La Tasca - Blackball (last reviewed Jan 2010)

So it was restaurant week and we thought it would be a good idea to check out this tapas restaurant in the Light Stree Pavillion. We made reservations but painfully, the place was completely empty so I felt both silly and like bolting for the door (per my previously established critieria). Let me start with something rather obscure -- the bathroom. It was both about 80F and a boy/girl restroom. Both things confused me and it just got uglier. The waiter was very attentive (no one else there) and ordered our appetizer for us (say what) at this all you can eat but one order at a time. This authentic Spanish restaurant had a caliente unisex bathroom both no spice, in fact, rather bland food. To be fair, there were a number of tasty plates -- fried eggplant, primerib, calamari -- but the rest was forgetable and holy crap, we were in there for 2 hr. I'm thinking of blackballing the entire Light Street Pavillion based on this experience.