Taperia Raca

I popped into Taperia Raca last week for a quick bite with a friend. It was evening and we decided to dine al fresco in the casual outdoor space. I can’t wait to return and try more items on the menu! Taperia Raca is a tapas bar with an ideal selection of dishes from 4 groupings: cold dishes, hot dishes, cured meats/​cheeses and finally fried dishes. Note, Zak The Baker Bread is featured in several items. We ordered 3 dishes and all were delicious. Full of flavor and seasoned to perfection with unexpected little touches in the form of jams or sauces or syrups. My favorite was the fried garbanzos — tasty, tasty! The service was impeccable. The waiter was friendly and helpful. We were served quickly and efficiently and both of us were very happy with our meal.
Taperia Raca is located in the heart of Biscayne Blvd.‘s MiMo district, near such gems as the Vagabond Hotel and Flavorish Market. Parking is available in the lot or on the street.
If you are in the mood for tapas, bursting with flavor in a casual setting, this is the spot!

I’ve seen this place on FatGirlHedonist Instagram. && my friend had to wash her car right next to the restaurant. She has been there in the past && she enjoyed it. So we decided to have a quick lunch. Once I walked in, the atmosphere was very chic and laid back completely. The waitress greeted us with a huge smile which was nice.
We ordered the «Montaditos de langosta,» «Patatas De Contesta,» && «Fried Garbanzo» Was is good? Yes, was it great? No. Will I come back… Probably not. Unless I’m washing my car again, && I’m SUPER hungry. The Montaditos de langosta were 4 TINY crostini with a lobster mixture on top. Honestly for $ 11… It wasn’t worth it. I do understand the concept is Tapas (Appetizers) yet too small for the price. The waitress accidentally gave us «Gazpacho» which is a cold tomato based soup with small pieces of toast on top, if she didn’t bring that to the table, I don’t believe the garbanzos would’ve been consumable bc they where kinda dry. The best thing was the Patatas, which was fried potatoes with bacon && an aioli based sauce which was very good.
Overall a 3. Over priced, location was a little sketchy, && small portions

If you’ve been to Eating House, Taperia Raca is exactly what you would expect: a Spanish spin on the comfort food, gastro-​fusion, stoner-​food. pseudo-​haute cuisine («foodie shit») Rapicavoli is serving in the Gables.
If you haven’t been to Eating House: what the hell is wrong with you? You have not lived until you have had that Pasta Carbonara. Forget your vegan/​paleo/​Jewish/​whatever bullshit diet plan you’ve adopted and go get some.
Back to TaRaca: The indoor space is miniscule, but getting served brunch on a Sunday doesn’t require a 2-​weeks-​ahead-​of-​time rezzie and the limited seating means the staff can spend some time with you and provide the sort of service the rest of the local hospitality industry should strive for. (You know, the kind where you are actually served — in other parts of the country this is the standard).
The food is fun, and delicious: arroz con pollo croquettas, green eggs (pureed kale, mixed in: yes!) and ham, torrejas «café con leche» (with panther coffee and like 4,000 calories of a sugar coma drizzled on top, but in a way that’s totally worth it), patatas bravas, goat cheese scrambled eggs; and instead of keeping the potatoes on the table as your side-​dish, be a big boy and order two orders of the applewood smoked bacon: it’s roasted with the right combination of vanilla and sea salt — I think there was a spicy guava membrillo paired with it — it has that debilitating sweet-​salty combo that makes food mercilessly addictive (NYTimes calls it «the Bliss Point» :
).
So yea, the food; it’s good.
Oh, and the kicker; there is real, honest-​to-​goodness espresso being served at Raca: Straight from Panther into your cappuccino. Foamed milk, the whole deal. (I have, at least one time, brought my own coffee to brunch at that _​other_​establishment — you can keep your tang mimosas and drip coffee, but what I need is the espresso that runs so thick through my veins, I bleed black and see color).
Pues entonces, que esperas? Dalé

We visited Raca Saturday afternoon, totally pleased with the food and service. We were 4 ladies, each plate that was ordered was followed by the remark «OMG this is delicious» we started with the pan con tomate, fried garbanzos, patatas contentas, cucumber salad with strawberries, grilled chicken with white beans and a dipping sauce that was to die for, then of course dessert, my favorite for sure, miniature pastelitos de Guayaba with ice cream and the tres leches key lime, heavenly. And can’t forget the Hermosa Mimosa, very refreshing and delightful. Chef Michelle and all the staff you are awesome! An amazing food experience for the girls on a beautiful Saturday afternoon!

Adorable place, with a trendy vibe. Service was excellent. Food was FANTASTIC. Every dish was better than the last. We had a bunch of different tapas, from garbanzos to arroz con pollo croquetas. The pork belly sandwich was SO YUMMY! The dessert was to die for and the drinks that started us off really hit the spot on a hot Miami afternoon (red sangria and mimosa). Will definitely return!

Love that you can get your car washed and pop over here for delicious, authentically spanish tapas. Fresh house made romesco sauce. Half price bottles of wine. Not sure of the frequency but we are here for Friday happy hour and it’s on.

I must update my review of this restaurant to be fair. We ordered two bottles of wine, which accounted for $ 100. The other $ 100 of our bill were food, which by the way included a key lime pie. I’m not criticizing the restaurant or the food… I think the food was acceptable. However, I don’t think you can call that tapas. If you have ever been to Spain, in most places you will walk out much more filled and after that much wine for much less than $ 200. That is all I’m criticizing. I just don’t think that it will ever be possible to have a true tapas bar in Miami, in which the boquerones tapa to give you an example will never cost you more than $ 2 (Spain) and will have a lot more food… Just to give an example.

I have never been to Spain, so writing a pretentious review where i compare this place to one found in Espana would be useless. What I will say is that i have been to Spanish restaurants in the city, and comparing Raca to those places is like comparing a honeycrip to a red delicious apple, they are from the same overall family but they dress nothing alike.
Enough BS let’s get to the restaurant. First off, i love the way the place looks, it’s quaint, unassuming, and for being located right off a main highway it’s not loud. I sat at the bar and behind the counter were the boys of Eating House (and now Raca), Alex and G. Both greeted myself and every person that walked in like they were friends or family, just like it should be. I sat at the bar and asked for food, literally i just asked for food and put my food in the hands of Giorgio and his crew. That day i ate the soft scrambled eggs on toasted bread with romesco, octopus, torejas, duck wings, and papas bravas. It was delicious, the eggs are velvety smooth, the octopus was tender not chewy (giorgio even told me how he gets it that way), the duck wings are fun, yes food can be fun, and the paps bravas are just the dish to keep on the table to tie everything together.
Is this place your normal spanish tapa restaurant? NOPE and believe me, that’s a good thing. Get your ass there, you won’t regret it.

I came here with my cousins and we ordered a variety and it was ALL delicious! Our favorites were the pan con tomate, arroz con pollo croquetas, and montaditos de langosta. The short ribs were great, and so was the meat and cheese plate! I went crazy on the kale salad. :) My sister and I ordered the white and red sangria– both were delicious. Also… banana split. Order it. Nutella and café con leche syrup? So good.
All around amazing. Our server checked on us often and refilled bevs as needed.

The positive is that the Montadito de langosta estaba muy rico!
I was pretty upset with the service and the rest if the menu. Instagram teases a lot and then on a Saturday night they have none of that stuff there. I also waited 45 minutes for croquetas before before the waiter noticed we never got them and I simply said don’t worry and asked for the check. They gave them to me on the house which was very generous but at the end if the night those «arroz con pollo croquetas» were not good. I hope some of you get to enjoy they’re Instagram food!

Underwhelming food, especially for the price point. The food was not «bad» per se, as much as it was forgettable.
Patatas contentas were the best dish, and quite tasty. Tortilla espanola was worst. .. really just an omelet with potato, rather than true tortilla espanola. Meh.
Taperia Raca was «out» of numerous specials/​menu items, which is always disappointing.
I love Eating House, so the underwhelming food here came as surprise. By comparing the quality, you’d have no idea that these restaurants had been opened by the same chef.
Ultimately, it’s hard to see myself going back here. If I want traditional tapas, I’d go elsewhere (for example, Tapas de Rosa). If I wanted tapas with a twist. .. I’d also go elsewhere. Taperia Raca just doesn’t quite fit.
Service was the highlight here. Absolutely excellent — and we dined with a group of nine!

Solid four stars.
Limited inside space– reservation are a must!
Is it cheap? Nope. However, the service and quality warrant the price. Been there twice, both positive experiences. The wine and sangria are reasonably priced. Plan to spend around $ 50 to 60 a person (including tax & tip), which is what tapas and wine costs in MiMo.
I do agree that the bread portions/​situation is tacky. We ordered a meat and cheese plate And got 4 tiny bites of bread. We then ordered some more bread and waited and waited and waited for it. Hopefully this has been resolved. I was last there in the end of April.

I am not going to say anything bad about the food because it was amazing. It was the service that ruined my experience at Taperia Raca. Our server disappeared on us right after he took our order, after going outside to the bathroom I saw him chatting it up with another three employees. He came back inside we asked for the dessert menu and boxes for takeout and never came back again. We sat there for twenty some minutes waiting for him to come back and were finally helped by a woman server. I was so upset at the service that I felt mad leaving a tip. Best part of it all there were only 2 other tables sat besides us; so there was no excuse.
Even now as I am writing this review a week later it boils my blood that I had to leave gratuity for some guy who was outside of the restaurant laughing and with his work buddies.

So so sad to only be giving Taperia Raca 3 stars. Let me start by saying that Eating House is my favorite restaurant. I had very high expectations. I wanted to go soon after they opened but decided to give it a few months to work out the kinks that many new restaurants have. We went tonight to celebrate my birthday and wasn’t overly impressed. We went early — extremely early — but with two small kids at home that’s how we roll. Needless to say the staff was very attentive and helpful. The place is small and we sat outside. My husband mentioned after left that from where he was sitting he could see the staff standing around eating. (We were literally the only ones there so I’m not hating. He just said he found it odd.)
So to the food. Hands down the best thing we ordered was the patatas contentas al caballo. Amazing! The type of dish I would go back for and expect from Chef Rapicavoli.
We also ordered the pulpo, croquetas de jamon and short ribs.
The first piece of short rib I had was great. I wasn’t anticipating it being so thin sliced but it was good. The next two pieces I had were barely edible and totally fatty. It was such a let down considering the romesco sauce and charred scallions were so good.
The pulpo and croquetas were okay at best — no where close to the level of some of the dishes at Eating House.
I was already full and decided to leave some room for dessert but unfortunately nothing sounded too enticing. They even offered to throw it in for free for my birthday but I just didn’t want it to go to waste.
Again I had high hopes and totally haven’t written them off but maybe we’ll try brunch next.
Sidenote: as previously mentioned this place is small and most of the seating is outside. I’m not a person that gets bitten by Mosquitos but I got eaten alive during the course of our dinner.

Giorgio. R. did it again. Perfect spot for a laid back Sunday brunch, underscored by the Isley Brothers and 80’s Michael Jackson. Tattoo sleeves and great attitudes are mandatory for the wait staff, and the crowd is refreshingly non-​douche. Leave your Louboutins and Dior shades at home, no one here cares. Parking is a bit challenging in the area but there is a car wash right next to the restaurant, so why not just leave it there while you down a pitcher of Sangria.
Prices are reasonable and plates are designed to share, as the name implies. Started with the beet & walnut salad, nice portion, well balanced with lots of crunchy chopped walnuts.
The chorizo scrambled eggs were just okay, kind of bland, the best part were the fried onions on top. Microscopic pieces of chorizo, which was the only reason I could even have a sample, but that’s neither here nor there.
Love, love, loved everything sweet on the brunch menu. The torejas were delicious. Thick slices of Cuban bread in sweet condensed milk, dusted with cocoa and big gobs of heavy whipped cream. The bread was super fluffy and crusty, it did need the condensed milk «sauce» because the slices were so thick, they were dry in the center.
Our waiter recommended the Bananas foster waffle, and for good reason. The waffle itself was just plain white flour, but moist and light. What made it awesome was the caramelized banana topping, sweet, warm, boozy, and of course with healthy dollops of whipped cream. Yum.
To continue our sugar rush, we finished with the dried fig and apricot bread pudding. It was a huge portion, soft in the center, with wonderful dark, crispy, almost burnt edges. The caramel sauce was perfect. Not as good as City Hall’s or Morgan’s bread pudding, but up there in my top 5.
All that white bread and cheese on the menu will give anyone constipation for a week but once in a while it’s worth it.

Since we were such big fans of Miami Eating House (same owners), we were really looking forward to checking out Taperia Raca. The food was very good, but lacked the Eating House’s special, magic touch – and its pricing is WAY out of step with the quantity of food. (What would be a € 3 dish at any self-​respecting tapas bar in España is $ 10+ here.)
Plus, they charge for water. Totally uncalled for and unnecessary.
The tapas are tasty morsels of the usual suspects. The patatas came out in (comparative) heaping bowls, but everything else came out in mini dishes of five bites … always an awkward move when serving a table of NOT five (four, in our case). I enjoyed the patatas, actually, but not everyone at out table did; others found them dry and basic. That’s $ 9 for a few forkfuls of «dry and basic.»
The garlic shrimp tasted like it was cooked in a mole sauce, odd for shrimp. The steak tartare tasted like whatever it was smothered in (too acidic!). The lobster «montaditos» amounted to crostini dabbed with lemony lobster dip. They were good, but you can get a whole, scrumptious lobster roll for $ 15 (same price) elsewhere.
Mind you, I probably would not have so many complaints if the prices were more in line with the portions and quality. What made Eating House so exciting is that the dishes felt unique, like they were special creations that couldn’t be had anywhere else. This is standard tapas fare at Taperia Raca, with little of the same creativity.
We thought that the dessert, arroz con leche (read rice pudding) topped with Nutella whipped cream (umm…they need to do something about the presentation; it looked like a bathroom accident) was a return to Eating House style!
THEN we got the bill. For a party of four, almost $ 180 (not including tip), $ 3.00 + tax of which was for four measly pieces of French bread in a fancy red bag (!!!), $ 2 + tax of which was for table water. Our server – who also gave me a dirty side plate – did not alert us to these charges ahead of time, as he should have.
And we were still hungry. We joked about how many Taco Bell Chorritos $ 180 could have bought us… and seriously considered following through on the experiment, in order to fill our still-​empty bellies.
***UPDATE: The owner snarkily commented on my review, telling me why I’ve got it all wrong (has he read the other REAL PEOPLE reviews on here?!) but didn’t explain why we were charged $ 3.00 for four pieces of unimpressive bread in an oddly shiny (decidedly non-​eco-​friendly) red bag. It was suggested by one of my fellow diners the bread came in the bag to disguise its meager portion size. $ 3.00, folks!

This is a tough one. I’m a longtime fan of Eating House and even bigger fan of traditional Spanish food. I have no doubt that Taperia Raca can hit a major home run. They’ve got a brilliant chef behind the whole operation, a great spot in an up-​and-​coming neighborhood, and a deep Spanish void to fill in Miami’s heart.
Raca’s problem right now may just be its approach. It needs to decide what it wants to do. Giorgio is a creative chef at best (and if you’ve been lucky enough to dine at Eating House, you know the extent of his culinary powers), but when you bow to the idea of a specific cuisine, it becomes about execution — not creativity.
I ordered six different tapas and I expected to feel one of two ways about them:
«Damn, this is the best [INSERT TRADITIONAL DISH HERE] I ever had.»
«Whoa, what an interesting and unique take on [INSERT TRADITIONAL DISH HERE]!»
None of the dishes really made me think either of those things.
It was a good pan con tomato. The croquetas de jamon were okay. The camarones al ajillo didn’t make me want to grab a big mushy piece of bread to dip in the leftover sauce (my all-​time favorite thing to do with camarones al ajillo.)
The one glimmer of promise was the chistorra a la cidra — now THAT’S what I’m talking about. The promise of new experience with traditional roots. I’m sure there’s more of that scattered through the menu that I didn’t have a chance to try– and that’s what they have to chase to make that home run.
I trust these guys to kick ass. This place just opened. I look forward to coming back after a little bit.

Chef Ryan does it again! I absolutely loved his creations here. My wife and I started with his Patatas Bravas and we loved them. I can honestly say that they tasted as authentic as anything I’ve had in Miami (and this is coming from a person who’s lived in Spain before)…we continued with his meat and cheese plate (can never go wrong with that!) and then we tried his Camarones al ajillo… so simple… but soooo good! Don’t pass on his Pan con Tomate… again…his skills shine in this simple but flavorful dish!
We finished our meal off with his rice pudding which was fantastic! The service here was great, it seems as if they’ve worked out all of those kinks that I’ve read about in some of the other reviews. The staff was attentive, the food came out fast and orderly… and everyone was very courteous.
This small, quaint restaurant is not to be missed in an area that already has so many great options! Don’t pass this one up!

I live in this area so I’m always seeking out new haunts for my husband and I.
We went on opening night (I know, rookie move) so my only grievance was the service. It took a while to get seated (there were two vacant tables) and getting our drinks took quite some time. So let’s work on that!
Now for the good stuff. the must-​have dishes here are the Burrata (in a yummy sundried tomato-​esque sauce), Grilled octopus and Ham Croquetas (crispy on the inside, crunchy on the outside). All warranted a resounding YUM. The stand out order? The papas bravas. Spicy and perfectly cooked, the taters were tops.
The meh dish? The Shrimp dish was a little off. I’ll skip that next time.
For those of you with kids, we brought ours and since dining here takes more time than other places, I don’t recommend bringing ‘em.
All in all, we’ll be back. Happy to see this ‘hood ever evolving.

This experience was really a 3.5, but I’m rounding up because I went on their first day open.
Let’s get the bad out of the way first — the one big issue we had was with the service. It was horribly, outrageously slow from start to finish. It was kind of understandable by the time we were heading out, because at that point the place was full. But when we arrived there were only one or two other parties there and it took like 20 minutes to get a meat and cheese platter — which only requires slicing and plating — no cooking!
Fortunately, when our food finally arrived (and I mean all of it — nothing came out in a timely manner) it was very good. While this is a more traditional spanish tapas menu (not as creative as Eating House) we did have a couple of the items that stood out to us as unique. We had 4 plates which ended up being more than enough for 2 people.
+Meat & Cheese Plate — this is a pretty sizable platter with 2 types of meats and 2 types of cheeses, all well chosen (so important!), and a perfect size to split between 2 people.
+Duck Wings — The meat on these babies was so tender and flavorful, and the sauce outside was pretty special too.
+Patatas Contentas — A spin on patatas bravas, instead of being topped with a spicy red sauce, these had a carbonara truffle sauce (I don’t think I have to tell you it was amazing) and lots of crispy bacon.
+Croquetas de Jamon — These were pretty simple but again, well executed.
I guess I have one other small gripe — the drinks were a letdown. My traditional Sangria was only meh, and the draft beer is served in the tiniest little glass I’ve ever seen. I’d probably skip drinking until they pay a bit more attention to this part of the program.