Spanish Tapas at Saffron

The Beijing restaurant scene seems to be on a tapas frenzy lately.  Over the past six months, I've seen 4 new Spanish restaurants open up, all located fairly close to one another and all serving sangria and tapas.  Why would all of them cater to the same market, which only represents a sliver of the Beijing population? I have no idea, but I'm not going to complain!

This morning, a few girlfriends and I met up at one of the older Spanish establishments in the city - Saffron at Wudaoying Hutong.  I came here about 2 years ago for dinner - didn't exactly love the food back then, but I always loved the rustic setting at Saffron, so when my girlfriends and I had to organize brunch, I was glad to give the restaurant's food a second chance.  And I was happy I did!

Our brunch started off with foie gras...

Followed by a Serrano ham and tomato bruschetta

Then we moved onto the grilled mushrooms...

And nibbled on some manchego cheese...

Before digging into the seafood paella!

Brunch mates Susan and Karen

Brunch mate DSB

Would I come back to Saffron? Absolutely!