“Food with Love”

That is the last tagline description that can be found on the menu of Mediterraneo . Through the years, I indeed have come to love this little resto in Hermosa Beach specializing in Spanish and Italian tapas that are made with love. 🙂

Every day Mediterraneo has a great selection of “classic cocktails, select wine, craft beers and food with love” but there are two specific days of the week that this place has something truly special for their customers. Those days are Sundays and Tuesdays. 🙂

Sundays at Meditterraneo are Sangria Sundays. On Sundays, sangria is half off. Pitchers of sangria are normally $30 but on Sundays, they are only $15. Restaurant goers have the choice of white or red sangria. I love how the sangria is packed with fresh fruit. The refreshing drink is served in glass with a fork, for easy consumption of the fruit.

Tuedays at Mediterraneo are Tapas Tuesdays. On this day Mediterraneo has 2 for 1 specials on several of their tapas. Their tapas consist of various seafood, meat, poultry, veggie and cheese plates.

I am not a seafood eater but my friends have enjoyed different seafood plates from here.

The seafood & fennel is a nice looking salad like plate. It has chilled calamari, shrimp, fennel and lemon.

The Antonio is another dish that my friends have enjoyed. It has scallops, shrimp, muscles and basil cream sauce. It comes with a side of bread. The thick basil cream sauce is perfect for dipping.

From the meat and poultry tapas, there are two particular dishes that I am fond of.

The Polpette is a tapas dish consisting of beef meatballs in San Marzano tomato sauce and parmigiano. The meatballs are so soft and tender and the sauce gives the perfect flavoring. The San Marzano tomato sauce is light and tasty.

From the poultry section, I like the chicken souvlaki. This plate has two chicken skewers that is served with a side of tzatziki and red onion relish. Mediterraneo does a fine job on their version of this Greek classic cusine. The grilled chicken dipped in the cool and creamy tzatziki sauce is amazing.

For the non-seafood and meat eaters, Mediterreaneo has plenty of options. Two of my favorite tapas come from this section of the menu.

I am a big fan of any dish with eggplant! Mediterraneo has a great eggplant fries dish. It is served with romesco aioli. The eggplant fries are served hot and crispy. My love for these delightful fritters got me a feature in The Weekly Yelp in February 2013.

My all time favorite tapas from Mediterraneo is the Arancini. It is fried risotto with smoked mozzarella, peas and San Marzano tomato sauce.
The fried risotto balls are perfectly crispy and even first bite one can instantly see why this dish is so delightful. It has the nice, creamy and cheesy like texture inside.

Last but definitely not the least, is Mediterraneo’s desserts! All of their desserts are a wonderful treat!

The Salted Caramel Pot de Creme comes with marcona almond brittle with creme fraiche whip and biscotti. It’s a soft flan like dessert with just the right hint of salted caramel. There are two biscotti crisps that are in this dish that compliment the soft creme fraiche whip.

The Butterscotch chocolate moelleux with citrus creme, caramel and candied kumquats is my favorite dessert. In general I am not a chocolate fan but this is the dessert that just might change my mind about loving chocolate. This chocolate cake like dessert is so moist. It’s served freshly baked and it’s like eating brownies that have just come out of the oven.

The Nutella creme brûlée is another dessert that my friends and I have tried. It comes with caramelized sugar, phyllo crust and Nutella cream. The main base is a soft chocolate pudding type texture and the bottom is a crispy phyllo crust. This dessert is very unique and interesting!

The Mediterraneo is a great place to try classic cuisine with a twist! I’ve enjoyed all the various tapas I’ve tried here and I’ve always found this to be great place to enjoy a good meal with good friends. The delightful cuisine along with the overall relaxed yet classy atmosphere of this restaurant makes it one of my favorite spots to spend times with friends at the pier in Hermosa Beach.

For more smiles, please see my Yelp review from the first time I tried Mediterraneo in 2012.