PETITE PEAR STYLE: Bar Isabel

My friend and I get together every month to try a new restaurant. No matter how much we love a place, the next time we meet, we always choose a restaurant that neither of us has tried before. It's easy to get in a rut, so we love our monthly ritual as we both like to venture out and try new places. This month, we had our monthly dinner at Bar Isabel, a well reviewed Spanish tapas restaurant in Little Italy. The food was really good and so was the ambiance. It has a relaxed and friendly vibe with an old school charm... a really energetic and happy atmosphere, with the right amount of trendiness thrown in for good measure. It's hard to imagine a place like this so you should go check it out for yourself! P.S. it doesn't hurt that the cocktails are fantastic. We both had the Older Flame (dried apricot, pineapple, mango and fresh lemongrass infused gin, lemon juice, simple syrup, egg white, chartreuse flame) and it was lip smacking. It was the perfect drink to break my mild cleanse.

Anyway, here are some photos of what we ate. Apologies in advance for the quality of the photos... I will bring a better camera next time!

Salumi Plate
I can't remember which meats are on this plate - everything was delicious!!

Cheese Plate
Riopelle, Manchego, and one other cheese I can't remember - again, everything was mmm-mmm-good! We ate the salumi and cheese plates with some hearty bread.

Chorizo Verde & Octopus Skewers
This was the only miss for me - I didn't realize it was chorizo verde when we ordered it... there was an herb in it that just didn't do it for me in terms of flavour.

Fried Chicken w/ Buttermilk Sauce
Let me preface this by saying I am not a fan of fried chicken or dark meat... but this was the freaking best chicken I have ever had! It was juicy and moist, with a light, crispy batter. It was so easy to eat and I gobbled up the entire piece even though I was already full. I would go back just for the fried chicken.