From The New Orleans Menu Daily By Tom Fitzmorris Originally published October 1, 2007 Fiesta Bistro 2$ Carrollton/Riverbend: 1506 S. Carrollton Ave. 865-1612 Lunch and dinner continuously seven days. AE DC DS MC V Spanish. If your taste for Spanish food has been sharpened in recent years by the increasing number of restaurants serving it, this place will give you a very pleasant surprise. Not much to look at inside or out (many previous restaurants and stores have really worn the premises out), the Fiesta Bistro cooks some of the best paellas, tapas, and other Spanish-inspired dishes in these precincts. It opened after the hurricane, and for awhile maintained a menu of both Spanish and Mexican food. But those who ventured into the Spanish dishes (which remain uncommon in New Orleans) found them so interesting that the owners were able to drop the Mexican pretense some months ago. They tell me that a name change to reflect that will shortly follow, and that the restaurant will become Café Granada. Three of the hot tapas (appetizers to you and me) at the very least persuade you that the chef knows a few tings. The mussels (the black-shelled kind, not the bigger but tasteless green-shell mussels most other Spanish places use) come out in a peppery tomato sauce which is not so spicy that you won't be after every last milliliter of it with a spoon. It mixes with the juices of the mussels, of course, and that is some kind of flavor. The calamari are also offbeat. They're sauteed in olive oil with a lot of garlic and lemon juice, instead of being fried. We don't get squid done this way often, and these are as delicious as they are unusual. And the little lamb chops (yes, as an appetizer, two of them) come off the grill with an original mint-tinged aioli, reminiscent of the classic thrill of lamb and bearnaise. Also here are croquetas--a sort of spherical crab cake with shrimp, too. And flamed rectangles of manchego cheese (the Romano of Spain), kind of like the Greek saganaki. In the cold tapas department, there's a delicious hot-smoked salmon (totally different taste and texture from lox) with grilled asparagus, and carpaccio of beef, sliced thin and sent out with a little olive oil. The tapas keep on coming. Half a dozen vegetarian tapas. More machego cheese, and serrano ham. And soups--gazpacho, natch, and a couple more. You could certainly make a meal of all this, and forgo the entree. But you won't, because it's hard to come here and not order the paella. On all the nights I've come here, literally everybody in the place was eating it (except me, one night). It's cooked to order in, near as I can tell, just one size of pan (paella is so often served to a tableful that, traditionally, the pans grow to accommodate the entire group). It includes mussels, shrimp, squid, chicken, and (I think) fish, with peas and saffron and seasonings. Paella is a subtle dish; it's not jambalaya, despite the resemblance. So get past the need for the usual levels of pepper (you got that with the mussels up front), and savor the nuances. The entree list is as short as the tapas list is long. There's a fish of the day, prepared differently as need be. A fuilet mignon, and a bigger order of lamb chops with artichokes and a peppercorn sauce. The Basque-style (they say) chicken roulade is more interesting than good. They make flan flavored with tamarinds for dessert--first time for me. The tequila-cilantro sorbet ought to be interesting. Service is casual and efficient. On most nights, a guitarist plays softly in the corner of the dining room, but he doesn't start until the shank of the evening. Fiesta Bistro has never been particularly busy on any of the nights I've been there. I think that's all about the premises, which really need renovation. It's certainly not because of a lack in the food. Or the prices, which stay below the $20 mark for entrees, and in the low single digits for the tapas. This was a restaurant in the 2007 Top Sixty Ethnic Restaurant Countdown. To view the entire list, click here. Click here for an index of all restaurant reviews. © 2007 Tom Fitzmorris. All rights reserved. news@nomenu.com.