Ole! anything to say?

Had dinner at Forunato's sat night and was pleasantly surprised with my meal. Our server was a little lazy though. Checked out Ole for an after dinner drink and I realy liked the atmosphere. Lots of candles and good music. The staff was friendly and the owner gave us some free tapas. Unfortunately I was too full to enjoy it. I checked out the menu nad saw items for $6. I'll go back next time when hungry.

Let's talk about Ole! I loved it! It's not traditional spanish tapas...I'd say it's spanish tapas with a caribbean flair. We devoured our meal. We ordered a side order of the chicken/chorizo rice and it was soooo good. It tasted like there was a mix of Saffron & Achiote which to my surprise was yummy. We also had the steak tips which were delicious, although I would have liked it if they were braised or something. We had Garlicky chicken and the "Garlicky" part was no understatement. This was one of my faves overall of the night. I used the sauce to dip my bread in. We also had the Roasted pork with mushrooms and red pepper...this was the BEST by far. The Sangria was really fruity and tasty. It could have used some more brandy, other than that, the service was impeccable. I had the nicest waitress who was super attentive. If I had to score this place between 1 & 10, I'd give it an 9 for atmosphere (spanish guitar player = thumbs up), 10 for service, and a 8.5 for food. I think the food will just keep getting better. Oh and the tapas plates ranged between $6 to $9, if my memory serves me correctly.

I had a very good first experience. went to the bar alone - had two tapas and a lot of sangria. two tapas filled me (not the sangria) so I guess I wasn't very hungry to start. first impression: attentive staff - good sangria - good food - good value - and clean. It was Friday evening and they had a musician playing. He was good - volume was good - atmos was very nice - lots of soft candle type lighting. I must go back very hungry so I can dig into their menu. I have no idea how mixed drinks are - cuz I like sangria!

I really wanted to like this place. In many ways I did - the service, food, and atmosphere was great. Unfortunately it was sorely lacking in the value category. The prices are high and the portions are small. GG start saving up because the sangria is $28 for a medium pitcher, or $8 by the glass. On Newbury street, sure, on Merrimack Street I don't think so. The worst part of the $28 sangria pitcher was that it was completely filled with ice before the Sangria is added, meaning you get way less sangria than you should. We ordered 3 tapas. I know tapas are supposed to be small, but for $7-$9 per tapas, it was silly. The garlic chicken tapas was tasty, but my wife and I got 2 pieces each. Total for 3 tapas, sangria pitcher and tip: $60. This place could be great if they lower the prices and stop skimping. I really want to see this place succeed so I hope they address this. Otherwise I see a brief future for Ole. We were so hungry when we left that we actually went to Bad Dawgs for a hot dog.

We went to Ole on thursday night and thought it was great. I thought the tapas options were a little limited and would have liked some sort of salad or veggies. But the tapas we had were delicious! If I remember correctly we had the roasted pork, the garlicky shrimp, the salt cod dish, and the shrimp ceviche. Our favorite was the chorizo and and chicken soup. We tried the sangria which was a little "appley", but good. The spanish guitarist was fantastic, although my husband disliked his drum machine. The service was good and the prices weren't too bad. So, overall, thumbs up!

the sangria is awesome.

does anything else matter?

I tried to go to Olé last night but they are only open 4 nights a week. Wednesday through Saturday I believe? I'm sure I'll get there within the next few weeks.

We ended up sitting outside Cafe Paradiso, where, of course, it took well over half an hour to get the waitress to come by to even order a drink. I want to say that to order, eat, and pay for a sandwich and a single drink took around 90 minutes. Beautiful night so it was ok, but all I wanted was a sandwich! How does this place get away with this? 75% of the time I go, this happens. Is this really "European" as I've heard supporters claim, or am I just doing it wrong and should be ordering inside, then grabbing a seat?

Why anyone would go to Cafe P. is beyond me. The place looks good from a far but is far from good.

I don't get why all these DTL restaurants think they can charge Boston prices for subpar food, tiny portions and lacking service and atmosphere! We have yet to find an establishment downtown worthy of our regular patronage, or even a splurge night out. $10 burgers at Beerworks? No thanks. $8 glasses of Sangria and tiny overpriced tapas at Ole? Seems a bit steep for anyone with an appetite. DTL needs more places that offer great food and adequate portions at reasonable prices, not more places with unapproachable menus and prices that scare away the locals.

We were hoping to meet up with friends for outdoor lunch a few sunday's ago. We had our small dogs, so our options were limited. At 2pm, we learned that sangria's was closed until 4. Fortunado's too. We decided to have a drink outside paradiso to pass the time until Centro opened at 3.

My wife and i were the only ones outside. No one came out to serve us, and my wife went in to the bar, where she was told that they don't offer table service, and all ordering/serving had to be done by us inside. (why put out the tables, then?

She ordered a strawberry daquiri and a fuzzy navel, and came back to the table. After about 10 minutes, I came back inside to find that the place was empty except for a couple at the bar, one of which offered to make the fuzzy navel for the bartender after she spilled it all over the floor while pouring it.

So the customer/bartender makes the drink. The total comes to 15 dollars. Pay with a 20, and I get a $5 dollar bill back. Hmmm? Sorry....no tip. Service like that does not warrant a $5 tip. Give me 5 ones next time.

Two friends joined us, ordered bloody marys. Received two glasses of tomatoe juice and vodka. No pepper, no celery, none of the extras. 15 bucks.

I can't stand that place!

The Left In Lowell blog had a post a few days ago about what people would want downtown, and something that came up in the original post is that in any economy, not even just today's, the food down here is far too pricy for just about anybody to eat with any regularity. I've gone, again it was at Cafe P, with friends who live in Boston and they turned their nose up at the drink prices. It's embarrassing. It is a common theme down here (not to single out that one extremely expensive joint), and it's too bad.

Anyone have any inside insight on the logic behind this? I've heard accusations that the prices here are often high to keep out "those people" whoever they may be. I've personally assumed it was more along the lines of maximizing profit by keeping down the number of waitresses, etc, by charging the most that people will bear. That's great for an occasional night out, but in an area that is somewhat of a neighborhood, what are our cheap options? Pizza? I know I'm not the only one that has a galley kitchen and very little time on weeknights to cook...

Ok...so to everyone who seems to not know this. Tapas are supposed to be small, they're appetizers. If you don't like small portions don't eat at a TAPAS restaurant. Problem solved.

The prices are in-line with any other tapas restaurants I've been to and who says just because it's Lowell you can't charge what you think your food is worth. Should there really be different prices for Lowell tapas vs. Boston Tapas? That just doesn't make sense to me.
We had 6 tapas and four glasses of wine and our meal was under 60 bucks. I think this is reasonable, especially considering the fact that the food was delish and we had great service.

And...no I don't work for them.

Considering in Spain tapas are often free....

But anyway, Corey have you tried Viet Thai or Southeast Asia? These places both have delicious food, cheap prices and are very very local. While Lowell definately has way more than its share of pricey eateries, we also have a lot of variety and more ethinc eateries than most places. You can get out of Olympia and Athenian Corner very full for cheap (though I usually don't). Also, Olde Court has some great burgers and Irish Pub Food for reasonable prices.

I totally agree prices are way out of whack at too many places, but there are many more affordable options available. Maybe if we all frquent these gems more the 'big guy' will wake up and run their places more efficiently.

I agree with Peter, we definitely have a little bit of everything in DTL, and that's something I don't take for granted. When I think of Paradiso and their prices, I think: "What warrants these prices?" It's not the service, that's for sure. The food? Um, not quite. The atmosphere? Eh. When you see the prices at Moonstones, at least you can look around the restaurant decor and fancy menu items and drinks and justify it.

Peter,

I have been to, and was very happy with, Southeast Asia. Never considered them for dinner though. Viet Thai, huh? I've been waiting for a recommendation on that place before I gave it a shot. I'll consider this it :-) Athenian Corner...I think DTL residents actually have a 10% discount through them if you have your little card, but I haven't flashed mine in years and I always feel guilty doing it anyhow.

I love the food at the Old Court and it's reasonably priced (IIRC), but they at least used to close their kitchen at 8:00, and even by that time, sometimes the bar crowd is rolling in and it gets a little too crowded and noisy to just sit down and decompress.

I wonder if a real "home cooked" place would make it here. You know, meatloaf, pot pie, turkey, etc. Somebody asked for a cheap spaghetti joint on this board recently. Certainly not gourmet and I certainly wouldn't be a regular, but still. Another angle is I remember C'est talked about stocking some pre-made or nearly-made food in their plans. That would be ideal if they could keep the prices down.

I am always happy with the quality and prices at Mambo Grille. Not fancy but always fresh and it never disappoints.

That would be great if we were in Spain and tapas were free. But, we're not.

There are many reasonably priced places to eat downtown. Most of them were mentioned by in the last two posts.

The point was that if they're going for authenticity, why stop at food? Why not emulate the actual creators rather than the other imitators in Boston?

I've yet to have any $6 tapas in the US that rival the gratis ones I've had in Madrid and Toledo (Spain, not Ohio), and I don't expect to any time soon. But I'd love to sit and spend $60 on Sangria if I had some pinchos thrown in front of me with a smile.

The Mexican restaurants downtown all offer good value for your food dollar (and the drinks aren't too expensive, either!). You can also find reasonably-priced meals at some of the Asian restaurants. I wish we could eat at Cobblestones or Ricardo's all the time, but at least we have some reasonable alternatives. (But I'm getting impatient *really* to have some ribs!)

Honestly I've never been shell-shocked by the prices here. There is a wide variety of price points available and the higher priced places I've been to in DTL have always delivered. I think that we devalue Lowell when we talk about how galling it is to see "Boston-prices" here. Don't we want this to eventually become a destination city? I think Lowell is amazing and I have no issue with putting some money into the local economy for a great meal out.

Ole! is a big disappointment. I don't know how "Ruby" got 6 tapas and 4 glasses of wine for under $60; we had 3 tapas and 2 glasses of sangria for $50 and then we had to go to La Boniche for dinner because the tapas were RIDICULOUSLY SMALL. There were 2 pieces of the garlic chicken tapas, 2 pieces on the prosciuotto-wrapped cheese tapas, and each of these was between $7 and $9. Yes, I know tapas are "supposed to be small," but you are also supposed to be able to order 3-4 and make a normal sized meal out of them. New York, Denver, New Haven, and Boston--I've tried tapas in all these big cities and the portions were bigger and therefore prices more reasonable. And $8 for a small glass of sangria is insane. Also, there is a rationale behind matching your prices to the socioeconomic status of your location. That is how business works. People who live in Lowell are not making the same money as people who can afford to live in Boston, so they are certainly not going to pay Boston prices for meals. Ole! will not last in Lowell with small portions and big prices. Our dinner, including drinks, at the outstanding La Boniche was the same price as what we paid at Ole! for 3 measly tapas and 2 sangrias! Skip this one...in this economy you have to get more for your money.

One of the reasons people compare DTL menu prices to Boston is because the overhead for a Boston restaurant is usually MUCH more than for a Lowell one due to the huge difference in rent/property costs. If you are paying one quarter of what you'd pay for your space in Boston but charge the same prices, it does make people wonder where the value is.

Wow! So many opinions. I could go on for days! But I won't...promise. (can't wait to try Ole. It sounds great)

I'd like to offer just a little "insider" information with regard to Two Vegetarians and others regarding "Boston Prices". Boston real estate is not even close to 4 times what it is in Lowell. Beyond that however, the labor costs the same (by far a restaurants greatest expense). the food costs the same, the liquor-the same. As does the insurance, the gas, water, linen, trash removal, etc.

Whats the biggest difference that so often influences pricing? Volume. And disposable income. By comparison, Lowell has a much smaller clientele to draw from who can afford higher quality dining options. And therefore we meet a greater challenge in finding a price point that allows us to stay in business given the amount of people who are available. (of course, each establishment has different challenges and/or advantages) Just my own 2 cents!

Lowell has a great amount of choices and variety given the amount of industry in the downtown. We are very fortunate!
Sincerely,
Scott Plath
Owner, Cobblestones

PS "small plates" or Tapas cost more "per ounce" because they are often more labor intensive to create. They originated as a compliment to drinking, and remain a "light" and "fun" alternative to enjoy many different tastes while socializing. Belly filling options abound, anywhere that mashed potatoes, pasta and/or french fries are served!

There were four pieces of Garlicky chicken in my tapas. Not sure what happened to the other two on your plate "Charles". Also, we didn't order the expensive tapas we ordered the cheaper ones which is how that math works out.

All I'm going to say is that it's not for everyone. I thought the food was delish and the price was fair, and that is my opinion. And you are all certainly entitled to your own opinions.

"Ruby"

Thanks for your insider perspective, Scott. We have friends who looked at multiple neighborhoods when deciding where to open a restaurant, including Newbury St, Harvard Sq., DTL, etc. and they did say that rent was 4 times as high for the spaces they saw on Newbury St. than those in DTL. However, as you suggest, they didn't think they'd get the necessary volume in DTL and went to NH instead. I do appreciate your important point about labor and food costs. We are actually more than happy to pay extra for good food and service (though we can't afford to do it often) regardless of location, but also completely understand why people get sticker shock in DTL, esp. if they moved here from the Boston area because they couldn't afford the prices there.

Whether the rent is four times, or two times, or three and an eighth time more in Boston doesn't really matter. The point is, it costs less to operate a business in Boston.

Labor included. Your employees have to make more in Boston, because they generally have to live in Boston, park in Boston, eat in Boston, pay insurance in Boston, etc. Do you really pay your chefs as much, Scott, as the ones in upscale restaurants and hotels in Boston make? I doubt it, because you don't have to.

Yes we are very fortunate in Lowell and we appreciate it. Restauranteurs have every right to charge what they think they deserve for their product.

You'll have to forgive us though if we object to being ripped off sometimes. It's our right also, as is our right to vote with our feet. Sounds to me like the exit polls on Ole's candidacy for long term survival aren't very promising.

We tried Saffron Bistro after seeing GG's post on it - wow, are those infused martinis good! Food was tasty and the service great; the wine list isn't huge but has nice choices at a number of price points. Thanks for the tip GG!