Thursday night we had dinner with our friend Dean, who had not been to Andanada before, so we thought it would be a nice experience for him.  We’ve been a number of times, and always have a great meal.  This time was no exception.  We had a short wait for our table, and were given a round of drinks on the house.  I had a cucumber mojo, which was delicious and refreshing.  There is a huge selection of tapas, which can be appetizers or ordered in multiples in place of main courses.  They are of generous size so are suitable for sharing.  We started with scallop tartar, razor clams, and scorpion fish flan with eggplant caviar.  The flan preparation (a pate really) was different from when I’ve had it before, and unfortunately  a bit one-dimensional, good but not wonderful. For main courses, Stanley and I had paella with chicken, rabbit, pork belly and chorizo, and Dean had red snapper with saffron and fennel.  We shared a dessert of chocolate mousse with citrus ice cream that was very delicious.  A bottle of La Casilla 2008 was very good value.

There are a huge number of restaurants on the Upper West Side, but few are outstanding.  Andanada is a gem.