Santiago's Tapas in Cheltenham

Very Disappointed. Reservation for dinner with a group of friends. The restaurant is closed, with no notification that our reservation has been cancelled. No communication at all. Poor customer service. A simple cancellation notice would have allowed us to make alternative plans.

It was closed! Paper note on the window saying not open. When we searched google knew it was temporarily closed, so that had been updated, but the booking that had been taken had not been told they were closed, leaving 9 of us in town and our restaurant was shut. We understand emergencies happen, but are not clear why there was time to update google but not time to stop bookings or notify those who had booked.

We booked a table here for 5pm last Friday. When we got there the restaurant was closed with a note on the door. Disappointed that we did not get a phone call to tell us as they did have our contact details. We then had to find another place to eat - which wasn’t easy on a Friday !!

We think Santiago Cheltenham may be in trouble ... We've been unable to book a table online the phone goes to voicemail, and when we finally got through the website to book, (8308) we turned up to find a scrawled note on the door saying they were closed. Not even an email to that effect. We had a relative with a mobility issue, so really unimpressed ... :(

Good tapas with friendly helpful service. The menus could be better presented.

Staff and service really excellent, the food exceptionally good, we’re vegetarian /vegan couple our guests eat meat there was so much choice for us which is very rare, they very much enjoyed their options also. We will be back thank you for an excellent dinner/ evening

I love their food. Didn't go for the sharing paella as it was s bit of a wait as it takes time, but the rest of the food was nice. I don't recommended though the baby squid starter as it can be a bit too oily. But a nice place to eat good food.

I had one if the best chicken skewers and garlic prawns, service was second to none. Will revisit again!

Highly recommend. Very friendly staff. One man remembered us from our last visit and Ibbimae (I think was her name) was very friendly and we hope she does well at the Cardiff branch when she transfers. We had a couple of tapas to start and salmon and steak for main. It was delicious. We had paella on a previous visit and loved that too.

Exceptional fresh and tasty food cooked from scratch. Quite rare these days…

Very nice good and great service

Good quality, tasty, authentic paella and calamares were crispy. The olives could be better quality. The pudding; ice crea was good quality. Fair prices, clean,,friedly staff and goid environment. Ejoyable.

Excellent atmosphere, wonderful and tasty food, fair prices. I am just very disappointed with the "marinated" olives, it's a shame, they are not very good quality / bitter olives; I wouldn't mind paying a bit more for them and to have high quality and real marinated olives !

Great place and authentic Spanish cuisine brilliant staff

Lovely food, great service, will definitely be back for more.

Ibbi gave us amazing service - she went above and beyond and gave us the best experience. The food and Sangria were outstanding.

Just popped in for a drink at 7pm and we were the only people there.

The food was decent,I would recommend trying the paella with seafood. The other tapas that we got were not something special. They had so much smoked paprika on top,that we couldn’t actually taste the other flavours. Probably not coming back

Everything at Santiago's was great! We ordered the bacon wrapped dates, two orders of the mushrooms croquettes, patatas bravas, two orders of the vegetable paella, calamari, and a pitcher of sangria to share. We also ended up having the garlic mushrooms due to a mix up and they were quite good! The menu was very vegetarian friendly which was great for the vegetarian in our group. We also tried three of their desserts (Santiago cake, churro, and flan) which was each delicious. The service was very attentive and helpful. I would highly recommend sharing the delicious tapas at Santiago's with some friends!

A very special time and service excellent. Really enjoyed it will be going back. Lovely staff great food and a lovely open clean space. Nice cocktails and sangria

Visited early evening on a Saturday, largely empty so a fairly low-key atmosphere, but good and quick service of some very good quality tapas.

Had tapas. The food was amazing! Decent portions too.

We went 3 people for lunch. We ordered 4 dishes and we were waiting 40 minutes to arrive. We were the only table. The fish was good, the steak was ok. They didn't have ribeye and we had sirloin but we pay exactly the same price. The big disappointment was the chorizo...very very thin slices swimming in a kind of water and oil.. The younger waiter was the only saving grace there.

Great location, reasonably priced dishes with a good selection of options.

Great tapas and sangría. Friendly professional staff. Nice atmosphere. Highly recommended.

Lovely lunch with plenty to eat. Good range of tapas with generous portions. Great service from our waiter Daniel. House red was lovely. Would recommend this restaurant.

Service is ok beer is ok but the tapas is not good maybe late on a Sunday but I won’t be back

Honestly not good food at all, some of it, sadly, was completely inedible. Service was great, and a nice little restaurant in terms of decoration and cleanliness. The food though, I do not know where to start. The chicken croquetas were just incredibly poor, nothing light and creamy, just heavy fried mush, the calamari was undercooked and oh christ is was like chewing a wine gum you've found under your car seat after 2 years. The patatas bravas were like chopped up chips with no seasoning and the sauce was just lacking. The chicken skewers were OK though and honestly, if they could sort the food and actually go look at some other tapas restaurants I think they could turn this around. I can only think this is a temporary or recent decline in food quality as its got good reviews in the past.

Nice atmosphere, authentic. Staff attentive and pleasant. We were walk in after Googling Spanish tapas and they got us seated. Restaurant was quiet but probably due to Kings Coronation today. Not sure my steak was a fillet but it was nice!

Lovely food would highly recommend. Price matches the quality of food !! Definitely come again : )

The food was amazing! Everything came out so quickly. We decided to go for proper tapas experience, and never regretted it. Service was lovely and everyone was really attentive to our needs. Drinks were superb and you could tell that they were prepared with so much love! Definitely recommend for a visit and we will be back soon!

As a coeliac, they catered fantastically to my needs. They cut new potatoes and used new oil to fry chips and were excellent with explaining their processes. The food was fantastic, piping hot and the service was excellent.

Muy buen ambiente y la comida buenísima también! Cuesta encontrar buenas tapas en UK pero la verdad es que era todo riquísimo! Vamos a volver :)

Unfortunately service not as good as previously! Booked for birthday meal (noted on the booking reference).. only people in whole restaurant on Easter holidays evening.. other than drunk colleagues who arrived and the staff then gossiped with.. No cutlery when mains arrived, never asked if we wanted more drinks.. and mistakes on receipt. No mention of Birthday celebration once, so not sure why occasions are bothered to be mentioned. If there is one cover in the whole restaurant there is no excuse for poor service. We really enjoyed the food, nice drinks and it's a shame as previously visited and had completely different experience.

Very nice and a very decent price! Staff are all lovely and very helpful

Had an incredible time visiting Santiago’s for the first time. The food was amazing and the staff were so friendly and accommodating. Will definitely be visiting again!

Lovely staff and excellent food. Really recommend.

Very enjoyable - we had authentic talas , very tasty and the service was excellent

Amazing food, amazing price just all round fantastic experience

Excellent food and service. Everyone enjoyed the tapas. Highly recommended. Unfortunately it was so nice we didn’t take any photos until coffee at the end!

First time we had been to restaurant and was fantastic! Food was amazing with great attentive staff! Highly recommended and will be back again soon!;

Really nice place, good to try somewhere different for a change. Lovely food, fabulous service.

Very nice quality and tasty food , would highly recommend

Excellent night , excellent service and food. Staff were also pleasant, helpful and chatty. Highly recommend

Amazing food, amazing service. This is the best place to eat in Chelters! Blessings to all

Amazing food, service and atmosphere! Would definitely recommend for a quiet lunch or a lively night out!

Had an early lunch with my sister ,the young lady who served us ,(carmen) was charming and very helpful ,

We visited Santiago's at the weekend to try somewhere new, we made an evening reservation thinking it would be busy but we were the only people there the entire time - this was our first red flag! Keeping this in mind, the laminate menus were covered in food and sauce stains, and old food littered under the tables. We ordered lots of different tapas and it was very clear what had been made fresh, what had been reheated and what was old. The food was disappointing and bland, very salty and quite expensive for what you get. There was a 10% compulsory service charge, which given the quality of our experience we felt was unjustified. The attitude of both waitresses didn't improve our visit either. I cannot recommend Santiago's Tapas, I can only hope this review helps others to avoid.

I asked for potato's bravas and was given some hard chips with a white sauce. Nothing resembling what I asked for. Not really a Spanish restaurant. I shall not go again.

Our server in Cheltenham (June) was incredible!

Great service and excellent choice of dishes.

Great service, delicious food.. fully recommended... cheers

Some nice dishes some so so good value

Food and drink was amazing, and the staff were so lovely and attentive!

Delicious food and amazing service, definitely returning!

Wonderful spontaneous lunch have fancied it for a while and the service was fantastic. Will definitely be back x

The food is delicious, the service is very welcoming and attentive plus the ambience is lovely.

Amazing food, great service, lovely staff. Can’t wait to come back

Excellent, service impeccable et personnel très sympathique et professionnel

Very attentive and friendly staff. Seafood paella was amazing. Head chef came out to talk to us. He is very passionate about the food he produces. Thoroughly recommend

Excellent food, excellent service, excellent choice. Great value too.

Such a lovely evening with great food & friendly staff.

Lovely atmosphere, great service!

Get the bacon wrapped dates. Staff were very friendly.

We went for our first valentines day. Was so cute with all the cute little napkins in loveheart shapes and the red roses on the tables. Our waitress was new but she did a fabulous job!

Amazing from the food, the vibes and the waiter just fantastic. It’s was a chef’s kiss

A group of six of us ate out here on 13th Feb 2023 and what a pleasurable experience it was. The waiter was attentive, polite and extremely helpful. Every tapas dish we ordered, 23 in total, was cooked beautifully and tasty. If you're looking for a lovely meal out with great service and value for money, I would highly recommend Santiago's Tapas.

Tapas was fantastic!! We had several small plates all delicious, good wine selection, will be back!!

Truly great food, brilliant service, nothing else to say!

Really outstanding service, staff really friendly and go out of their way to help you. Manager even got us a table when they were booked up, 5*

Great place for quick lovely tapas, good price very friendly staff!

Phenomenal experience. The tapas, paella, and beer were top notch. We always felt welcomed and valued. Truly our favorite restaurant in the area, an absolute must-visit!

Tapas was excellent as was the service would definitely recommend 👌

A late lunch on the Saturday before Christmas. We had 5 veggie tapas and 2 glasses of house red between 2. Plenty of food and nicely cooked. Staff friendly and helpful. Would eat there again. Wine a bit pricey.

Possiblly the worst Spanish restaurant or tapas bar I have ever been to Service fine food appalling The waiter didn't know what fino was! IN A SPANISH RESTAURANT I Despair

50% of our parties food was cold, when we complained a man , I think he was the manager, turned up at our table and said "he was so angry at the way our food was bought to us either he or the chef would end up in hospital this evening" What was that about, a childish way to apologise for cold food, and an abhorrent way to treat or threaten to treat staff, we are not children we do not need any one to threaten to beat anyone up for us, a simple apology would have helped, we were just astounded it was such a weird and patronising thing to say. The food was returned to our table having been blitzed in the microwave, it was, after that, inedible. They also added items to our bill that we hadn't ordered or had, there was a 10% service charge added to the bill, which after the incident with the cold food we refused to pay. The food has no taste or quality, the manager is odd in his behaviour and patronising, one of our party was here from Spain and was adamant this was a very poor interpretation of Spanish food, and disrespected the Spanish cuisines and culture. we will never return.

Quite a disappointment! 😩 I don’t remember when was the last time I had such mediocre tapas. Most of the food we ordered was really bland and the only tapas we actually liked were figs wrapped in bacon. The rest of it was just really bad. Garlic bread was very oily - Asda type. Fish goujons and calamari were tasteless, paella of the day - probably wasn’t even a paella, and beef stew really didn’t taste nice at all. 🚩Also, a massive red flag - the food arrived within 5 minutes of ordering. I would say just avoid cause it’s not cheap for the quality (or the lack of it) of the food you get.

We went as a group of 8 and we thought it was excellent. A really good selection of tapas which catered for lots of different tastes and requirements. Calamari, Croquettes, and Galatian Octopus were particular highlights for us. Service was super friendly and efficient. Decent house red too

No problem in booking a table with the App

Normally I’d try and find at least one redeeming feature for any meal but tonight even that was not possible. The service provided was probably the most patronising that we have experienced in several years. Why not query if patrons have had tapas previously before launching into a diatribe better pitched for kids? Asking if the nom nom was good isn’t a way to endear yourself to adults. Unfortunately the food was fairly flavourless throughout, particularly impressive when chorizo and other such strong flavours featured in many of the dishes. The “special” paella seemed to be the veggie paella with chicken and chorizo thrown in after it had been made. All in all an excessively expensive, extremely average affair. Avoid. Adding a service charge onto the bill when service had never set foot in the building was icing on the cake.

Went in for lunch. Terribly slow and non existent service. Food was ok but lack of sevice was very poor and disappointing. It wasn't busy, but the 2 staff didn't seem to manage well at all. A 3rd turned up at 1pm so hopefully it improved. Won't be going back.

Fabulous. Great food & service. We've booked to go back tonight. 😘🙌

Went on family outing to celebrate nieces 18th birthday Staff friendly, choices on menu very good -plenty to choose from -not only tapas-3 of us had tapas we chose 3 each then had another 3 dishes -the sardines were delicious-the dates wrapped in bacon Devine -but they all were amazing -1 had the burger which was homemade and tasty . Would highly recommend a visit you won’t be disappointed

We thought we would try the new tapas restaurant in town and we are a bit disappointed with our experience. We called twice to book and it was a little frustrating as the person taking the details couldn't hear as it was very loud. We went on a Sunday at 12pm. It was 3 adults and a baby. We were the 2nd table in the restaurant so it was very quiet. We decided to order about 10 of the small plates (tapas) rather than order any mains. We had a bottle of red which was nice and also a pint of San Miguel. I would say 3 or 4 of the tapas were good but the rest were quite bland. We have been to quite a few tapas bars and also had some in Spain. And we felt this wasn't the best. Always worth trying but personally I don't think we will be returning soon.

Terrible quality food, terrible service and food sold as one thing and then a completely different thing arrives. They even added food items onto our bill that we didn't order or eat.

If you love Spanish food this is for eye, excellent going again.

The food is very average l, customer service is okay. Its okay for a quick lunch. Not a good as other local places.

Just stopped in on a Saturday afternoon for a quick drink and a bite to eat. Lovely staff. Lovely food. Would highly recommend.

Really nice restaurant food is good and staff are outstanding.

My favourite resturant in Cheltenham, great staff and amazing food. The menu is authentic and exciting with the staff being great at exposing what is what. They are also Accessible via a portable ramp and have plenty of seating. We had an array of dishes from Paella to prawns to Patatas Bravas and Croquettes. They were all fresh and hot plus the sangria was fruity and refreshing. Will be back!

The food was incredibly tasty. Service was friendly and prompt. We loved it and would definitely go back.

I would say decent. Most dishes are £5 to £7. We had 3. Dishes are small but perfectly fine. Nice Estrella beer too. 👍🏼

Great spanish tapas restaurant atmosphere, staff were very friendly and the food from chef Marios was superb.

We have walked passed this restaurant several times and it always looked busy. So we booked it for 6 people and sat outside looking out onto the promenade on a lovely sunny evening. The serving staff were friendly and guided us in how many tapas dishes to order. They came when they were ready and we a great relaxed, informal evening. Also by Cheltenham standards it was good value.

Lovely meal, very happy with the food and the service would definitely recommend it

Great service, knowledgeable staff, excellent bar selection

I had three potato starters. They were good.

Sadly my friend and I both got food poisoning last night. I appreciate the weather is so hot but really you need to do better. Should have been suspicious when all tapas plates arrived within 5 mins. Shame

Unfortunately our experience at Santagio’s wasn’t great, the food was extremely bland and lacked any flavour. The portion sizes are ok, but slightly overpriced for what you get.

I don t recommend this restaurant. It can t even be named a restaurant. I bought paella of the day and I got s very small portion of yellow rice, two slices of chicken and some horrible chorizo. I thought I am eating dog food. Very expensive as well.. I think they should be shut down