The octopus arrives sliced almost transparent, fanned across the plate, dusted with paprika and finished with olive oil and sea salt. That is the whole dish. It costs $26.95, and it is coming out of a kitchen wedged into a Publix plaza on St Andrews Boulevard, a few minutes from Town Center Mall, next door to a pizza place.

Walk in and the parking lot stops mattering. La Terraza Tapas & Bar has a brick barrel ceiling, crimson walls, dark wooden furniture and lighting turned low enough that a Tuesday feels like a Saturday. The chef is from Galicia, in the far northwest corner of Spain, which is exactly where that octopus preparation comes from. This is not a Spanish-inspired restaurant. It is a Spanish restaurant that happens to be in a strip mall.

What You're Getting Into

Start at the cheap end, because the cheap end is genuinely good. Pan con tomate is $10.95, ripe grated tomato smeared over warm toast with manchego. Patatas bravas are $12.95, spinach and garbanzos $12.95, garlicky mushrooms $14.95. The tortilla is $14.95 and comes out with that omelet-like balance of egg and potato that tells you someone actually watched the pan. Croquetas de jamón are $15.95, crisp on the outside, and they land with a tangy caper aioli for dipping.

If you want one plate that covers the table while you decide, the Tabla Terraza is $22.95: jamón ibérico, aged manchego, olives, pan con tomate and tortilla on one board. The stuffed eggplant at $17.95 is the sleeper, breaded and rolled around goat cheese and ibérico ham under a tomato paprika sauce.

Then the plates worth the drive. Pulpo gallega is $26.95, and there is a griddled version, pulpo plancha, at the same price if you want it with a little char and aioli instead. Lamb chops are $27.95. Shrimp in garlic is $20.95 and arrives in a brown ceramic bowl you will smell before it reaches you. The paellas are the group order: Valenciana and Marinera at $39.95, Negra at $43.95, with larger two-person portions of each running $64.95 to $69.95. Paella is a share-it-and-wait dish, so order it on a night you have the evening, not a night you have forty minutes.

Save room. The Basque cheesecake is $14 and runs crumblier and less sweet than the New York version, churros are $12, and the tarta de Santiago is $12 if you want the almond cake that closes out a meal in Galicia.

The Insider Move

Do not order everything at once. The kitchen is fast, which sounds like a good thing until nine plates land together and your table turns into a traffic jam. Ask your server to course them out in waves. That is how tapas is supposed to work, and it doubles the length of the night for free.

Happy hour runs Monday through Friday, 4 to 7 PM, and it is the cheapest way to test the place before committing to a paella night. Google lists the restaurant as closed on Tuesdays, so plan around that. Monday is the only other day without lunch, since the door does not open until 4 PM. Every other day of the week opens at noon. Parking is a plaza lot, free and rarely full, which is not a small thing in this part of Boca. And if you are coming for flamenco, that is a separate calendar: the shows run on select dates with a cover charge, usually a couple of shows in one evening. Call before you build a night around it.

What People Are Saying

Google has it at 4.8 stars across 379 reviews, which is a hard number to hold for a room this size. The reviews repeat the same few things: the free bread basket with olive oil, the sangria, the paella, and how many people say the room reminded them of somewhere in southern Spain.

Christie Galeano-DeMott reviewed it for Boca Raton Magazine in May 2025. She described the Galician octopus as paper-thin and tender under its dusting of paprika, simply prepared and expertly done, and her verdict on the place was that it "authentically embraces Spanish tapas." Prices have crept up slightly since she visited, which is worth knowing if you are working off that review.

It is a family operation. Chef Carlos runs the kitchen and his wife Lynn runs the room, and regulars tend to mention both.

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