Kathleen Cei photo

Croquetas de bacalao (codfish croquettes) dotted with aioli.

Ibiza Tapas Restaurant and Wine Bar

1832 Dixwell Ave., Hamden; 203-909-6512, ibizatapaswinebar.com. Hours: Dinner 5-10 p.m., seven days a week; late-night menu available at the bar until 12:30 a.m.

I'm not sure quite when it happened, but long before we tasted the food I knew the evening at Ibiza Tapas was going to be a complete success. It may have been love at first sight; the moment we stepped into the cozy, colorful restaurant, I got a warm, fuzzy feeling.

Maybe the magic moment was when we slid into the plush banquette seating and got our first view of the Modigliani-inspired room dividers and bar theme. Or perhaps the thought crystallized while reading the menu, like a Spanish poem, salivating over each tapas description and realizing that not a single dish cost over $10.

It feels like a gem just in finding the place.

There's no sign marker from the road and it's only once you've turned onto Robert Street, where you'll find ample street parking, that you notice the Ibiza Tapas logo painted on the side of the building.

Inside Ibiza Tapas, shadows dance across the walls, cast there from the glow of street lamps across the lettering stenciled on the windows. The room glows with the wall's red and gold hues. Triangle panels in primary colors separate the main dining room from the bar, which features a huge black shelving unit, backlit in more bursts of colors.

Owner Ignacio Blanco acquired the spot on Dixwell Avenue in February, spent less than six months renovating with the help of manager Jay King and then opened Ibiza Tapas in June. The head chef, Juan Garcia, has spent 15 years working with the team at both Meigas in Norwalk and at Ibiza Restaurant in New Haven, one of the nation's most acclaimed Spanish restaurants.

They change the tapas menu every three months — the next one debuts around Christmas. Blanco frequently travels to Spain, brings back ideas, then Garcia tries them out in the kitchen, adding his own twist. Next, the two taste-test everything before deciding on a final menu.

The tapas menu is divided into four categories — traditional, cold; traditional, hot; modern, cold; modern, hot — with separate sections for large tapas and desserts. We tried a bit of each.

Eggplant caviar best describes the xanfaina ($6), a generous pile of it mixed with red peppers, smeared on toast and then drizzled with olive oil and sea salt.

The alcachofas ($7.50) dish looked like modern art: Four grilled artichoke halves with long, elegant stems, a little burnt around the edges for a hint of crispy charred flavor, arranged with three large beet slices, like hot-pink polka dots on the plate.

Under the low lighting, the purple and translucent white skin of the baby octopus in the pulpitos ($7) seemed to shimmer. It came lightly dressed in olive oil, with an onion confit. In the sepia ($7.75), marinated cuttlefish and black olives bobbed in a rich white wine and saffron broth.

The marinated bluefin tuna in the atún marinado ($8.75) surprised us. At first, we couldn't find the fish because we mistook the huge reddish cubes of raw tuna for tomatoes, which also flavored the dish along with scallion and black olives. Four potato chips gave a salty, crisp contrast to the tender tuna.

Garcia mixes up the walnut goat cheese in-house with fig and truffle oil for the sweet nevat en tostada ($7.75). Croquetas de queso ($6) are the Spanish version of fried cheese sticks, using fresh requesón cheese and topped with apple aioli.

I was dining with a friend who lived in Catalonia, Spain, and she was excited to see butifarra ($7.75) on the menu, a traditional dish of the region featuring grilled white sausage with white beans in a garlic sauce. It's a specialty here — Garcia has a friend who makes the sausage exclusively for Ibiza.

Much of the ingredients come from Garcia's connections, like the cheeses specially bought from a friend who imports fresh items from Spain and gives Garcia weekly recommendations.

To finish off the evening, we ordered what King calls a signature dish: chocolate croquettes with lemon gelatin and coconut foam ($6.50). Geraldo Arana makes the dessert fresh daily, and it tastes that way. Warm chocolate bursts forth from the almond covered sphere. The foam doesn't really taste like coconut, but the lemon gelatin gives a refreshing finish. This dessert is served on four silver spoons, and the croquettes beg the question: to bite or not to bite? The servers advise you to take it all in one shot for good reason: It can get messy. Still, we liked to try small bites.

After all, isn't that what tapas are all about?