Vida Tapas Y Cocteles

A restaurant with Spanish food, like tapas and wine.
Pros: The atmosphere is pretty nice, and the service was really friendly. They have a good menu, and the tapas feel like true Spanish tapas.
Cons: the paellas were disappointing, both the 'marisco' (shellfish) and black rice. The price is not aligned to the experience and food.

It’s by far my favorite Spanish restaurant in Bay Area, love their paella & tapas choice a ton!
Nicely open with elevated indoor seating space, this restaurant is very popular esp during Friday nights & weekends, but yet I kept coming back.
It’s an authentic place offering true Spanish cuisine, the food tastes just like the small restaurants we visited in Madrid or Valencia, which is a huge level up compared to other so called Spanish restaurants in the area ( but instead offering a fusion of cuisine, kinda disappointing if you look for real Spanish cooking)
Any dishes we ever ordered, cooked to perfection, the sangria or mock tail? Also great like bringing you to the night on Sevilla old town.
Their service team is super nice, always in a great mood & attentive ( though the restaurant is super full & busy!) love the surprise bday song they sang to me as well!
Oh, don’t forget to order their cheese cake for dessert! Personally, it’s the best Basque cheesecake I had in Bay Area!

The place looks modern and everything is new and clean. The atmosphere was very relaxed. My only complaint would be their music was a bit loud, but not too bothersome.

Their service was great. The staff was attentive and the food was brought out quickly.

With respect to the food, I'll preface this by saying I'm Spanish, but my review is made knowing that Spanish food abroad is never going to be the same as in Spain. We ordered the following:
- Albóndigas: I didn't like them at all. The lamb meat was chewy and they had a chorizo-like aftertaste that made them weird. The tomato sauce was also too spicy.
- Croquetas de jamón: Although I prefer more traditional stew croquettes, these ones were alright. They come with aioli, which I didn't like much and I would have preferred if it was served on the side.
- Tortilla de patatas: I saw complaints in other reviews, but I have to say it was a lot better than I expected. I couldn't fault it.
- Pulpo gallego: I didn't have it, but my wife did and she says it was really good.
- Pimientos padrones: not the same variety of pepper you find in Spain, but close enough. Some are spicy and some are not. The dish was small, but it had a huge amount of peppers in it.
- Paella de carne: this was a nice surprise after a disappointing one in a different Spanish restaurant in the Bay Area. It was flavorful, not wet but not super dry either. Unless this is your only dish, I'd say it's the right amount for 2 people.
-Bread: we ordered some bread and I didn't know it would be toasted on the grill, which is fine, but they sent ours out with one of the sides completely burnt (not even slightly, it was fully charred black). We sent it back and they got us a new one immediately, but they should have seen it before sending it out.
- Cocktails: we had the Passion Twist mocktail which was ok, fruity, and we also ordered the House Sangria, which was really bad. The sangria was very strong, it only tasted like cheap wine with a hint of fruits.

The prices are expensive, but I have never been in any Spanish restaurant abroad in which the food was cheap, so it is about what I would expect.

Overall I enjoyed it and I'd come back.