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This faded Spanish stalwart in the bowels of the Theater District is a decidedly low-key affair. A short flight of stairs leads you to a dark, burgundy-carpeted dining room on one side and an even darker bar on the other. The kitchen trots out the usual Spanish suspects, along with a smattering of pink-sauce Italian pastas. Best are the Spanish tapas, like springy squid tingling with garlic and red pepper; fig-sized chorizo sausages, their skins splitting to reveal soft pink meat; and piquillo peppers (shaped like a “piquillo,” or little beak) bulging with sweet crabmeat. The old-timey decor vaguely recalls a Spain of castañets and bullfights: Yellow walls are hung with sepia-tone photographs of porticoed plazas and an oil-painting of a foot-stamping flamenco dancer in a tight red dress with black ruffles. — AnneLise Sorensen

Calamares a la plancha, $9.95; Chorizo al vino tinto, $7.95