Last night was date night so my husband and I visited Bellota (pronounced bey-otta), a small tapas bar in the SkyCity complex. We have been here before always enjoying the experience, this visit did not disappoint. Early on a Thursday night the place was busy with many people enjoying after work drinks but we managed to get a table. My husband always requires a pen and paper at Bellota, there is so much for him to choose from he likes to write things out. Me being vegetarian means less choice but still plenty on offer. My usual favourite featured, Bolas de queso de cabra (crumbed deep-fried goats cheese, runny honey and toasted almonds), classic flavour combinations that never fail with me. Usually my favourite dish but on this occasion I also had the Croquetas de arroz (Calasparra rice, Manchego cheese, roasted corn and spinach croquettes with sweet tomato jam) and this was the dish of the night for me. Delicate flavours all complimented one other without overpowering each other. My husband enjoyed seven dishes on the night, his standouts included Gambas al ajillo (char-grilled prawns with lemon, toasted garlic and fennel seed butter) and funnily enough because he is a big carnivore I was surprised that Valdeón (cheese stuffed figs on salad of zucchini, roasted pine nuts, piquillo peppers and crispy kumara) was also top of his list. My husband finished with cheese, I finished with the Chocolate olive oil mousse with almond meringue and raspberries, an interesting dish to me. I didn’t particularly like it at the first bite but I found myself going back for more, before I knew it the dish was gone. The components separately didn’t work but putting them together made the difference. The service at Bellota is always great, the waitstaff are knowledgeable and accommodating and they move around the venue with purpose, re-filling drinks and delivering dishes without intrusion. Another great visit, off to the movies for the second part of date night.

This is real tapas. The atmosphere, the food, the drink, the staff, everything screams tapas. So many restaurants miss the mark with tapas sometimes charging in excess of $30 for a "tapas". Not at Bellota, dishes started as low as $4.50 for the pickled ox tongue!
The service was very friendly and attentive, the goats cheese was creamy and sweetened with liquid honey, the ox tongue was so moreish beyond belief and was helped with a great cucumber salsa. In total we ate 8 dishes and 2 glasses of wine. The only negative of our Bellota experience was the cassava chips where tasteless and very chalky other than that we loved all the food. Bellota are multi award winners and fully deserve there title.

Great wine, great cheese, great decor. Really was a fine way to spend an evening. I'll be back to Bellota for sure!

Given that Bellota is associated with Peter Gordon I expected to get tantalising morsels of incredible flavour. Perhaps it was down to the choices we made, but I was disappointed. The 'chefs choice' of cheese and meats (approx $45) consisted of two small pieces of cheese, about 10 thin slices of a spanish 'salami', four small dips which were relatively bland in flavour and about 10 slices of unremarkable bread (it did not even taste very fresh). The chicken liver was nowhere near as nice as the one Mecca does. The Calamari was nice and thick, but was tough!! (certainly did not expect that from Peter Gordon!). The mains ... my friend had fish which looked ok, I had artichoke which was alright but became very bland after I had eaten one of them and I wished that I had kept the bread to mop up the juices on the plate. Said juices were a worry because we were seated in a couch booth and had to eat off our knees, it would have been easy to spill on my clothes. Thankfully the waitresses were very obliging with their supply of serviettes. (the waitresses were the saving grace actually). On to dessert which was billed as lemon cake or tart ... it was more like a creme brulee without the sugar frosting - which wobbled on the plate with a dolop of sorbet and some cinnamon 'crackers'. There was no 'punch' in the lemon or the cinnamon and the crackers were not substantial enough to dip into the sorbet.

The tequilla cocktail was the best taste of the night. It was spicy, but full of ice, which is not so classy.

I am being quite sincere when I say that I could cook tastier dishes myself!

There were four of us on a weekday night. Bellota was fairly busy and we had to sit at one of the little, low tables with stools. This meant that we had to be efficient on how we arranged the plates on the table, but the upside was that we could only order 3-4 plates at a time and really take our time and relax.

Bellota has a nice, cosy feel to it, with the dark wood decor and low lighting. The service was efficient and polite. And the food was great. We nibbled our way through things like a plate or Serrano ham, deep fried goats cheese with honey, tortilla and polenta crusted calamari.

Coupled with a bottle of good Spanish wine, it was a very enjoyable night out.

Expect to pay $40-$50 each for a meal and wine.

Visited Bellota Saturday 16th June - 8 people before the show at Sky City.
The food was excellent, and so much variety, our vegetarian guests were thrilled with the choices.
It was a bit uncomfortable on the high stools, and next time (with less people) would choose a booth & table.
The waiting staff were fantastic and very accommodating. Bellota had a lovely atmosphere and we all thoroughly enjoyed trying non-Kiwi wine to compliment our choices.
Thoroughly recommend the fritters and the pork belly.
We will be back.

Unfortunately we had a disappointing experience at Bellota. The service was poor at best, with no consistency in wait staff meaning we received no real service with a bottle of wine being finished without filling all glasses and then the waitress walking off before we could request another.


The wine list was good and we did like the wine when we were allowed to order it. The food was not; extremely low in taste and spice. We tried potatoes bravas (wedges with tomato on them without any of the chilli as described), snails, cheese fritters (bland risotto balls), chorizo (the highlight), prawns, pickled chillies, olives and cerviche.


So whilst the menu looked good, the reality was not.

Had an awesome food and wine experience at Bellota. We asked the waitress for a recommendation for the wine (all Spanish), it went perfectly with our delicious tapas!


From memory, I was very fond of the Patatas bravas ... an intimate atmosphere, professional service, will definitely be back.