Malaga

Have been coming here for years. The food is still delicious, the service warm and very welcoming. In fact, my friends and I have never had a bad meal here! The Shrimps a la Chef Grilled usually come out of the kitchen still sizzling in garlic and olive oil... the Chicken Riojana is amazing (whether you order dark or white meat, both great)... the stuffed mushrooms appetizer, the fried Spanish sausage, the Spanish fried potatoes -- all delectable. The red sangria is some of the best you'll find in any Spanish restaurant in Manhattan. Honestly, I haven't got a clue how or why some other reviewers here were not satisfied... This is still one of my favorite "hidden" neighborhood joints, as it has been for decades.

I have lived on the UES for 30 years.I like this place.Always good food.Old school kind of place. If you want trendy go to Second Ave.

The service was terribly slow. We had to even get up to serve ourselves at one point. The food was EH..The shrimp were minute and overcooked(very tough) and the mussels we ordered were either closed or raw. The salad that comes with your meal is 2 pieces of lettuce right out of the iceberg bag drenched in water.

I am not sure if anyone has actually been to Spain that may have eaten here.. Because the Paella is nothing like an authentic Spanish Paella. More like mexican rice with some overcooked seafood. Wrong color and wrong texture, no taste at all. Granted I was there at lunch time and there is a possibility that the dinner dish is better! The sangria was not too bad . Will not be going back to this place.

When I walked into Malaga the atmosphere was amazing. I sat at my table and the scenery pulled me in. About 35 minutes later I got a little anxious for my food, when it got to my table I forgot completely about the time because the preparation it took to make those sizziling grilled shrimp was worth it. The service however was shakey, my rice got to the table completely late, but the taste of the food almost completely filled the gap. If you ever go to Malaga get the grilled shrimp. Delish!

We are a young married couple who live on UES, love to try new restaurants, and could pretty much have a good time in any place, especially one that supposedly has famous red or white sangria by the pitcher. not this place... The rundown is this...we arrive and place was fairly packed with an older crowd on a saturday night, but we get seated right away without reservation. Order a pitcher of red sangria which turns out to be "ok", possibly the highlight of the meal. Get some stale bread and have to ask for water.. We order 1 tapa of fried calamari, 1 paella valenciana, and 1 shrimp in garlic sauce. We get 2 salads that come with meal that is basically some iceberg lettuce and 2 canned black olives drowned in French dressing. yum. then the calamari arrives, which might have been brought over from the Finnigans Wake Irish bar across 1st avenue. Tasted like really tough onion rings that were fried in 5-day old oil. the paella and sizzling shrimp arrive next. the shrimp weren't half bad, fairly tasty, although they looked like the runts of the litter because they were true to the name "shrimp". no jumbo here. the paella was really heavy with oil, and although it was edible, there was absolutely nothing special about the flavor. not to mention the "scary" seafood that came with the dish - the mussels/clams/scallops all looked old/undercooked, and i ate a mussel that tasted like it was fished out of the east river - i had to spit it out into my napkin. anyway, no dessert/coffee, and when i got the $78 check i immediately thought "wow, that was a waste". This place is the only Spanish restaurant on the UES, so I'm sure that's how they've managed to stay in business...but the food is sub par at best, and we will never return.

I have always held Malaga in very high regard. Their food is great, their sangria is amazing, the decor is cozy, their portions are huge, and the price is reasonable. Probably the most impressive thing about them is their extensive menu.