Don Quixote Tapas & Things

My boyfriend and I went here for our 6 year anniversary. The food was FANTASTIC! I’ve never had hummus before but it was amazing. The rice and chicken was cooked to pefection, perfectly seasoned. The only reason for the 4 stars, was due to long waiting for waitress to come back. There were only 2 working, because it’s a pretty small restaraunt. But other than that, everything was amazing. Prices were great. We had used a groupon, but you really don’t need one. I would call ahead to see how busy they are. Right after we arrived, an 8-​top came in and it became a little hectic but everyone was friendly. I was unaware of the BYOB. I did have sprite. I don’t usually drink soda, limited drinks but its BYOB. I will be back. I also heard the menu changes a lot, but the food it great and great for people who love to try new things.

This restaurant is a real gem. First of all it is a BYOB (that saves a hefty piece of change), but even more important the menu does not over reach so that every dish is excellent and really well prepared. By all means try the tasting menu. Service was superior.
Kudo’s to the chef. Even the desseerts were really outstanding.
If I lived in town I would make this place a weekly stop.

Delicious tapas and great music on Wednesdays. I highly recommend the octopus and meat and cheese tray. Small and cozy atmosphere.

Absolutely awesome and the owner, Vanessa made it even better, if that is possible. She went above and beyond to make us feel welcome and full.

GREAT FOOD … GREAT STAFF … GREAT PRICES … AS GOOD AS IT GETS
If I write too perfect a review very few folks will accept it so, I will do my best to «tone-​it-​down», although in my heart-​of-​hearts we cannot wait to go back. …
THE FOOD: For appetizers we ordered two (1 cold /​1 hot) Serrano ham and Manchego cheese for the cold. It came with blackberries, thinly sliced apple, and delicious fresh pieces of crusty bread. The Serrano ham was perfect! Not salty as is the inexpensive Serrano, and the same for the Manchego. … Way more than enough for two people. … Our hot appetizer was fried calamari. Lightly breaded, tender, and not full of grease. Served on a small bed of greens, lemon wedge, and a very tasty mayo/​mustard sauce. Smallish serving but again, more than enough for two people.
For our main course we ordered paella a la Valencia. I am Spanish and I know paella. The flavor was 100% spot-​on! However, (here comes the «tone-​it-​down» part), the rice was a bit wet, the chicken pieces cut too small (both only in my opinion), and way too many mussels. Would I order it again? … Without hesitation! … The flavor was authentic, delicious paella! … More than enough for 2 people.
For dessert, churros. Believe it or not, churros are authentically Spanish and not Mexican. Full of flavor (for fried dough), and not saturated with oil.
The appetizers were $ 9.00 each, and the paella $ 16 dollars! … Add BYOB and are you kidding me ., PERFECT!
THE AMBIANCE AND LOCATION: Clean, quaint, cozy, and inviting. Nothing fancy … Its about the food after all. The food is served on white contemporary dishes (as they should be). Located just OFF South Street on 4^th., away from the potentially overcrowding madness of South Street depending on the time of year.
THE STAFF: Now here again is where I need to «tone-​it-​down» with edifying the staff so that you will believe me. I won’t mention them by name to respect their privacy. I will say that by evenings end, they were not «staff». They were ‘familia’. Our server was PERFECT! … The owner (yes, the owner) was PERFECT. … And the Chef, and I mean Chef with a capital «C» has lent his considerable knowledge to many fine restaurants in Europe. … One last comment of the staff (familia) … VERY hard workers!!!
This is one of those rare, very rare, restaurants that you come across if you are blessed! … If we did not live so far away (67-​miles) Don Quixote & Things would be a weekly staple for us.
ADDED BONUS: Wednesday nights there is free live music! … Take a bottle of your favorite wine (No corking fee!), order a couple of tapas at 9-​bucks each, and have a memorable evening for next to nothing. … Hopefully you’ll order more than a couple? And hopefully you’ll leave some of the money you save on the table in the form of a generous TIP?
Buen provecho friends!

Excellent!!! Ate here on NYE ’15 with Vanessa as our server, and she was TREMENDOUS! They apparently opened in September and were a great find for New Years for a BYOB joint with a Spanish flavor! The tapas selections were spectacular especially the chicken and rice as well as the calamari and all seafood selections. They have live music on Wednesdays after 7 starting in January and I look forward to returning as a repeat customer at DQ just off of 4^th and South in Philly!

The service was bad. The lady was trying to take our order and just kept walking away. She doesn’t have any initiatives to sell her own dishes and make people want to order any of the dishes. She wouldn’t open the wine and pour in the glass for us and doesn’t take order by writing them down somewhere. Therefore she forgot the empanada. The complimentary sangria was nice but doesn’t make you overlook the flaws. Food was just okay. They taste okay but not authentic. The anchovies was super salty.

Came here with a Groupon for 4 to celebrate me and my best buddies birthday It is very delicious and its fun to share food and the ambiance is nice and relaxing… They might want to invest in the paid Pandora with no commercials lol… I recommend this place for a nice relaxing meal

My husband and I dined on Christmas Eve at this charming new tapas restaurant. The feast of the 7 fishes was well done and we enjoyed the meal very much. We especially loved the churro and chocolate dessert! The owner is lovely and very outgoing. I encourage you to check it out as it is very reasonable and BYOB. I am so happy to have a great new neighborhood spot for tapas.

Came here for my birthday dinner with a large group.
Everything was perfect. I came a day early to put together a family style menu and drop off wine for them to pre make sangria for us. They even allowed me to order something off menu.
The service was fantastic, as was the food.
The space is small but worked well for the event. Would also be good for a date night.
I will definitely be back soon.

Awful. We had The octopus and clams both smelled fishy and tasted bland. The salads were poorly dressed. Additionally, I felt the beets, fries, and onions were all canned or frozen.
The wait staff was very nice.

I was excited when I saw that a new tapas restaurant had opened a few blocks away from my apartment! Unfortunately that excitement came to a screeching halt when my friends and I went there for dinner a few weekends ago.
We called them around 6:30 PM to see how long the wait was and we asked if we could put our name in to get there around 8. They said we should probably come closer to 9 because they were really busy. We obliged and had some drinks at home before heading over with our two bottles of wine in tow (they are BYOB).
When we walked into the small restaurant the staff looked surprised to see us. There were a few two-​tops finishing up and one larger party sitting near the back of the restaurant. We waited a few minutes and then they tried to seat us at the first table by the front door. The table was a window bench seat on one side and two chairs on the other side. It was a cold night, so we were not too keen on sitting in a glass box next to the door. We asked if we could have one of the booths further back, and the server said yes, if we could wait while they cleaned it off from the last party. We happily obliged, and finally sat down.
We were given our menus and served water but had to wait about 20 minutes for our server to return with our wine glasses and open our wine! It seemed that she was the only server working, so it took about a half hour before we placed our order. We asked her some questions about the menu but she gave us some pretty vague answers and suggestions. By this point, some of the other tables were gone, so I am not sure why they were acting so flustered.
Since it was late, we decided to go light and share a bunch of tapas. The tapas came out a few at a time, which was good, except near the end of our meal the server had to come back and ask us which things we had not received yet…
The hummus and calamari were fine, nothing bad but nothing special. Berenjana Ahumada (smoked eggplant) was my least favorite, it was entirely too smokey. Albondigas (Spanish meat balls) was the one thing that our server recommended; I would give that 3 – 4 stars. The Paella Valenciana was actually my favorite, and the only thing I would consider ordering again though it was rather expensive for the tapas portion size.
By the time we finished eating, we were the only people left in the restaurant but we still had to wait for the check and then she was confused by how we asked to pay (2 credit cards and some cash).
There are a lot of restaurants in Queen Village and on South Street; I don’t see this place lasting very long unless they make some serious improvements. I don’t intend on returning any time soon.

I thought the poor reviews I just read on this site were inaccurate or at least not what we experienced tonight. We went there for the first time and were pleasantly surprised. #1 loved the atmosphere– good acoustics and felt very relaxed #2 great music (ok part of the atmosphere) at perfect volume in the background #3 food was very good, interesting, fun and filling. They even offer a free glass of homemade sangria #4 service was excellent with a very upbeat waitress. A great new restaurant that we very much hope succeeds and becomes a gem to others.

Excellent food and great service. Everything is delicious and service was great! Very friendly and attentive.

Decent food, terrible service, reasonable prices. Overall they need to improve! Sorry but simple things will make it a much more enjoyable experience.
On a Saturday night it took 2 hours for 4 people to have dinner (well, tapas). Wayyy too long considering we got there at 9p.m. We originally wanted to go at 8 but when we called earlier in the evening they said 9 p. m would be a better time to get a table for four. Well… it appeared they were surprised to see us when we arrived.
The tapas are small and good for sharing but only a few of them had a lot of flavor. The chicken and rice dish and meatballs were my favorite. (I do not recommend the shrimp, calamari, or cold eggplant tapas)
I had a very awkward dinner experience with a few friends. I like to go to BYOBs so that you can drink what you’d like without having to wait at the bar for a drink. Well, it took us well over 20 minutes to get served glasses for our wine and glasses of water. There was only one waiter at first than someone else was chipping in later on who appeared to be one of the owners. I was even about to get my own glass of water but I couldn’t even see a pitcher of water so I just continued to wait.
I then ordered the $ 18 Paella to go for my roommate. It was a very small portion and so not worth it.

Horrible. The menu advertises manchego cheese and Iberian ham. They brought us cubed cheddar and ham that was clearly store-​bought, then told us they were «out of manchego.» They insisted that low-​quality cubed cheddar was a Spanish cheese, even though it clearly was cheddar. Usually when I order something from a menu, I expect to be told if I am being served something else. The chicken was decent, but served over what seemed like microwaved boxed rice. The calamari was mediocre at best.
The food was edible, but we did not appreciate false advertising on the menu and having the staff lie about what they served us.

Very sub-par…food & service! Honestly looked like something I could make at home.

The prices were good — we got two tapas and a main dish for $ 30 — please be aware that the portions are not huge; there are about 4 pieces of fried cod per order. But not bad considering it was $ 9. Server forgot to send over free sangria (which was okay, did not expect that coming in) but the food arrived promptly and was nice and hot.

I just don’t think this place is going to make it. With no marketing, the BYO policy, free sangria, giant plates of prosciutto at an insanely cheap price during an extended happy hour– this is a consumers dream but there is no place to make money!
Fried calamari and lamb empanadas were nice. Meatballs were just ok. Was hesitant to try the paella, so I just stuck with tapas.

Cannot beat the price! I went here for a birthday dinner and it was amazing! The server was very nice and accommodating. I went to Spain years ago and take every chance I can at getting a Spanish meal! Everything was delicious, and we paid a fraction of the price of Amada (one of my favorites). Even my non-​adventurous in-​laws enjoyed the food. The only thing is I wish the flavored were a little more bold.
As a note this is a BYOB (also helps keep the price down). My suggestion is get the Sampler — it’s enough to feed 2 and you get a good taste of things. We had 5 people and we ordered 3 tapas and 1 sampler and we were full (just to give you an idea). I will definitely be back!