I’m not too sad that she never sent me one since the experience was so horrible I don’t think I could bring myself to repeat it anyway. And just in case this gets deleted, I’ll be reposting it to Unilocal

Having lived in Madrid for awhile, my fiancé and I are always looking for a good tapas place. We’ve probably been to 30 or so tapas restaurants all over the country, and while there are plenty of good restaurants out there, we’ve never found something that tasted like Spain. Until now.
After dinner, we talked with the owner, who told us that Lizarran is actually a Spanish restaurant (150 locations in Spain), so they go back to Spain regularly for training, recipes, etc. I suppose that explains the good food.
We ordered the tortilla, which was by far the best I’ve had at any restaurant in the States. We also ordered the croquettas, which weren’t quite as good as I’d hoped, but again the best I’ve had here.
The sangria is not on the menu, but is strong and good, and pretty inexpensive ($ 5.10 for a huge glass).
We also walked up to the bar to get a few pintxos. They’ve got a cool system where every pintxo has a toothpick, and at the end of the night they count your toothpicks ($ 1.75 each). We had the anchovies, crab cake, fried shrimp, salmon, tuna-​stuffed pepper, and manchego con membrillo, all of which was good, most of which was authentic.
Finally, of course, we had chrros con chocolate, which again were the best I’ve had in this country. And for $ 6, the serving is pretty big (10 small churros).
So all of that food, plus sangria, for around $ 44. Not quite the prices you’d get at a bar in Spain, but definitely the food you’d get.
Please come try Lizarran. They deserve all the business they can get.

We went to this place because a friend of mine had a gift card from the place.
Tapas are a 7 out of 10
We ordered the paella which is the staple of Spanish food and it was not very good.
The service was horrible. Took us 30 mins each time we needed something from the waiter.
The worst thing of all was that, with the gift card we could have covered everything plus over 20% tip but the restaurant told us we could not charge the tip to the GC. My first thought was: Screw you, get the tip from the GC or do not get any tip. But my friend was more polite and he gave the remaining balance to another friend that was dinning there.

2.5 stars at most… at best…
I love tapas bars with great sangrias and wines. Finding a local one was quite exciting, until I actually had the tapas and sangria here at Lizarran.
I had a cold plate with meats and cheese. Being a cheese lover, I thought I would at least like one of the cheeses that were served. Sadly, none stood out. The hot plates I had were both potato dishes. One was croquettes and the other was oven roasted with a drizzle of sauce. Again, neither were memorable. By this point, I was so despondent that all three dishes were disappointing, I didn’t bother ordering anymore~
As for the sangria, I give that another «meh»… I’ve been making fresh, delicious sangrias for years, and quite frankly, Lizzaran sangrias aren’t worth mentioning. I’ll leave it at that.
As for the service, that deserves a 2.5 stars as well. I’m not sure if she was the hostess or the server, or what, but the girl who sat us was not friendly at all. It was fairly early and we were basically the only other table in the restaurant, and felt like we had a sign that read plague on us when we were seated. Yeah, not the greatest feeling, but I blew it off because I was excited for tapas and sangrias! Sigh… Our server was a little but friendlier but not by much. Two hours into our experience, when it should have been packed for dinner service, the place was still void of tables. Makes you wonder if the place is empty because of the food or the service~ Truly sad…
I really really really wanted to like this place. Close to home, decent prices, tapas and sangrias. But it was all just wishful thinking. Still craving decent tapas and sangrias…

Tasty Tapas with a twist. I love the serving technique. Cold and Hot topas, and great Sangria make this place a great place to have dinner with friends. The best part is that you can really control your cost of your meal.
I absolutely love the flavorful sausages.

Tapas… really aren’t my thing. Boyfriend wanted them. We stopped by Lizarran on NYE while scoping out the Fullerton event. The place was crowded, but not packed. The wait was pretty quick.
I ordered an Arroz con Leche, because a friend of mine talked about it on facebook. It’s a dessert and was wonderful!
Boyfriend ordered this potato thing that was also awesome, along with the mixed platter of assorted meats and cheeses. It was okay, I think the bacon looking thing was the best tasting of all, even though it was totally chewy.
Service was… ok. Our waitress must’ve been new, because she forgot our orders and had to come back a few times to confirm. She was sweet though, so it’s hard to dock any more points for her lack of experience.

Tapas Tasting
I’ve been on a mission to find an awesome place to enjoy good company and even better tapas. While driving past all the college infested bars and restaurants in DTF, we spotted a quaint little tapas restaurant called Lizarran.
We made our way back towards their direction since we scoped out a few other swanky joints in the local vicinity. I was glad to find free parking virtually everywhere. The brisk walk to the front door was minimal. Now, where to sit? An unarmed host stand or lack thereof makes me a bit nervous.
After being told to find a seat anywhere by the bartender, we found a high top that was calling our name. Our server was nice and wiped the table since it was still dirty. He was nice and informative while he gave us a run down on how things work @ Lizarran. We made some menu choices and proceeded to the cold case where some tapas await.
The experience was okay and the overall service was more relaxed then I’m use to. The food was also pretty mediocre. The best part was the chicken wing appetizer. Though it was simple and easy to please the masses with, it did make our stay a tad better then it would have been. I would love to try their paella but I don’t think we’ll be back here. No real wow factor but hey… it’s worth a shot if your in the hood and feeling in need for a little random tapas adventure.

Thursday 19.99 all you can eat pintxos (small tapas with bread)
Sunday BOGO on sangria
Enough said!
Anyways I may be biased because I’ve been coming here for about a year and since I come with a group of friends (or the same people) frequently, the staff know who we are and always get free stuff if the food takes a little longer and get super deals. They’re always on top of their game with us!
The food is authentic to my knowledge, some things are too strange for my taste like the blood sausage.ugh. my bad
Best deal is the Grilled Chicken Breast with Veggies $ 14 and yes! you will get full! (Thats always my big concern with restaurants. too little? too pricey? nope! it’s very reasonable!)

2.5 stars… rounded down.
Liberty School (Cabernet Sauvignon) — not as dry as I’d like… but it was OK. I would never order this elsewhere, nor would I ever go looking for this wine.
Fried shrimp with aoli pintxos
2 types Sausage pintxos
— the waitress comes over with a platter of various pintxos (I think that’s what they were). She pronounced them «pin-​chess» because they were «pinched» with toothpicks she explained. They were all a little cold, and stale tasting. The fried shrimp tasted like they were sitting out for awhile. The aoli wasn’t that great. The baguette was cold and untoasted. I think overall, if the bread was toasted, and they were a little warmer, it would have made them better. However, I was starving and these saved my life.
Volcan de Morcilla — potatoes would be better if they were crispier. Egg was overcooked. It was suppose to be sunny side up… but when I tried to pop the yolk, it was almost cooked all the way through… it just «looked» like it was still runny… don’t you hate that? I’m guessing the Morcilla was the shredded meat thing… too salty.
Gambas al Ajillo — prawns in olive oil infused with chillis and sliced garlic, served with sliced baguette. The ONLY dish I enjoyed. Again, would feel a little better thought-​through had the baguette been toasted.
Ham platter — I forget the name but my BF loves this ham. It’s not too salty so I think a lot of people would enjoy it. However, I don’t think that Lizarran should get the full credit since I think they just purchase it and slice it. =P
Service — a little slow. Our waitress did not know the wines, or a wine for that matter. However, since she didn’t know what she was talking about, she did bring over almost all the red wines they had for us to taste.
Wine list — we were specifically in the mood for red wine so we weren’t very interested in looking at anything else. They have a pretty poor choice of red wines. We had to «settle.»
The tapas portions were a little big and their menu was a little difficult to navigate through. Nothing seemed too appetizing. Everything was a bit salty and the dishes didn’t seem to be well executed.
I don’t think we’ll be coming back.

Been going here for quite some time now. Good spot for a large group or an intimate lunch/​dinner with a special friend (live performances come dinner time).
But to be honest what keeps be coming back is not the tapas (although good) but the sangria. First time I had it here I became a fan of it. And it seems, to reward me for my frequent visits, they improved the recipe even more! I kid you not, this place hands down has the best sangria I’ve had (and I’ve had many).
And now for a little «how-​to» in ordering at this spot.
1) have the hostess seat you or you may sit yourself at the bar if seats are available (big groups I suggest the former and for dates, I suggest the latter)
2) order a pitcher of sangria
3) head over to the bar and grab a plate. The tapas are served fresh (most of the time) and you have the server behind the counter get you your tapas.
4) each tapas has a toothpick attached which you collect in a little cup
5) at the end of your meal your waiter/​waitress will take the cup and will charge you for each toothpick collected.
6) repeat step 2
The server also comes around to each table every so often to offer you «fresh out the oven» tapas as well. And usually the selection is delicious. Their is also a set menu that you may peruse if tapas is not your thing or doesn’t manage to fill you up. I recommend the Paella de Arroz Negro with a side of calamari.
So why only a 4 star review and not a 5? Well, the amount you get for the Paella de Arroz seems to have gone down since I’ve last visited. But all in all, my experience with the place has always been great (shout out to the sangria).

I love the concept of Tapas and have been to Ciudad in LA several times. However, I wanted to find something closer to home.
My friend found this place on
and we decided to go.
We had NO CLUE about their pintxos bar because our waiter DID NOT TELL US! Normally, when you go to a restaurant that offers something unique they ask you if its your first time there and they explain the concept. [Pintxos are small slices of bread with meat and/​or cheese placed on it held with a toothpick. Apparently, they have an area next to the bar where you can grab pintxos on your own and they also have servers who walk around offering pintxos as well. You are to eat the pinxtos and leave the toothpicks in a small jar to be tallied at the end of the meal.]
Thus, we ordered tapas from the regualr menu:
Albondigas con Tomate– Spanish-​style meatballs in tomato sauce — OK. Kinda too meaty tasting. Not flavorful enough.
Croquetas — Hand-​made deep fried morsels of chicken — These was yummy. Warm and gooey and oozing with cheesy goodness.
Gambas al Ajillo — Shrimp sautéed in garlic and olive oil — Yummy, but a little too oily. (We actually asked for bread to dip in the oil)
Soup Plato de Cocido — Tomato based stew or garbanzo beans, garlic, and Chorizo de León — Delicious. I loved the combination of the chorizo and garbanzo beans.
We also ordered a pitcher of sangria which was really good, but I really DID NOT enjoy their choices of «fruits» in it. They put slices of lemons and limes in it. Really? It was just odd, cuz you couldnt eat them as they were way too tart. I have never had sangria with either of those in it. Usually its peach, pineapple, pear and apple…
At one point, a server came to our table and offered us some pintxos from her platter. We each chose about 3 of them.
Bacon wrapped date — YUMMY!!!
Some type of Mexican sausage on a bread — YUMMY, even though it tasted just like a Slim Jim. LOLLL
Chorizo with melted manchego cheese on a bread — YUMMY!
Excuse our ignorance, but we assumed these items were complimentary until we saw the bill. Niether our server or this server explained to us that each item costs $ 1.75.
Dessert:
Molten Chocolate Cake — Dark chocolate cake filled with a dark chocolate truffle, served warm and topped with vanilla ice cream — Yummy. Soft, moist and chocolatey.
Tarta de Santiago — Almond cake. — BLECH! Dry and not flavorful. DO NOT ORDER.
All in all, we enjoyed this place despite the pintxos confusion. We will definitely be back here.

We were in the mood for tapas and decided to try a new place. So here we are.
It was different from other tapas bars we have experienced. Cold tapas were displayed by the bar; and you walk up to it and point out what you like and take it back to your table. Seems they specialize in cold tapas, rather than hot. Hot tapas come out from the back when the giant cowbell rings. It does not ring often enough. I prefer hot over cold tapas, but what we had were pretty good stuff.
You have a choice of ordering from the menu, so I let my husband do all the ordering. We had:
Tabla de Embutidos — which is a vast plethora of Spanish cured meats — Yum!
Bacalao a la Vizcaina — codfish & clams dish. double Yum!
Grilled Asparagus
Salad with goat cheese
And of course Sangria. Pretty good, but on the lighter side.
Next time, will probably want to try the paella, it looks pretty tasty.

Their tapas selection wasn’t expansive, but what they had was declicious. Their menu didn’t tempt me as well, but you can never go wrong with paella and it was delicious.
The staff was friendly and I’d definitely come back here again.

The presentation here is excellent. There’s a bar, and nearby there are glass displays of various, colorful finger foods, which all look great. The interior is dark and one wall opens up to the view of downtown Fullerton. The service, I found, was extremely friendly and helpful.
My friends and I got to try a big variety of food once we got seated. I really enjoyed the calamari. The sauce is very tomatoey and fresh. I enjoyed their codfish as well. it’s hard to compare to other places because the food is just a little different than other places I’ve been to. I had several tapas… one of them was salmon with baby eels on them – very strange, but I did try it (I’ll try almost anything at least once) and it felt like noodles, but with protein. Certainly there are other stuff here that are more akin to the general public, but if anything, they’re unusual, authentic, and pretty tasty, although mostly salty for my taste.
Interior looks classy and on Saturdays, there’s a band. The music was pleasant, eating was fun (certainly novel), atmosphere was cheerful, and the price was about medium to high… it’s good to keep track of how many finger foods you’ve had, though, as they can really rack up.

We came to Lizarran last night after roaming around aimlessly at the Orange street fair and wanted something less crowded and minus all the drunk douches running around.
Very chill atmosphere inside overall and friendly service. They have flamenco dancers on Friday nights and a live band on Saturdays. They have some menu items, but most order tapas. There’s a bar with cold tapas and they bring warm ones to your table. I didn’t have the sangria, but I suppose I will try if I come back next time.
The food was just OK for me. The bacon-​wrapped dates were good, but a bit on the dry overcooked side. The cold tapas were tasty, but they are mostly all served on a baguette which just kind of blended everything together. And at the end, they count how many you ate by how many toothpicks are left at the end of your feast. Interesting system, but for $ 1.75 for each thing that’s on a toothpick? Rent must not be cheap. Mr. Lizarran, if you’re reading this, try doing 2 – 3 pieces on a plate and then just count the plates at the end. That way, every time I take a bite of something, I don’t feel like I’m swallowing money.
Overall, 4 for atmosphere, 2.5 for food, and I may or may not be back.

Let me start by saying… if you want me to seat myself, put up a sign that says that! My friend and I walked in last night and stood there… forever…then finally some guy yelled at us to pick a table and sit.
We sat. And then we waited a good 7 minutes or so for anybody to come over and talk to us. I saw people getting up and walking over to a bar area and coming back with food. I started wondering if we should just serve ourselves too?
Finally a man came over, gave us menus, and explained we could order from the menu, or we could walk over to the bar and get Pintxos for $ 1.75 each. Then he took off.
We went over to the Pintxos area, and nothing looked all that great to me… everything had ham, and I don’t eat pork. I decided to try some salmon crab thing served on bread… it was like sushi on french bread. I saw the man at the bar and asked him if we could have drinks. He said yes, I ordered Sangria, my friend got a glass of Merlot. As he was pouring our drinks, he carded us. So we went back to the table and got our ID’s, came back and he told us he didn’t want to see them now, he would come to the table to see them. So we sat down again.
We finally got our drinks. We were checking out the menu, waiting for my BF to show up (he was meeting us there) and the sun started to set and it was shining in the window and blinding us. We asked to have the shades lowered, we were told they are broken. So, we had to move tables.
Eventually BF showed up and then we had to wait another 15 minutes or so before anybody came to take our orders. At this point, I think we had been there about 30 minutes.
We ordered… green beans with ham, fried potatoes with spicy tomato sauce, garlic shrimp, and a salad of some sort. The green beans had little flavor, the shrimp tasted too fishy and it was too tough, the salad I didn’t try, but BF and my friend didn’t seem too into it… and the potatoes were awesome.
After we were done eating, we had to wait another 20 minutes or so for the waitress to come back… then we had to wait forever for the bill.
The bill was about $ 65 for the three of us… and none of us were that impressed with our food. Yes, the potatoes were great, but there is no way I would come back just to eat home fries with tomato sauce.

A group of us decided to try out a new restaurant in downtown Fullerton after work to have dinner and drinks. So far I’ve had good experiences at Tapas restaurants in West LA so I was ready to have a similar experience at Lizarran.
WORST restaurant I’ve ever been to!!!
First of all, the service was HORRIBLE. We were standing in the front to get seated and all the staff were too busy chit chatting with each other to even notice that new customers walked in. The restaurant had maybe 2 tables seated so all the staff members were too busy goofing off with each other. Eventually we asked them if it’s self seating and that’s when they noticed we were waiting. WTH? How rude!
Secondly, after we ordered our food and drinks, they completely forgot that we ordered a Sangria and after 20 minutes, we asked what ever happened to the drink we ordered. They said they forgot and made us one in less than 5 minutes. The Sangria maybe had ½ cup wine and the rest was filled with water or some sort of juice. It was the worst Sangria I’ve ever tasted.
Then there was our tapas and entrees. Everything was too salty or overly cooked and under cooked. One of the dishes we ordered was the Paella and the seafood tasted bland while the rice was borderline uncooked.
When we were ready to pay, the waitress brought out our check and never returned to take it. So after 30 minutes of waiting and trying to flag down either the manager (who completely ignored us because he was too busy talking) or the waitress, my friend finally went up to the manager and gave him our check. Why on earth would the manager himself not be so attentive to his customers? Again, RUDE.
We all agreed that this restaurant might not survive for a long time if they keep up with this type service and food. They need to get their act together or call in Ramsey Gordon to help them on how to run their business properly! Arrrugh!

I enjoyed the restaurant’s lay out. On a warm July evening, this place is perfect dining in partial sunlight. I can imagine it would also make for a pleasurable dining experience in the evening with all of the windows open.
The service is great, attentive and friendly. The manager/​owner who greeted us when we walked was very informative in regards to tapas recommendations and the menu in general. I was not blown away by the food perse but maybe it was the choices I made. I came with Eleana C. and we had the paella, tapas, and potatoe pie. I wish restaurant had their bacon wrapped dates that evening but there was some complication with the supplier.
I’m sure I’ll be back to try other food items (maybe the more adventurous items) and I am dying to try some of their desserts. Oh, one last note, the sangria is heavenly.

Been looking for a tapas place to call ‘our own’ ever since we moved from the Bay Area. Was excited to try Lizarran so I eagerly went to the UYE hosted by Alan S. The tapas here were not the ones I’m used to but they provided items which I AM accustomed to eating, just that it was on slices of bread served canapé style rather than on a plate or a baby-​sized sizzling cast iron pan.
I sampled quite a few of the items which are listed in AJ’s review. I particularly enjoyed the chorizo, the melted cheeses (3 of them I think), and the dates wrapped with bacon were to die for. The others were just ‘okay’ in taste and combination. I was really excited to try the bocquerones but the salted bocquerones (anchovy) which came on the same slice of bread overpowered the more subtle flavor of the vinegared one.
The crab stuffed red peppers weren’t bad but a tad too much mayonnaise for my taste. I did enjoy the baby eels although AJ put it best — the salmon was very thickly sliced making it hard to break a bite off with one’s teeth.
Like AJ my least favorite item of the night was the fried shrimp. It was very greasy and tasted like the oil it was fried in was old. I wish I had stopped and not tried the shrimp, but it was too late.
The sangria was flavorful and tasty although I didn’t detect much alcohol in it. None of us got a buzz at all and some of us were seriously lightweight drinkers. Still, I enjoyed it because it was just plain yummy!
The restaurant itself is bustling with energy if not a little sparse in décor, but perhaps that’s the way tapas restaurants are in Spain? I’ve only been to tapas bars/​restaurants outside of Spain on 3 continents so what do I know?