If you haven't ... you must! Eye fillet pinchos (skewers), love love love ... perfect for health conscious but a cheeky sangria doesn't go astray. Highly recommend this restaurant to anyone that hasn't tried it!
Absolutely amazing food, by far the best Spanish restaurant I've been to! Such great service from all staff! Most definitely recommend.
Amazing food at incredibly reasonable prices , you can't go past this little gem . Everything was top quality and service was fantastic. 👍👍👍👍👍 Tapas and paella to die for ......... ❤
Cheese croquettes and sangria, yum!!
Highly recommend this place�
Such a beautiful place!! Beautiful food and beautiful people! It is a must try! My favourite restaurant!
Carino is such an amazing little place. The service, the food and the Spanish music was inspiring and thoroughly enjoyable �
Mmm delicious Spanish Tapas. Another lovely night out at Cariño. Spanish Meatballs soft and juicy, Scallops in liquor 43 divine, tender Calamari, Salmon Croquettes (a favourite) and a plate of authentic Paella. Great service as always...so full!
Great tasting authentic Spanish food at a reasonable price and friendly service. I definitely recommend the Paella. !!
What a diamond - delicious food, GORGEOUS staff who are so friendly, attentive and hospitable. A touch of Spain on Mt Alexander Rd �
Tasty food, very friendly staff and great atmosphere!! Loved it and will be back!
Samantha Ignalaga Huang
+5
Came here for my god daughter's baptism. What a great venue for small private functions! Delicious Spanish food and plenty of it! Natalie and Cam were awesome, super friendly and very accommodating. Highly recommend if you're looking for a great Spanish feed!
We tried this place for the first time tonight and were not disappointed. We opted for the set menu which at $55 per head is really reasonably priced. We loved everything they gave us the food is delicious and the service is fabulous and the venue itself is lovely. Will be going back for sure. My only feedback would be some of the dishes like the meatballs have a delicious sauce which would be good to mop up with some bread . Also the main was beautiful, we chose the peri peri chicken, had a nice little salad on the side but could have been elevated by just having some potato as another side. You absolutely must give this place a try!
What can I say, absolutely beautiful owners of this place (Cameron & Natalie), who were also our hosts, and impeccable food. We dined mid-week for my birthday dinner, so it was a very chilled atmosphere.
Cameron was brilliant in his recommendations, and nailed every single one. We had the octopus, prosciutto, calamari, chicken and scallops, paired with a delicious red. What topped it off for us was chatting to the hosts after dinner, and finding out more about the history of the place.
Would highly recommend a visit if you’re in the area, or make the hike there if you’re not! Look forward to coming back again soon.
It was absolutely delicious with fantastic service! Loved the newly renovated ambience as well. Would recommend this place to everyone!
We had a delicious dinner at Cariño tonight. The croquetas were especially tasty, the calamari very tender, the pulled pork sliders great. The only dish we thought was not as good was the Ensalada Verano: too many varied ingredients. We shared the Creme Catalan and the Churros for dessert. Both extreme yummy!
Really great tapas, vibe and service. Highly recommended. We will definitely be coming back to work our way through the menu. It’s a place where you want to try everything.
Amazing food, great atmosphere, welcoming environment.
Family owned restaurant with tasty food and beverages, we had both mains and desserts and couldn’t fault any dish. Highly recommended!!
Great service and food. Food was amazing, we were a little skeptical as my mum and aunty are from Spain and have had not great experiences in Spanish restaurants. We were pleasantly surprised as the food was great and authentic - I highly recommend the mussels and the tortilla is a true spanish tortilla!
Always a pleasure dining at Carino, great atmosphere, friendly staff and faultless food. Always living up to thier rating.
Keep up the good work!!!
Service was super friendly and fast. Decor was pleasant. The vibe was amazing as it was Opal Ocean playing there. Food was solid - the sangria is a house special btw.
This charming Spanish restaurant located on the quiet end of Mt Alexander rd is a family owned business originally from Madrid. I made a reservation on Friday night by phone and was greeted by a very friendly voice. Upon arrival, we were greeted by the friendly wait staff and are seated to a table. Fairly small but intimate restaurant with some interesting Spanish ornaments and a wall painted with a flamenco dancer. We ordered a glass of sangria and 4 tapas to share. The food serving was quite generous for tapas and we struggled to finish them. Fresh and flavourful. Very keen to return to try their paella which is Wednesday night special for almost half price!
Great service food and atmosphere good to be able top try so much for a good price.
Great on a Sunday with live music in the background. Always go out of their way to cater for everyone.
The food was amazing, and paella was perfect! food was fresh, the seafood was fresh, well priced and the service was lovely. Cosy restaurant in a easy to find location, lovely even for a weekday dinner. The sangria jug was also a must! highly recommend this place!
![Zomato]( "Recensione")
Located on Mount Alexander Road this beautiful Tapas Bar lives.
Booking a table for four, I was greeted with such a beautiful waitress with glasses and a lovely accent.
Taking forever to figure out what my friends and I wanted to share we decided on the following:
• Trio Of Dips
• Crispy Calamari With Lemon Aoili
• Salmon Croquettes With Berry Sauce, Cranberries And Preserved Lemon
• Chicken, Lime And Pistachio Meatballs With Romesco Sauce
• Del Mar Paella
• Rosè
• Spanish Sangria Jug
Now, the trio of dips was first to hit the table. It looked utter jaw dropping. The garlic crusted (guessing) bread was lovely with the garlic/chickpea dip and the tomato salsa. Great hit of flavours evident in both of them. For the beetroot (purple) dip I personally wasn't a fan of it. Their wasn't any distinctive hint of any flavour. Very bland if you ask me, nothing really to it.
The crispy calamari did possess a elaborate lemon aoili bed which matched perfectly. I would have liked if their was more on the plate. It actually was a small serving for four of us. Also it was a little chewy. But did punch a big flavour.
The croquette were delightful. You could taste all the spices and ingredients in every single bite. The berry sauce and salmon was sublime, each thing that was on the plate was a match made in heaven. A clear and thought out delicious sharing plate.
The meatballs came to the table, I could tell the red sauce that the balls were laying on looked luxurious and fresh. The balls had a grand texture and taste in them. The sauce was utter class, it exuded great tasting notes of chilli with a hint of salt which suited the balls perfectly.
Now for my favourite dish of the night. Ordering the paella we were told that it does take a minimum of 45 mins and thank the lord we waited. It was extravagant and MASSIVE! All the ostentatious flavours that were inside this bowl were divine. Each of every inch of this plate was sheerly impeccable.
The beverages that we ordered they were fabulous. The Rosè did give notes of sweetness however was very dry, which I do like. Very enjoyable. For the sangria, my friends did say it was a seemingly remarkable drink.
All in all, great service and good food. A good chill restaurant.
![Zomato]( "Recensione")
Suprisingly not busy on a saturday night, although we did arrive for a late dinner around 9 pm. The layout of the venue is not quite like a tapas bar; but more so a traditional restaurant... this worked in our favour as we were enjoying conversations over dinner. The wait staff and chef were LOVELY and so welcoming! I really enjoyed how they made us feel at home. The sangria is very well priced and traditionally tasteful. The menu was accomodating towards vegetarians also. The dishes overall was a mix of hit and miss - the trio of dips had great flavour and my girlfriends enjoyed thr scallops and salmon croquettes. The vegetarian paella was unfortunately a little too salty, and the battered cauliflower waa bland. We also werent a fan of the mushrooms. We enjoyed our desserts but our churros were a little undercooked (the centure was a little raw). Overall we had a good time and the presentation of food was beautiful. Id definitely come back, but hoping for some small changes to certain dishes!
We were really excited to try this place out. They did not disappoint. Very friendly staff. We're making a heartfelt plea- with the beef rib on special tonight, please, please, please put it on the permanent menu!!! It was one of the best dishes we've ever had!!! We'll be back again and again.
Great food, large variety and a very good selection of wine. Maybe s bit pricey but we had such s beautiful dining experience. Good service, friendly staff and a nice atmosphere all round.
Excellent quality tapas we had variety of dishes and every single one of them was cooked quickly delivered and tasted amazing we back again
Had function out back, good servings and tasty, shame beef was a bit dry and overcooked, also maybe a few more seating options for "stand up" functions would be better, but I guess it's a balance between space and cost per cover for the room available.
Fantastic authentic home cooked food. The service was fabulous. Great variety of tasty dishes. We thoroughly enjoyed our dinner and will defiantly be back
Ill start with a quick negative... the waitresses were a bit absent during our dinner but when they were here they were lovely. A group of 8 loud family members can be a handful but the restaurant was generally pretty dead. The paella was decent, I tasted the vegetarian one and it wasn't great, but the seafood one was fantastic! Everything we ate was fabulous, and i ate the Cauliflower, some chorizo, calamari and the olives, it was all gluten free and wonderful! The tapas was definitely tastier than the paella. Great food and great atmosphere... GF FRIENDLY for sure!
Well this place was a delightful surprise!
We came here with a craving for some 'decent' paella, since it's hard to find a good paella in Melbourne - let alone a great one.
We ordered paella, entrées, and desserts, all selections were absolute winners!
The flavours carried me back to my visits to Spain, where it was possibly the closest thing to having an actual paella dish in Spain!
Ambience suited the food perfectly, it definitely started my love affair with Cariño Tapas Bar.
Well done guys, we'll be back very soon.
The Spanish Meatball where actually to die for and the staff where very accommodating with the wheelchair which made my friend feel comfortable that they had ramp entrance.
Lovely romantic restaurant! Came here for our anniversary and had lots of little dishes, some were delicious, others were ok, would like to come back and try more.
An amazing restaurant!!! Would definitely recommend to everyone! Beautiful food and fantastic service! I cannot get enough of this restaurant and their amazing tapas and paella! Best I have ever had!
The service was good and the staff were professional and friendly. The food was mixed, some really great dishes, others were not so great. Will probably be back to try different meals, could have just been a bad choice.
Great place, great service and wonderful food ... Need more of the Jamon ....
Will be back next time .... For a some more food next year ..
Strangely enough, was recommended this place twice in one day! Decided that we had to give it a try....was hoping for the best since I had a friend visiting from Qld...and wow was I impressed! So was my friend, and she is a huge foodie! Every dish we purchased to share was AMAZING but the churros were like a little nibble of heaven with each and every bite. Attentive, friendly waiters/waitresses and a visit from Isabella, the hugely talented and hilarious chef, topped off the night. She even agreed to assist me with a personal fundraiser, demonstrating empathy and energy that I felt was something really special. Highly recommend this Spanish gem to young and old, but make sure you're hungry as the servings are generous! I will certainly be a regular (oh...and although I was driving and had to content myself with water, my friend raved about the house made Sangria!)
Went on Sunday lunch-first time at the restaurant had fabulous food, excellent service and able to recommend. I am back for more seafood paella and sangria. Food to die for!!
Not a good start. Reserved table at front of house given away by waiter whose friends walked in. Now at back staring at kitchen smelling smoker
Wednesday night paella and sangria for only $25 is a great deal. Paella is cooked perfectly and the sangria taste test came up really well. A surprise was a tapas of seared schallops. Highly recommended meal in ascot vale.
Delicious! Would come back again.. Had dinner last night here for the first time, and was very impressed with the food. We had the chorizo, calamari (well cooked and not chewy), mussels, patatas bravas, and churros for dessert. Everything was flavoursome, would like to try their meatballs next time. The sangria was really nice and better than other places, had the usual fruit pieces in them but also some spices like subtle hint of cinnamon etc.
Pricing is the same as any other Spanish restaurant so no issues there, and we had no issues with the service. We'll be back :)
My partner had a sudden craving for Spanish (though I think he meant Mexican!) and I'm glad he got confused bc we found this place on US and the food was fantastic!! The dips platter, chorizo and couscous among our faves. Definitely will return.
Excellent tapas and sangria. Croquettes and prawns were delicious! Service was a let down though, with our drinks forgotten twice - hoping the new front of house staff get trained up well!
I dropped in last week and I disagree with the wonderful reviews about the service. Firstly,they forgot to bring us the menus and had to wait 15 mins before someone came and asked if we were ready for order,obviously we weren't. Then my fiance's meal was taken to our table at least 10 mins before mines and this really annoyed me. We just felt abandoned and the staff should pay more attention to the costumers. On the other hand,the food was nice.I had the chicken meetballs with pistachio which was yummy and a tasty bread with olive oil and vinegar as entree. The sangria is lovely as well. I'll be back for the delicious food and hopefully this time the staff will pay more attention to me.
Lovely Little Local. Went to Carinos for the first time last night. Surprised by the negative comments, we thought it was a little gem. Great range of wines, tapas was lovely and service terrific, with recommendations from the staff re dishes and they were also attentive, clearning dishes quickly, filling wine and water glasses. We really enjoyed our meal; prawn croquettes, meatballs, warm olives, beautifully tender shashlick (not sure of spanish name, yum! Shared two bottles of wine that pushed the price up, but for 3-4 tapas dishes and a glass of wine this is the perfect local spot for us.
Cariño Tapas Bar- what can I say?
Staff go above and beyond to make your experience unforgettable.
Food is absolutely wow... so full of flavour and just a mouthful of awesomeness!! If the lamb fillets are still on the menu, make sure you try it... you'll definitely crave a second!!
A must visit if you're in the area!!
As good as Movida. Had a girls catch up on Friday night, Sangria was addictive (3 jugs werent enough) it was just delicious! We had 10 different tapas & raciones and 2 paellas all up, could not fault any of it & service was attentive, polite & efficient, I've read the bad reviews here & I did not encounter any of them, This is my second visit there & both in larger groups and was great both times, highly recomended.
Nice place. Good food and friendly staff. Little expensive but good overall.
Amazing Food. Have been here a couple of times now and both times I have been amazed by the food. The food is delicious and full of flavour. It was very hard to pick a favourite dish, there were so many that I enjoyed. Would highly recomend the fig and goats cheese, chorizo and olives, salmon croquettes, scallops in lime. It was worth holding out for dessert too....yum!!
Loved It!!!!!!!. I have read some previous reviews & cannot believe some of the negative comments. The food was absolutely fantastic, not too expensive & the staff were great!!!! Went with a chef too who said the experience has restored his faith in Spanish tapas. We will definitely be going back on a regular basis
Disregard the bad reviews.
Carino - best Spanish tapas. Every meal was fantastic. Great service & great food.
Had a great night. I organised a night out for work colleagues, having been to Carino's before, and we all thought it was fantastic. Not sure where all the other negative reviews are coming from. Food arrived with just the right amount of time before servings, the sangria was fantastic and a few of the others at the table loved the choices of wine and beer. The following day we all talked about it with most of us saying we would definitely go again. When you read negative reviews you can be put off trying a place, but I think you should try it and see for yourself. For those who think it is expensive, I think it is on a par with most places I eat at. In terms of meal sizes, it is tapas after all. You try a number then order 2 of your favorite. I love trying all the different foods because don't you just hate going to a restaurant and looking at the other diners plates and wish you had ordered what they did. I will keep returning!
We went to Cinos for our monthly ladies evening and we were so impressed by the delicious food, lovely sangrias and friendly service! Grazie Mille - The 4 signore
Best local Spanish. Love this restaurant. Recommend the Sangria. Couldn't stop drinking it...
Carino gets the tick. Not Tapas in the traditional Spanish sense but a nice bar to have a few wines and some lovely food. The mussels & fig dish are recommended, as well as the sirloin steak (very tender!). I wouldn't recommend the green beans as they are a bit bland. The churros are also really indulgent, well worth it if you feel like a sweet finish. The staff were a little slow (perhaps understaffed) but we didn't have any serious problems as they were very pleasant. Probably looking at $40-$50 each including one drink; I would definitely go back.
Great night out. Great venue, great ambience, great service, great food. Liked everything we had here, packed full of flavour. Make sure you book, it's busy. My only qualm was the pork belly, even though was cooked beautifully, not enough fat was rendered away. Will definitely be back.
Excellent Service. Dined at Carino on the Sunday night of the long weekend and the waiter was awesome. He was just filling in for the night but made us feel special and ensured everything went smoothly with some great recommendations. Started with a couple of tasty tapas and then the Seafood Paella. Good serving of seafood.
This is the second time we had been there and the food was fantastic. In fact going again this week with a group of friends. Bon appetite
Great taste. I have been here twice now and both times it was excellent - tapas hot, tasty and plentiful, good service, good wine.
The only negative comment I have is that they don't bring the bill when you say you are done and proceed to ignore you until you get up. But that's quite normal in the 'burbs of Melbourne.
We absolutely loved this place. The food is just beautiful... But pricey though! Lamb cutlets, calamari, prawns, croquettes, chorizo, patatas... And more! Ended it all with some churros! Delish! Will be back in the near future!
Hidden gem!! My partner took me to Cariño for dinner, it was everything I was after. Killer wine selection, delicious tapas options, and great atmosphere. We shared about 6 tapas + paella an a bottle of vino and it was the perfect amount of food for the two of us. Decent prices with week night specials so check them out! The staff is super friendly and fun to chat with. Highly recommend sitting in a window section so you can watch all the cute doggos pass by as you gorge on paella 🙌
MANUELITO COCINERO #SABORRTT (#SABORRTT)
+5
Awesome place to enjoy the real Spanish food, nice croquettes and super delicious paella Mixta and amazing churros for enjoy whit your family and friends!!! If you visit this place you need drink Sangria is a traditional coctel from Spain!!!
If you could give 10 stars I would! The food was amazing the drinks are to die for. Most of all you walk through the door and feel like family. The perfect way to celebrate our anniversary after Covid. Thank you Carino for such an amazing night. Do yourself a favour and get down to this place. #watermelonmocktails #tacos #croquettes #cocktails
One of the best sangrias in melbourne. Had a lovely paella, fantastic calamari and the best scallops ever. Didnt even manage to take a picture as we devoured food too quickly the moment it hit the table. Very attentive service, lovely little courtyard. A great family restaurant
Food was a solid effort, well presented. The sangria is a house special. Service is extremely friendly and prompt! Great environment
Great venue with a small but strong menu. Lots of interesting spaces to choose from to dine. Attentive and skilled staff. Would return.
Love the food. Great authentic flavors and fantastic service. Only drawback is the cost, as it's pricey for the portions and the ingredients. To be fair, it's competitively priced for a Spanish tapas restaurant but compared to alternative cuisines in this neighborhood, i would say it's a place for special occasions only.
Went in last night for a quick bite after the chef had left and all staff were extremely accommodating giving us a few options that they could whip up and we were able to have a few drinks with friends. Great vibe and energy, as locals we will be back and their simple kind nature is going to mean repeat business from us and our friends! Thanks!
An error has occurred! Please try again in a few minutes