Cafe Bar Europa – The Turquoise

We loved the ambiance (very european café like). You can even do work here if you want! The live music was great, and we enjoyed a lovely tapas meal with wine. Would definitely go back. We also loved how you could go up to the bar and order your food at any time – no formal serving. It was really great.

Came here for the first time on a Saturday night and loved it! Two words: lamb shank. It was meaty and literally feel off the bone. So tasty! The live blues music was fun, cool bar with 20 oz bud light on special. Will definitely be back for more tapas and that lamb shank!

Make sure to check out their website for the schedule of music. The night I went there was live jazz… they were great. We got a variety of tapas to share family style and wine. The food was delicious. The service was alright when we went. It seemed like there was only one waitress for the entire restaurant.

I love this place! Their tapas are amazing! Their sangria is amazing!! their service is hit or miss just like their entertainment. But I totally dig the vibe!

How did this place manage to get worse?
It was already lacking good service, with an automatic 18% gratuity, tacky décor, and mediocre food. Now the only reason to come here is the live music. You have to order everything at the bar, and you can’t even leave a tab open! Doesn’t that kind of defeat the purpose of having a tapas bar? Ordering things throughout a long slow dinner shouldn’t require getting up to wait in line at the bar, potentially leaving your friend all alone at a table for 5 – 10 minutes. The décor has gotten even tackier, they seem to be desperately trying to get people in the door by splattering the patio floor with paint and putting fake roses on each table… The beer selection is lacking, and every beer I’ve gotten in my last two trips there has been warm and flat, so it’s not a problem with the kegs, but instead with storage and the tap system.
If you live in the neighborhood and have been here at all, you know that this restaurant is basically a place for the owner to hang out and hit on women. Now that the service situation is so much worse (again, HOW), it’s too sad to even bother with.

Great service and awesome vibes at turquoise bar.
Love the live music especially last night’s latin based reggae band.
The bar itself is really cool with beautiful art on the walls and great service. My friend and i ordered the same drink and bers tasted different then mine the waitress was very accommodating and gave us both new drinks this time they were both great. Was a lovely experience, will be coming here again soon.

I love this place. I’ve been going here for about 4 years. I live the remodeling because it opens up the space.
The food is great with a nice tapas selection. The room is comfortable and is dark and cozy enough for couples, but large and airy for groups of friends. There is music almost every day and no cover.
They used to have more music acts and it would be good to promote more music shows because the room is so conducive for listening and dancing. The world beat sound drew good crowds before. I think folks will pay a reasonable cover for good music, if that’s what it takes to bring it.

great ambiance! the service was amazing– you gotta ask for Tommy, he’s so hospitable and the nicest. über romantic and laid back, the live music makes you feel like you’re in a little European café.

This place was awesome. Until they changed the menu around (specifically the meatballs) then took away all the waitresses and made you order everything at the bar.
Not a great experience anymore. Staff seems almost overwhelmed. I wonder what restaurant will move in here when they close.

This place used to be my go-​to place. Loved the mysterious dark atmosphere with the live jazz back in the corner behind the bar. As well as the great blues out on the patio… unfortunately this has all changed :-(they remodeled the interior pushing the bar back and eliminating the dark romantic feel next to the stage. They also no longer can have the blues singer on the patio due to complaints from the neighbors. So alas the uniqueness has gone and left this place feeling just like any other bar with live music. If it was not for the great acts they book, I would have stopped visiting alltogether.

I use to love this place. Now. I couldn’t recognize it. They changed everything. The worst think. They don’t have anymore service at the table. You have to go at the bar to make your order. The food. It’s just tasting of garlic. And the wine. Notting special. What happen?!? This use to be one of my favorite place where to go and have a nice glass of wine with great music. So sed!!!

This place is adorable! I haven’t tried their food yet so I cant really comment on that (mostly you can order tapas), but the ambience is really nice and chill, they have live music on the weekends, and the owner knew someone in the party I was with and chatted with everyone for a bit. They have tasty drinks and its a really cute place if you want to chill in North PB. Don’t expect a crazy party atmosphere, but its nice, chill, they have a cool fire pit outside, and its really cute. I would definitely return!

It would be a lot better if you could sit at a table and order food like a normal restaurant.
Not sure who is at the bar on a Sunday night but service was a little snooty.
Braised beef could have tasted better.

This is for the OWNER.
What are you thinking!!!
Great spot, live music, but dude, wtf, do you realize how much money you are missing out on!!!
There was a line of 10 people, I was ready to spend more money, and tip your staff, but under your ridiculous model, I have to get up and stand in line for a drink?
Good luck, your business is gonna crash, but I hope not, change your model!
This is the Chipotle of tapas bars, but slower!

I have really enjoyed this place in the past. The waitstaff are awesome, the food is pretty good, the music is always great. I’m really sad that they’ve ruined it. It now feels very un-​hospitable and unwelcoming. The whole system is awkward, inconvenient and, ultimately, not worth it. You’d be better taking a date to a cafeteria.
They now force you to pay as you go. You find a table, note the number on your table, go to the bar, wait in line, order, pay and close out (they will not let you keep a tab open), and then, when you want another round of drinks or more tapas, you go back to the bar, wait in line (which is sometimes VERY lengthy), order again, pay again.
Now remember, this is a music venue that serves drinks and tapas. Comfy, cozy ambiance and a nice outside patio space. The kind of place you want to lounge, enjoy the iterative nature of tapas («let’s stop there for now and if we’re still hungry, we’ll order more!»), and have a few drinks with friends or a great date. Nope. They’ve decided to make it as inconvenient and unwelcoming as they possibly can. I really liked this place. It’s a little heartbreaking to see.

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a worse system for ordering food and drinks than at this place! Our group went here last night as we heard they have good live music on Saturdays; the music definitely did not disappoint! Apparently the owner refuses to pay for wait staff, so every customer has to stand in line to order their food and drink at the bar from the bartender. Even if you need another drink in the middle of dinner, you need to get back in the line again! The only high point was the bartender, Tim, he was a great mixologist but the poor guy was left to do literally everything in the place! He had to take the food and drink orders from the line, put them into the systems, make the drinks for those patrons, attend to the customers sitting at the bar, and do the bar back work all by himself! The couple of wait staff that are there are literally just food runners. The owner of the place just stood in the corner and watched this all happen! Another annoying thing is that you have to pay for the food up front when you order it and they automatically include a 7% gratuity to every bill (added to the post tax amount)! I’ve also heard that the owner won’t let the bartender or wait staff (aka food runners) keep their tips, he collects them all and distributes them in their paychecks himself… sounds like a scam to me!
The food itself was pretty good, and the portions were decent, but the owner really needs to stop this ridiculous system of ordering /​serving or he’s quickly going to go out of business. I personally saw 8 – 9 other customers very upset about the system as well. This owner could really have a pretty nice business if he would just pull his head out of his arse and quit being so cheap, hire real wait staff and lose the stupid ordering system!

Worst place for a date. Must order at a counter, which takes forever. Like waiting in line? Every time you need a drink?
Plus, they forgot to put our order in, so we just left after 30min…
No parking either. A terrible wasted time.

Barbara and Tommy are so rad. We love coming here and they always take such good care of us. Barbara lights up the room with her beautiful face and infectious smile. Tommy is so handsome and charismatic. Extremely polite and professional with extensive knowledge behind the bar. It’s an uplifting experience that I will always treasure. #feelingblessed
Basilio — get some shoes on. We love you!!!

First off, I didn’t try the food, as we had just eaten somewhere else. So this review is for drinks, service, ambiance.
I was initially thrilled to have finally found a place with good live jazz so close to me. The outside area is cozy but it was so hot last night. There’s no air flowing so we were sweating… But I really enjoyed the music so it didn’t bother me much.
We picked a table and it needed to be cleaned (it was so dirty and sticky) but nobody did it. Despite the bad comments about service, we were greeted fairly on a timely manner and explained the menu. I don’t know how their gratuity/​session thing works among them but we had about four different servers asking us if we needed another drink, asking if everything was good. It was almost a bit pushy. I think they’re trying to make it up for the bad previous reviews. By the end of the night I wasn’t even sure who was our server.
The menu said $ 5 for «tap wines» and a black board said $ 5 Guiness. Weird that on my check the wine came as $ 6. I didn’t say anything about it but thought it was odd. I also don’t like they add gratuity AND tax on top of the gratuity amount. Is this even legal? Shouldn’t I be paying taxes for what I consumed only? I’ve seen auto-​grat before (usually for large parties, not sure why they do for everyone) but never on top of the full amount with the tip included. Have to do some research on that.
Music was great! «Tap wine» was decent (I had the chianti), ambiance was cozy, I’d say this place is good for what we did: eat somewhere and stop by for a glass of wine and some music. I want to go back and try the food and make my own opinion about it… And to enjoy some more awesome jazz.

Went here on a Friday afternoon:
*POSITIVES: amazing lamb tapa, lovely guitar and drum player, very nice atmosphere.
*NEGATIVES: weak, weak, weak Sangria, one of the worst I’ve ever had. Taste like flavored water. Also, please serve bread with the tapas, I felt like I was begging for it…

We were wandering around North PB on Friday night at 9pm and I heard music coming from Europa so my boyfriend and I went inside. I have been here once before to listen to music and enjoy a glass of absinthe, a big draw since not many other bars in the area have it.
We walked through the half-​empty restaurant to a both in the back near the live jazz band. The music was really relaxing and the saxophone player was killing it!
The only problem is, after 10 minutes of being ignored by servers, I finally managed to flag one down. I came here with the intent of eating and drinking, and I was beyond ready to do both. We were brought menus and left alone for a long time.
Finally, another server passed us and decided to bring us waters. Another 10 minutes before our original server came back to ask us if we would like to order. We decided to start with some sangria and order food once we had our drinks. Well, 20 minutes later and our sangria STILL hadn’t arrived, our server finally walked by and brought us a candle for our table, and said the sangria would be longer and then she left quickly, not even asking if we wanted anything else.
At this point we decided to leave. We were both having a horrible time and there was no point in waiting an unknown amount of time longer for some sangria because we sure weren’t going to order food that would possibly show up 2 hours later. We walked to the Bar Key a few doors down which luckily came through with drinks and food in a timely manner and had a way better time.
TL:DR Slow service, if any. No apologies or explanation. Probably won’t come back.