Tapas & Sangria at Sevilla in Riverside + A Funny Story

Sevilla (Riverside's location)
3252 Mission Inn Ave
Riverside, CA 92507
Website here.

* Updated while watching Julie & Julia (movie about a girl who spends a year cooking through Julia Child's recipes).  :)

 Part of the menu:

White sangria - "White wine with fruit and liqueurs" (toooo strong for me):

Alioli & Fresh Baked Bread - "Homemade alioli & Andalusian tomato sauce"/"Kalamata olive or French loaf (serves 2)" - Best bread and dips I've had in awhile. That alioili was good, but the red pepper whatever that was was my favorite.

"Tortilla Espanola" - ("Sundried tomatoes, roasted garlic, goat cheese") - apparently a "tortilla" is like a potato omlette in Spain. yum! Melissa got this, and we actually tried looking for a tortilla.

Chicken Empanada (olives, golden raisins, & Chorizo) and Cheese and Chicken Empanadas (Imported Manchego cheese & Chorizo Riojano):

Three types of sausages (Grilled Spanish Sausages - "Chorizo, Riojano Longaniza, & Morcilla") and meatballs (Sauteed Meatballs al Jerez - "Sherry garlic sauce"). The sausages were SO delicious but sooo oily and rich. The dark one was my favorite. The meatballs were way too salty--even for Melissa, who likes salty food.

The inside of my Chicken Empanada (olives, golden raisins, & chorizo). Delicious. Can't really taste the raisins much, but maybe that's a good thing. Subtle sweetness can be good in savory dishes in my opinion.

Funny story time: Mia, Melissa, and I went to Sevilla for their happy hour to celebrate the end of finals/the end of our first year of graduate school. The food was delicious but rich, and then I went home and lost it all in the toilet. Lovely. It wasn't food poisoning because I shared food with M&M, who were fine. Anyway, the funny thing is that our research team wanted to celebrate the end of the year as well, and where did we end up going? To Sevilla for tapas and sangria. Hahaha Hilarious. It's okay though...I just avoided over-eating and over-drinking (not that I over-drank the last time; I didn't have much at all) and didn't eat the too-salty meatballs or the sausage at all because I could not stop thinking about the oily sausage just before and just after I barfed it all up. :P  Anyway, here are the tapas we had (and I had a red sangria this time):

The Brava Sauteed Potatoes ("Spicy tomato sauce" - far right below) were really good! So flavorful and not TOO spicy. I could have eaten way more than I actually did.

Sevilla Fried Calamari: