El Pulpo Tapas - Middletown

We had a reservation for yesterday at 6:15, but the restaurant was difficult to locate inside a small shopping mall. After being seated, we waited over 45 minutes to order our appetizers. When our appetizer finally arrived at 7:40, over an hour and a half after ordering, we decided to cancel our entrees and ask for the bill as we had been waiting for over two hours. The waitress apologized and explained that they had forgotten to start preparing our meal. This was one of the worst service experiences we have ever had at a restaurant. We left without having a meal around 8:30 and would not recommend this place.

The restaurant was extremely busy with only two servers handling the entire dining area. The appetizers were fantastic, but dinners were served at different times and drink refills were slow. The servers were working hard, but could use more help. I definitely preferred the Southington location.

Always great. Seems to me it just keeps getting better and better. Will be back very soon. Can’t wait.

We try to go to el Pulpo once a week because the food is excellent, very authentic (my wife lived in Spain for a while}, well presented, and a joy to experience. While we have never met the chef, we can tell by the artistry in the presentation that his or her skills are not limited to just cooking. Bertin is the best server we know. His knowledge of both the food and the wine is better than anything we have experienced elsewhere.

1) The paella was sopping wet and lacked any semblance of caramelization and crusting on the bottom, a poor performance from a Spanish/tapas restaurant. 2) For a place called El Pulpo, there should be more than two octopus dishes on the menu.