Tapas Sma - San Miguel de Allende

Arrived around 8pm on a Wednesday night. Only another couple was in here when many of the restaurants in town were terrifically busy. We perused the menu and gave our orders. 2 Caesar salad, 3 mini burgers, kung pau chicken, artichoke, chicken satay, 2 glasses of wine and some beer. It took literally 20 minutes to get served, and that was with an empty restaurant. After a few questions as to where the food was, the ordinary caesar salads came out. Nothing special about the dressing and there could have been a tad more of it. Next the artichoke, which I can make better myself at home. It was a puny little one with a very run-of-the-mill dipping sauce. Succeeding that, the mini burgers. Should really have been named the minuscule burgers. Bring the microscope. Peppermint patties are way bigger! A tiny piece of overcooked (should have taken 30 seconds under the grill) tasteless meat on a ginormous bun. Order plenty of mustard and mayo with this one, folks. The chicken satay came out and my friend really liked it. Ok. Let's give them a point for this one. Everyone was satiating their immense hunger while the person awaiting the kung pau chicken was getting ready to faint from famine. Finally. Easily 40 minutes after sitting down, came the much needed food. And I'll be very honest, it was good. But, and here's the rub..... Was it all worth waiting for? Absolutely not. San Miguel is becoming like NYC with it's top notch restaurants. And if you can't 'cook with gas', you ain't gonna make it. Period.

Tapas SMA did not disappoint. The location is central to all kinds of things in San Miguel. The menu has awesome variety from many different countries. Staff is super friendly and very genuine. If I lived there I'd be a regular for sure!

My boyfriend and I weren't super hungry when we got here, but everyone in our group of 8 really wanted to check this place out for dinner. We probably ordered most of the menu that was available at the time. Nothing really stood out to me, except for the dessert that my boyfriend and I shared (I don't think we ordered anything else, we just kept taking from everyone else's plates because they got too much food). Not that anything was bad, just nothing special. They offer a pretty "worldly" variety of tapas, everything from Greek to Mexican. The server we had, Angel, was awesome though. He spent a lot of time with us, joking around. A couple of the other waiters would come by once in awhile to chat too, and they were all a lot of fun. I'd say this is a good place to come with friends and have a few drinks and snack on some stuff, but I wouldn't come out of my way here for JUST the food.

The food was good, we tried three kinds of tapas. Service was excellent and helpful. The place is beautifully decorated with a good wine selection. A nice oasis and change of pace. Quite expensive, especially the wine, but then I don't usually frequent these places, so probably in line with usual costs.

Arriving at Tapas SMA at about 6:30, we were the first patrons of the night. Our waiter (the owner, we think) was extremely cordial and went out of his way to make us feel welcome, speaking in very good English to my wife, while welcoming me to use my retired Spanish teacher Spanish while talking with me. We began with delicious margaritas, followed by an assortment of five different tapas to accompany our (very good!) wines, which he paired for us as he brought out the different tapas. It didn't take long for all the tables to be filled and the atmosphere to become convivial and animated, but not loud or boisterous, We were told by a patron next to us that the ownership had changed recently and that was the reason the service was slow (although not for us because we arrived so earl)y. The tapas were all delicious and beautifully presented; albóndegas (meatballs), shrimp, pork tacos, vegetable spring rolls- everything was prepared with care and seasoned perfectly. We had not planned on going to Tapas SMA- it just happened to be on our route toward the Jardín- but we are very glad that we stopped when and where we did. Highly recommended for atmosphere, food, and service.