La Bodega

My girlfriend's father graciously gave us some money to go out and enjoy ourselves, I knew dinner was in order but deciding where was going to be the hard part. One place we both agreed on was La Bodega. We had first gone here last year and I have been wanting to come back ever since. In my mind was a blurry memory of tapas, sangria, and some awesome clams.

We arrived there for an early dinner around 6pm and were seated at the same table we were at last time...coincidence? I think not. We thought that we should order different items than last time so that we could experience more of the food. We both chose a few items that we wanted and that was the start of a great meal.

JAMON- dry cured ham on tamato brushed bread.

Spain is pretty famous for their ham, I have experienced that first hand having gone to Barcelona last summer. I decided to just eat the ham separate from the bread because I wanted to dip the bread in the sauce from another item we ordered. The ham itself was very tasty, I am not huge on pork but this tasted great.

ALMEJAS MARINERA- fresh clams in a savory white sauce

The clams are by far my favorite item on the menu. We did say we were going to get different things than last time but we just had to get these again. The sauce is the big star in this dish, it is savory and has a perfect amount of spice to it. My girlfriend and myself fight over this dish and it gets eaten quite quickly.

ENSALADA MIXTA- salad with vinagrette dressing,CHORIZO CASERO- cured spicy pork sausage, POLLO FRITO- fried chicken, garlic and sherry.

My girlfriend ordered the salad just because she wanted something light and refreshing, an oil and vinegar dressing salad definitely does the trick. The red onions, olives, along with the dressing made this a nice edition to our meat dominated meal. The chorizo was very good, midly spicy and a great taste. I remember being in Spain and it was about 8 in the morning and I dined on spicy chorizo sausage in a little bar..ahh nice memories. The chicken was also a great item, it wasn't super greasy which I liked and it was very tasty.

WHITE WINE SANGRIA

To accompany the meal we chose to split a half pitcher of white wine sangria. This disappeared pretty quickly.. it tastes so so good. My girlfriend can not drink red wine because she tends to throw up after so we have to be a little more tame and opt for white wine when we go out.

Overall:This place is one of my favorites in Vancouver, although I still have many restaurants to experience I really enjoy coming here. Prices are reasonable especially if you are sharing with friends. The service has been really good the two times I have gone and I really like the interior. I would definitely recommend trying La Bodega at least once. To end things off I will share  picture of myself enjoying the leftover sauce form the clams..it's so good!

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