Xunta Tapas Bar

I really like the sangria here and the vibe, it is really laid back. I tried the pork which was delicious and the potatoes that everyone on here raves about but all it is is fried potatoes with jack’s hot sauce, I expected slightly different. I will return here to try the seemingly delicious seafood options and one night I will arrive early to watch the flamenco dancing.

I enjoyed my time at Xunta, even if the offerings were a bit uneven.
Pros — Salt cod empanada. Unbelievably tasty. Spicy potatoes. Seemingly so simple, yet I can’t imagine mine coming out this good. Service. The bartender/​server was super friendly and attentive.
Cons-​shrimp and bacon a bit over cooked. $ 7 for a single link of chorizo sausage (even if it was tasty). Sangria=WEAK SAUCE. Yes, I got buzzed, but the wine had zero flavor, the fruit was almost non-​existent and the fruit that was in it was mushy.
The chorizo sausage and manchego cheese & Spanish sausage plate was great, so I’ll give them credit for good purchasing.
If you’re in the area, you could do worse. I will surely be back the next time I am.

La Xunta is a good representation of the everyday Spanish «Tapeo».
I like to say that in Spain there is 3 kind of Tapas places:
–The bar in your neighborhood, which is usually ok;
–The bar that you choose; you make the effort to move there because you really like it. It can be more or less elaborate, but usually are very good;
–and those ones than offer a different Tapas concept in terms of sophistication and/​or fine and creative cuisine. Something different, far from traditionalism… always good.
La Xunta belongs to the second group. You’ll not find sophisticated food here. The ambiance resemble also the second kind; familiar style, nothing fancy. Don’t try to compare with Casa Mono o La boqueria, not same kind… BUT, is authentic
I can’t keep going without to say that La Xunta actually represents a particular Spanish Region, Galicia: located in the most Northwest cost of the country, almost completely surrounded by the sea. Gallegos are some of the best pple you will find in Spain, the food is outstanding there, specialized in Seafood, and they have preserve for centuries their own language, Gallego… where the name La Xunta is coming from (and just a note, I’m not Gallega =p)
La Xunta offer a large representation of classic Tapas, either Spanish and gallegas.
First, The DRINKS: Sangria is just ok. Not bad but nothing special. I’m always running for wine. And about my preference in La Xunta I’ll always choose the fruity and refreshing Albariño followed by any Ribeiro; both are whites served cold and the typical wines from the region then any of the reds are pretty good. And for beer the local one, Estrella Galicia (Galicia Star).
Second, The FOOD
Lets divide it in two groups considering the «must try» and the amount of food (which ultimately determines if its pricey or not). Choose several ones of each group and you will live a nice and satisfied Spanish experience.
GROUP 1: the classical ones, yummy. and a Tapa size enough to feed you and 1 – 2 friends more
— Any kind of Tortilla (omelette. On line menu #1 to 3). My favorite: Spanish Tortilla, the traditional
— Guichos en Nhunha cama de arros (grilled skewered with rice. #45 to 47).
— patacas bravas (spicy potatoes.#28) and Alioli (garlic mayonnaise potatoes.#42)… HEY, the tapa size for Alioli is not big, just for one. Also the Bravas are just ok.
— Pan de Broa con Tomate (Corn bread with fresh tomato sauce and herbs. #39). I Love it. In general, My favorite Tapa ever, in particular the Serrano ham version (which is not good in La Xunta due to the ham.). Tapa size is coming as 6 individual toast. a lot
GROUP 2: small sizes. small. But soooo good!
— Polvo a Feira (octopus with paprika #17)… OMG you can’t not miss it
— salpicon de mariscos (seafood cold salad #35)… ummm .
— Empanada de Bacallau (Salted codfish empanada #7)
— any chourizo (Spanish sausages #9 to 13). #10 With red wine and onions is a classic (I’m most for the spicy versions, though)
— any qeixo (#22 to 27)… can’t believe they have Qeixo with Membrillo (a solid quince jam)
— any of the other seafood tapas including clams (ameixas), Shrimps (camarons and gambon), squid and calamari (lula), Mussels (mexillon). choose your favorite. I love Lulas na sua tinta (squid in its tint)
TO AVOID
–Ham, unfortunately
–the olives… well its not that are not good but are you really here because olives?
–grilled dates with bacon. Good but again are you here for this?
— the endives, if you are vegetarian I think there is many much interesting to try.
2 last tips,
— flamenco shows on Thursdays and Saturdays. very touristic show but I don’t complain at all.
— best if your group is max 6 ppl.

I love coming to this place for tapas after work, in the evenings or on the weekends. They have an extensive tapas menu, most of the ones I have tried I enjoyed.
Interesting décor with oak barrels for tables, although they can accomodate larger groups on the tables in the back. The staff is awfully nice and can even help you with choosing from the long list of tapas. They have Sangria happy hour 2 for 1 on fridays after work, (maybe every weeknight?)
I also went on a thursday night once and there was a live dancer with castanets that was a great addition to my meal.
a few Good picks:
dates w/​Bacon
cold seafood salad
skirt steak on a bed of spinach
manchego cheese with quince paste
all of their chorizos are standard delicious as well
****4 stars for good menu of tapas, decent prices (had about 6 – 7 tapas and 2 rounds of sangria which came up to $ 60 bucks for 2)
very pleasant staff and pleasant ambience

Having been to Spain twice, I’ve been on the prow to find tapas that match my high standards. This place definitely does not. It’s very dimly lit, the tables are large, wooden barrels, and the stools are uncomfortable. I’m 5’2″ and I still had to hunch over in order not to drop food onto my lap.
At first, the hostess seemed hesitant to seat us, saying that a large party was expected in under two hours. It was just me and my friend. TWO people. DOS personas. We had to promise her we would definitely be done eating in two hours before she would even seat us.
As for the food: The tortilla espanola was dry, the sardines tasted like they’d come straight from a can, and nothing else stood out positively.

Xunta serves some decent Tapas. In terms of ambiance, that all so elusive «feel», and a sense of authenticity — this place meets all those standards. The food is average, but better than a lot of the tapas locations in Manhattan. The chorizo — was acceptable, the manchego — good, the lulus na sua tinta (squid grilled in its ink) was very good. The grilled full sized sardines were very tasty had me feeling funny. Good assortment of beer, wines, sangria, and even cava (Spanish champagne). All in all — the place is pretty cool.
If you’re hungry, I recommend ordering the plate of rice ($ 2), it helps fill you up along the tapas.

Let’s just say they serve some pretty aight tapas here. We sat at the small 2-​seater table by the window. Quite romantic I must say, even though the tables and chairs were the rickety types ;p
Anyway, we ordered a bunch of tapas and a whole pitcher of sangria (ahhh what is life without sangria). Thought it was a tad pricey for the condition of the restaurant and the quality of the food. Nevertheless, it’s the company that matters and we had a wonderful time enjoying each other’s company :)

Xunta has a pretty broad range of inexpensive tapas dishes to choose from. I especially liked their garlic shrimp and anchovies. They also have a very nice lineup of beers from different countries.
I was kinda disappointed when they brought me a glass of port when I ordered some fino (dry sherry) as an apéritif. It seemed like they didn’t know the difference between port and fino (port is a dessert wine) and they gave me the port because they ran out of fino… That was a big no-​no but other than that the food & drinks were great.
Another thing, I printed out the map on Unilocal and got completely lost. The Unilocal map shows Xunta on 11^th St, between B & C, but they are actually located on 1^st Ave. The address seems correct so I’m not sure how I could fix that???

I brought my uncle here once. I had walked by this place many times and, after studying abroad in seville, was really missing tapas and sangria during the springtime. So I figured, time to try it!
The waiters were attentive. The food was okay, some things were good, like the shrimp wrapped in bacon and the tortilla, but some fell a little flat.
There was a flamenco dancer and a lot of young spanish people there, which I took as a good sign. She was a pretty good dancer and it was nice to watch (though gets really noisy!). We sat in the back where it’s more drab, but I like the way it looks in the front.

RIP Xunta. You will be missed. Now, my no-​longer-​relevant review:
i don’t know what it is about this place, but i love it here, and come back all the time! i love the cheap but good sangria and the cheap (but pretty good) food. the portions are perfectly sized, and i never feel like I’ve stuffed myself. plus, there’s really something for everybody on the menu — from veggies to fish and meat. I’ve tried almost everything on the menu and haven’t hated anything yet. it’s kind of a dark and dingy place… but i love the feel of it. most of the friends I’ve taken there have liked it, although the chairs can be kind of uncomfortable and the tables a bit wobbly. the flamenco dancing is always fun though, and going for that is a fun experience in itself.

Less than delightful. The damp cave of a restaurant wasn’t too appealing right off the bat but we gave the food and drinks a try — bad idea. The «sangria» was served lukewarm, sans fruit, in tiny cups. It tasted more like fruit juice than a wine cocktail. We ordered a variety of things and none of them were memorable. The table, or rather, fat and short barrel we were seated at was very uncomfortable. You had to kind of wrap your legs around it and hunch over to sit close enough to the table to eat, and the stools were backless and hard as a rock.
The vegetable «empanada» was served open faced and it was awful, literally tasted like canned vegetables baked in a premade crust. I cannot even remember anything else we ate which goes to show how bad it was because I never forget good food! The only redeeming item were the bacon wrapped figs which we didn’t even order but somehow ended up on the table.
Service was spotty and the waiter always seemed to be walking away while we were in the middle of talking to him. Granted the poor guy was manning the entire restaurant himself, so that just screams bad management! A forgettable experience I will not repeat!

Great time here.
Walked into a dark, crowded basement-​like atmosphere. The A/​C was on but it didn’t circulate all the way to the back where we, a group of 10, sat.
Order couple pitchers of Sangria, random tapas and watch the live entertainment, which was awesome.
Food and drink prices are reasonable. Def a very chill spot to visit only if you are in the area.
Must order the Croquetas! Mmmmm!

what a disappointment. i was thinking, oh yay! a galician tapas bar that i can visit to celebrate my heritage. well, so much for that. went here with a friend and sat at the bar (the barrels looked uncomfy). we got sangria and both the tortilla gallega and the jamon (the bigger portions, not the tapas).
well, let me just say that the sangria was totally watered down. it was happy hour so we got 2 SMALL glasses (2 for 1 drinks). i didn’t even get a buzz and didn’t even enjoy drinking the sangria.
the tortilla was decent, but you can’t mess that up too much. the jamon was alright, but a little dry. and way too expensive for all of say, 20 thin slices.
the cute décor and the fun of tapas aren’t enough to bring me back here. unfortunate.

Very yummy. Very casual. pretty cheap. Kind of dim. I want to go back.
You can’t really go wrong wrapping bacon around anything. Dates are pretty standard for a tapas place, but I recall becing especially enthusiastic about these. yurm!

More like 3.5 STARS.
It was a fight of the fittest for a seat at the bar the night I went. But once we got A stool we were perfectly positioned to watch the live flamenco show.
Tapas is pretty good. Patatas Bravas can use more sauce. Portions on some dishes are pretty small even for a tapas dish while other are just right.
Drinks are very affordable. BEWARE of the large pitcher of sangria… things can and will get out of hand. Not the best sangria I’ve had but it does the job.
This is more of a dive tapas place, but that’s what I love about it.
Decent food, ambiance, occasional live performance = good night out.

I actually didn’t really enjoy this Tapas place (shh don’t tell my boyfriend) primarily because of the ambiance which was kind of dank looking. a quality I’m not fond of in an eating establishment. The bacon covered dates however were no joke and they were like a crazy forbidden dessert that I had no business ordering a second round of. We were a big party and the sangria was flowing enough that I ended up enjoying it more towards the end. There wasn’t really a dish however that truly made me want to come back because lets face it I can wrap my own damn bacon around a date.

As a veggie, I generally hate tapas because there aren’t very many items I can order, and then all the omnivores eat my food and I still have to split the bill.
But Xunta had quite a few yummy veggie items on the menu — the spicy potatoes were great, as was the white bean stew.
Xunta also offers a huge wine selection and great sangria.
This was a good place to start out the night, especially since they were able to seat us right away (on a Friday night!).

I went to Xunta because of the reviews in Zagat, and it was really great! I lived in Sevilla, Spain for 6 months and I’ve been looking for a good, inexpensive AUTHENTIC tapas bar since I moved here. Most of them don’t even have Chorizo… which Xunta did have thankfully. I went with my two friends. We each ordered 3 tapas and we shared a large pitcher of very strong Sangria. It was 28 $ including a big tip and tax. I was full, pretty drunk, and happy. Our waiter was sooo nice too. After we paid, he brought us over 3 glasses of Sangria on the house, for no reason!
The ONLY negative thing was that the seating was kind of uncomfortable. The tables are large barrels and the seats are more like bar stools, so its kind of an awkward way to eat. Still, we went at about 8:30 on a Friday night and didn’t have to wait at all

X marks the spot for tasty tapas. Not X-​cellent, but definitely tasty. And the Sangria does the trick. (But once you shop around a bit, you’ll find its taste falling further and further down your list of favorites. The Sangria at Chelsea’s Tia Pol for example knocks Xunta’s flat. Still, the bar gives pretty good bang for the buck.)
The vibe is minimalist: barrels are used as tables, and a team photo of a Spanish soccer squad seems to be the sole decoration. But I like it. During the day, the tables by the front window offer plenty of light. The bar and interior tables are much cozier (or just plain darker, depending on your perspective). It’s not a place to bring friends if you’re looking to impress, but if you’re hungry, and you like the sound of… oh, say… shrimp, proscuitto, spicy potatoes and olives stuffed with anchovies, stumble in. You’ll be glad you did.

Dear lord, I love this place something fierce.
So there are swankier tapas joints in the city– Casa Mono, Alta, whatever– but this place has it right. Loud, crowded, totally uncomfortable– just how places like this are supposed to be. I’m not even kidding. You sit around large barrels (straddle, really), or jam up at the bar and order to your heart’s content. Get anything that says it’s wrapped in bacon– it makes everything more delicious.
I never remember his name, but the usual bartender (owner?) is fantastic and reminds me of the barkeeps in ‘real’ tapas joints in Spain. He jokes/​flirts with you, keeps the drinks flowing, and — this is key– will sometimes give you free bites. But maybe that’s just me and my charm, so don’t be expecting it or anything.
It’s super crowded most nights and weekends, but they take reservations for parties of 6 or larger. Just show up before 8 and plan on staying all night– you probably won’t be able to get up anyway, after a few bottles of wine.