Rincón 38

Call ahead. Kitchen closed an hour before hours on door. Bogus. Food is overpriced whether early or late.

we had albondigas, setas, calamari, basque olives. Food is serviceable, but not worth the cost, and service poor. waiter was condescending and pretty much unresponsive.

I am a sucker for tapas. BUT give me amazing tapas and great service, and with delicious deserts and wine selections on top… SOLD! this is one of my most favorite places in Minneapolis! Their sauces were so great we had to get some bread to wipe it all up. Tasty!

Rincon 38 is tiny but everything about it is intentional. From the way the kitchen is designed to accommodate a small space and few chefs to the wine selection to the knowledgeable wait staff to the way it feels intimate and quiet even when full. The owner knew what he was doing.
There were 2 of us and we had 6 tapas off the menu. With the exception of one item, they all were phenomenal. We had the fried manchego with balsamic glaze. Perfect synergy of sweet and salty. The goat cheese peppers (easily our favorite thing). Again, a little sweet, a little savory, and the peppers were expertly roasted not to be bitter at all. We had the meatballs which I thought were the best meatballs I had ever had. The tomato broth they were in was so delicious to dip the toasted bread in. The potatoes which were smoky (a lot of pimento used here) and great texture. And the paella was to die for. Saffron, tomato, beef, pork, chicken and chorizo. The best non-​seafood paella I have had (they do have a seafood one as well). The one thing we did not enjoy were these mini lobsters that we believe were either shrimp or prawns. They didn’t have much taste which was disappointing.
The wait staff had many recommendations. This is good but it is also fun to deviate and do your own things. Love love this place and am anxious to come back.

I am biased against most Tapas places. I too often spend $ 100 and still feel like going out after for something to eat. I remembered Rincon being different and we had a great meal here, sitting outside on a nice spring night. We ordered and shared a bunch of tapas that came and went quickly in a bit of a blur. Everything that we had was good, a few things were great. The Calamari was perfectly fine and drizzled with a tasty parsley oil. The Queso Frito was creamy and crisp with a fennel slaw that perfectly countered the cheese. The Coliflor was crisp an bright with a subtle Safron flavor and a nice citrus aioli. In addition we tried and loved the Datiles, amped up versions of the cocktail party versions. The Patatas Bravas sounded boring but were amazingly complex with confit asparagus, roasted artichokes and crispy chorizo slices. The Paella Sevillana was tasty. The Lechon and Carne Brava were both perfectly done. The Albondigas were worthy of extra bread for sopping. We also enjoyed the cheese, meat, and olive plate that has a nice truffle dusting that was perfect without being all overly Truffley. We split a carafe of good Sangria and my wife had a glass of wine. The only downside, if there was one is that the courses could have been paced out a little bit better. This is a small issue, but shouldn’t prevent anyone from coming here and having a fun and tasty evening. Oh, and the best part is all of this was less that $ 50 a piece, thus proving my Tapas concern wrong.

Went there for a birthday dinner. Amazing food, cozy and classy ambience, kind and friendly staff! It was perfect! Highly recommended.

Went here for a birthday gathering. Small place and we were a sizable group and the manager and wait staff seemed really upset and were very rude to us. We were eating and drinking and each person ordered at least 2 – 3 tapas and at least 2 drinks. They were rude and rushed.
I wish I could say the food made up for it because I love Spanish tapas and the menu sounded delicious.
They have creativity but totally lacked flavor. Under seasoned and underwhelming. The dishes fail to deliver on flavor point and nothing like real Spanish tapas.
Overall a waste of money, disappointed and won’t ever go back
Save yourself a trip.
Seabass was ok but inconsistently cooked we had 3 orders and each tasted different only one cooked correctly. The polenta was poorly cooked and dry.
Scallops lacked flavor
Fried goat cheese was murdered in the fryer and very oily.
Stuff peppers very mushy but ok flavor
Seafood Cannoli was cold and flavorless
I forget the rest
Sangria was the only thing worth ordering.
We left and went to a different restaurant and had a much better time celebrating
#lame

What a great little place. Good food and wine. We had great service and a fun afternoon.

This is the spot where if you lived in the neighborhood you would go once a week for a great glass of wine and a selection of tapas. If you don’t live in the neighborhood order a selection of tapas but make sure to have one of the paella dishes. Each dish was tasty– not as temperature hot as we would have liked but really good. I would order a whole different selection next time because there is so much more to try. The paella was really good but I wish I could have one with both seafood and meat vs. only a meat option and only a seafood option.
What made this dining experience so delightful was our waiter Alejandro (Alex). We told him it was our first experience at Rincon and he took such care in making it a delightful one. It was the treatment you get when going to a friends house for dinner. He was patient, and very conscious of whether we were happy with our selections.
This is best described as a Spanish style neighborhood gem!

Amazing. Great food. I’ve tried many things on the menu and loved them all. Live Spanish guitar midweek. Dimly lit. What’s not to love.

My wife and I went there for dinner. When we arrived they staff was very courteous and very friendly. The food was phenomenal and the dessert was delicious. I enjoyed wine selection and had a great recommendation from the server. The tapas were flavorful and I would definitely go back to try more!

What an experience! There’s all these different types of small dishes you can order, so my friend and I would order a few plates, see how we felt, then ordered some more as needed. It was a very interesting way to eat. The bill at the end of the night wasn’t that bad either.

Very happy to find this restaurant while I visit Twin Cities. Made reservation at 18:30 but still wait for table for extra 20 more minutes. Restaurant is very small and jam packed before 19:30, so maybe next visit I should come after 1930?
Foods are good but too bad that we couldn’t try everything so we picked Setas, Pulpo, Basque Olives, Vieras, Mero, Paella Marinara and a glass of Aloja Negra. Among all these dishes we love Setas & Mero the best.
We didn’t try any dessert this time (too full) but definitely will be back to try other dishes on the menu soon. Thanks to the Unilocalers who give reviews and upload pictures and hope you enjoy my pictures too!

Ordered 6 tapas. Pork tapas, scallop tapas and steak tapas were the best. The cauliflower tapas was too salty, the cheese tapas and the potato tapas were too greasy. Service and atmosphere were great though. Wouldnt go back again but overall it was passable. Wanted to give it 4 stars but it wasn’t quite good enough.

Visited for first time, early Sunday dinner. Very pleasant small place, although I think it would’ve felt to me overcrowded and noisy if full. The food was delicious and the service prompt and very friendly. Loved the Ibiza (red snapper in caper butter sauce) and Mero (sea bass in saffron butter sauce) and the piquillo peppers stuffed with honey goat cheese were incredible.

I really like this place. You get to try so many dishes, each a work of art in itself. Doll and I wanted to go out for dinner on Christmas Eve and we were really not finding much, which kind of surprised me. But thankfully, we found Rincon-​38.
We had the Cannoli which was stuffed with lobster and crab, tasty, tasty morsel. We had the Mero, which is a seared sea bass, meaty, spinach, and polenta, I would have just this for a meal if it came in a larger portion. Piquillos, which is a honey goat cheese stuffed pepper very good but kind of difficult to eat, if you tried to cut it, all the cheese would ooze out. We also had the lamb and a fig salad, really a wonderful meal. Very laid back place where you can order plate after plate to share, and not feel rushed to free up a table.

We ordered seabass, lamb and scallop and paella. Sea bass is the only dish we liked. The lamb was not very render. The scallop dish is average but the one in paella is flavorless. Rice is on the hard side. Good service tho.

I did not expect Spanish food to be this good in the middle of Minneapolis. We sampled so much. Their tapas range from big to small and they do not hold back on flavor. We managed to dine on the sidewalk because the inside was packed and we weren’t really wanting to wait. The service was great and the staff were very knowledgeable about the menu and were eager to help. Overall a quaint little place that may have outgrown it’s location but worth the trip.

Wine was delicious. Tapas were great. Not cheap but it’s a nice date place. Better yet double date place so you can order more tapas. The piquillos and the queso frito is definitely a must order!!!

I just love this place. Been here many times and I’ve never been disappointed. Great place for groups and a terrific place for a simple night out.
I recommend the Calamari and the Carne Brava! The Mero (Chillean Sea Bass) is my favorite dish on the menu! Its so good, you’ll want to order seconds! Just about anything on the menu is going to leave you satisfied. Approachable wine selection, a great bartender and really helpful staff. One last recommendation: The Crurros for desert! You cannot go wrong with Chocolate Ganache and Cinnamon Ice Cream!

I’m giving this review with some reservation. We found this restaurants in Unilocal and it said no reservations. However when we arrive the first question was you guessed it do you have a reservation. Once seater however the food was amazing. My son just returned from Spain and was looking to have tapas. We were very pleased with the plates. We would highly recommend this restaurant, however as I said make a reservation and
Hope you get seated when you arrive. I would try as many plates as you can realistically enjoy.

Tapas full of incredible flavors: Mero, Pincho De lechon,
Pipirranna, andaluz, Plato iberico. (Just look for them on the menu!).
all so delicious and leaving me crying for more, but alas, the nature of tapas is about the experience:
Note that any tapa with fennel is a delightful treat. Topped it of with Breca garnacha while a flamenco guitarist soothed the post stormy evening.

I’ve only been to Minneapolis a couple of times. I indubitably used Unilocal to help me find a decent eatery. From the search results, I chose Rincon 38. Spanish tapas sounded good. It was 20 minutes further than I had planned to drive but it turned out to be a wise decision and the meal definitely made me happy. The restaurant was quaint with a relaxing atmosphere. Service was fine, not memorable.
To kick off my dinner, I ordered Serrano as the appetizer. The asparagus was wrapped in ham and goat cheese with truffle-​almond sauce and balsamic vinegar drizzled on top. What an excellent combination! Normally, asparagus doesn’t excite me but I was really drawn to this creative version. It was prepared well with all the ingredients put together sensibly.
The entrée, Paella Sevillana, was nice overall. It was a medley of beef, pork, chicken, sausage and peppers. The proteins were indeed flavorful although the sausage was a little spicy for me and so were the peppers. It was supposed to be saffron rice but I didn’t notice. The fried egg was an interesting topping.
I was rather full at this point but my sweet tooth hardly says no when I see any dessert that sounds intriguing, hence, the Citrus Spanish Flan as the finale. Wow, just wow! This dish comprised of citrus custard, raspberry and sherry caramel sauce. It took the basic flan to a whole other level. This is a must if you ask me. Deeelicious!
I would certainly make an effort to come here again the next time I am in town. There are other tapas I want to try as well. Note to self: must save room for dessert :)

I like Alice in Wonderland, but not usually at dinner!
We asked our server to suggest some dishes that didn’t have olives. With great smiling confidence, he proclaimed, «None of our dishes have olives!»
We pointed to three dishes that had olives. Server was surprised.
We ordered three tapas, and one disappeared into a black hole. (Maybe because it was called piqullos, which sounds cute, and cute-​sounding things disappear?)
The two that came out were okay:
* Ternera — rack of lamb w/​gigante beans, confit potatoes, braised leeks *
The ‘rack’ is not a rack! It should say ‘3/​8 rack of lamb’ to convey… truth. The potatoes, carrots, and leeks tasted bland. I would say it’s less Spanish and more Frozen Veggie Aisles. This tapas needs an existential crisis!
* Vieras — scallops on garlic bread *
It tastes just like it sounds: scallop on crispy/​buttery garlic bread.
It was hot and the Touraine sauvignon blanc helped me think of fun thoughts not related to the food or service. Mmhmmm.

My best bud was in town from Chicago and she’s a pescetarian, so when we go out to eat I try to make sure it’s a very seafood-​forward place (because we like to share — both clothes and food). This time, we picked Rincon.
I don’t know why I overlooked Rincon 38 for so long, but it’s a great little neighborhood eatery. The menu is full of Spanish classics like jamon serrano and patatas bravas with chorizo and albondigas… all of which I unfortunately had to forego the other night due to the aforementioned pescetarianism (CURSES!)
Still, we had a fantastic feast of tapas like the seared scallops, saffron-​poached cauliflower and a few others that I can’t recall now. We also ordered the seafood paella, which had good flavor but was missing the crusty soccarat, which is the same thing I griped about with Sonora Grill’s paella a while back. It’s important. (I don’t mind waiting a little longer for for caramelized rice crustiness, Restaurants of Minneapolis.)
We sat at the bar, and our server was super attentive, helped us choose wines and told us (at length) about all the dishes he liked best (spoiler alert: it was pretty much the whole menu). Both he and this place are very nice, so you should eat there sometime!

What happened when my super pregnant and incredibly hungry homegirl and her British boo and I decided to stuff our faces on a Friday night? We bought all the foods! (It wasn’t so hard, because it was tapas. lol.) Okay, leggo!
I. FOOD
*Lechon: Savory pork tenderloin with tender braised potatoes. You could have told me halfway through my nom-​ing that I was eating turkey hearts, and I still would’ve continued. Definitely something worth trying!
*Paella Sevillana: Latin-​style fried rice — not really my favorite; however, I’m probably biased, since I’ve been eating Asian fried rice my entire life and having it wet tastes weird to me. Aside from that, the flavors seemed all over the place, too, so I would personally would not recommend it.
*Paella Marinera: If I had to select a paella to eat, the marinera would be my choice. It’s hard to ignore that this dish is loaded with seafood such as scallops, fish, and shrimps.
*Carne Brava: Hmm, pretty nice way how they sizzled up this beef. The red wine glaze made me happily snap my fingers.
**Pumpkin Crème Brulee: Brulee is my favorite dessert, but I don’t think this one ranked near the top of «best ever.» Kind of like Zach Parise. He’ll get you those rebound goals, but he won’t take over the game like the greats.
**Tres Leches: I think it would’ve tasted better, if they soaked it in condensed milk. Surprisingly, it’s a little on the dry side.
**Citrus Spanish Flan: Outstanding flan. Soft, buttery, perfectly sweet — yes, all day-​err day. Can Rincon 38 make this the size of a birthday cake? Please? Thanks.
**Churros: The server kept suggesting how much he loved these, and I have to say that they’re good. They’re larger than one would fine at a latin street festival or state fair, and they come with a couple dipping sauces. (One being a silky chocolate.) I think I would buy these again, but I would easily choose the flan over all the other desserts.
II. SERVICE
This restaurant doesn’t have much space, especially between their tables, but our server was a G! He never roled his eyes or skipped a beat serving us our food! Super awesome!
III. PRICES
Although the prices fall above average for tapas, it’s well worth the money when one takes into account the large portions and pricey neighborhood.
IV. OVERALL
Pretty fun and tasty experience eating Ricon 38, despite the hits and misses with the food. I would absolutely return to try other goodies on the menu.

It’s been awhile for date night and we thought we try some place different and new. Share some plates and see where our appetites take us. Well here goes.
Thumbs up:
–Small plates to share with variety
–Located where there’s variety of restaurants to try
–Decent service when it was present
–Decent bathrooms
Thumbs down:
-$$ for what it was, food was meh, and well of course small portions, but way too small for $$ even if it is Tapas. Tried 5 plates, calamari rubber like and dry, braised potatoes tasted like smoked sausage… Try the sea bass good flavor, but was not deboned properly. I almost choked. The vegetal dish was the best.
–Space was very tight and stuffy. Think hot and humid and cramped.
–Friendly service when the servers checked in on us. Our main server was not around several times when needed. Checked in when our meals on our plate were done. Also think she forgot 2 of our dishes because we had to ask since it took awhile and we placed our order in before the rush.
–Street parking only and not group or family friendly.
–Veggie Options limited, no vegan options.
All in all I would only go back if invited and to share plates. Come full. Leave with a hole in the wallet and wondering why am I not satisfied. Valiant effort, but I say pass on this one.

This place is fantastic!
Although we didn’t get a table immediately, the wait wasn’t too long. The place wasn’t very big, so I suggest you call in advance and make reservations. There’s plenty of street parking around the neighborhood.
We started our meal with a pitcher of Sangria and it was delicious! Strong and flavorful.
The options of Tapas was great. The dishes came out quickly and I was surprised at how large the portions were. The scallops were perfectly seared and my favorite part of the meal.
Unfortunately, We didn’t leave room for dessert, but the options did look awesome.
I’m definitely looking forward to going back to this amazing place!

Wow! I cannot stop talking about this place! I was so impressed with the food and I am dying to go back!
Upon entering, there was a man sitting there playing guitar, which set the mood for a Spanish dinner. The place is quite small but we got seated immediately. It’s a very intimate space and the low lighting and live music really made it comfortable.
FOOD: Ordered three tapas for three of us to share. We chose the Pincho de Pollo, Paella Marinera, and the Patatas Bravas. They came our pretty quickly and a little spread out so we could start on one while the others were on the way.
The Pincho de Pollo had lemon-​herb crusted chicken glazed with saffron aioli with beans and spinach. This was my favorite! The aioli was just enough to add some flavor and the chicken was so tender and juicy.
The Paella Marinera had a mix of seafood with vegetables and rice. It had a good mix of seafood and the saffron seafood sauce really complimented it well. I am not really a seafood fan at all and I liked this!
We also ordered the Patatas Bravas per recommendation from our server. It included braised potatoes with Spanish chorizo, some vegetables and the same saffron aioli as the chicken had. The aioli again was great and the potatoes were so crispy and the chorizo was a perfect complement with the potatoes.
This food was amazing and very decently priced! I would recommend going with a group and splitting multiple tapas because I enjoyed trying a little of each.

Nice solid place. We got here a little after 10 on a Saturday night and it was an awesome way to have a late night snack. Kind of sad how if this was in Spain, we’d be getting ready to start the night.
I’ll definitely be back as everything was beautifully prepared and tasted great, but there was something that I just can’t give that 5^th star for but I don’t know what it is.
The small plates I remember:
Cerrano: Perfectly cooked asparagus rolled with prosciutto and drizzled in a aged balsamic.
Plato Iberico: Small toasted slices of bread served with different ham’s and sausage & manchego. I’ve never seen toasted bread so evenly colored. All of this had a light lemon oil & more of that balsamic as a drizzle.
The Campestere: I have a Spanish friend that makes croquettes and they are heavenly. These, while there were only small things of goat cheese, were very tasty. The plate itself consisted of roasted beets, baby arugula & citron-​cava dressing. Not familiar of the dressing, I thought it was almost like honey.
Anyway, they have a decent beer selection, nice wines and you can finish the night with a nice sherry or port.
I’ll be back for that late night experience as I don’t feel like dealing with the crowds.