If I hear about one more Denver eatery touting its "small plates" and "tapas," I may start screaming.

I like half portions as much as the next diner who wants to taste a lot of different dishes, but many of these trendy dishes are what we old-timers call "appetizers" - or simply overpriced mini-entrees.

That's why the Ninth Door is such a relief. The recent LoDo addition serves Denver's best version of bona fide Spanish tapas, diminutive bites of simple, flavorful fare designed to accompany drinks.

While my son was at an overnight camp, my wife Betsy and I jumped at the chance to have a Friday night date. One look at the party going on inside was enough to convince us this wouldn't be an intimate meal.

Just inside the front door are cushy chairs and another popular gathering spot: a bed. Patrons sat and stretched out while they sipped, ate and chatted. The attractively attired crowd was decidedly on the younger side of 30, but we didn't feel outcast.

The street-facing wall can be rolled up to bring the street's ambience into a warmly decorated space with a high ceiling, exposed brick, red-orange tones and lots of little votive candles.

The made-to-share menu is evenly divided between cold tapas, hot tapas and mixed drinks. The first home run was the satisfying quesos mixtos ($8), my vote for one of Denver's best cheese plates.

The plate was loaded with mellow manchego cheese with spiced carrot salad, sharp cabrales blue cheese with honeyed almonds and tangy queso de cabra with fig chutney. The portion size was impressive and the cheeses were made to match my dry Sherry.

This night's gazpacho ($3) was a modern interpretation: green foam cucumber soup in a martini glass that was cool and frothy. We sipped it along with a minty mojito.

We nibbled on chorizo al vino ($7), spicy Spanish sausage in bay leaf-accented red wine with bread to soak up the tantalizing sauce. The most pleasant surprise was the warm, yummy aguacate ($7), a lightly battered fried half avocado with mild salsa. We topped off our soiree with super-creamy Meyer lemon flan ($6) with syrup and berries.

Considering the tight quarters, we thought the service was attentive and our waitress took the time to explain the menu and clean our table. Sometimes we did wait awhile for the next dish, but that seems par for the course at these small- plate emporia.

The volume of the chatter and the music rose and the Ninth Door completed its Friday night transition from restaurant to lounge. As soon as we got up, our table and chairs were whisked away to make room for the gathering crowd.

I returned with several friends early on a weeknight to experience the eatery in a calmer state. Most of the tables eventually filled, but there was much less hubbub and roar. We enjoyed the acoustic guitar duo sitting near the bed playing flamenco and gypsy music.

For starters - sorry, I still think in courses - we gave a big thumbs-up to the salad with artichokes ($7), field greens topped with smoky grilled artichokes in sherry vinaigrette. There wasn't anything wrong with the chilled, cured salmon ($6) with caper berries and too-hard crostini, but it didn't fit well on this menu. Billed by our waiter as spicy, the gambas al ajillo ($8) were actually just mildly seasoned grilled marinated shrimp.

Our waiter was trying hard, but he had only been on the job for two days so the service was inconsistent and some things, namely coffee and a soda, never came at all. However, I give him credit because he acknowledged his mistakes and comped our desserts. I truly appreciated that gesture. The truest measure of service is not what happens when it's smooth sailing, but how the eatery responds when things get bumpy.

The Ninth Door's pimientos del piquillo rellenos ($6) exemplifies tapas perfection. Roasted small red peppers were stuffed with a mouth-filling mixture of creamy goat cheese, aromatic rosemary and salty Serrano ham and set in a puddle of good Spanish olive oil. We wanted a second order, maybe a third.

Everyone applauded the Catalan spinach ($5) sizzled with pine nuts, garlic, green olives and golden raisins, and the albóndigas ($7), small veal meatballs in tomato sauce. I was the only one who loved the Spanish tortilla ($6). True, the layered potato and egg casserole was quite mild, but it was uplifted by a smoked red pepper puree. It revealed genuine sauce-making savvy in the kitchen.

The only real dud at that point was the chicken skewers ($7) in a boring honey sauce, especially when compared to the stellar filet with Cabrales ($9) and the nightly special, paella ($12). We battled over every bite of fork-tender beef enveloped in bleu cheese butter, floating on red wine reduction and a bed of fried potato wedges. The paella arrived in a cloud of saffron steam with moist yellow rice hiding tender nuggets of squid, shrimp and chorizo.

We should have stopped there, because our desserts were disappointing. The crema Catalana ($6) is a below-average rendition of the ubiquitous dessert that was not nearly creamy enough. The frutas a la Sevillana ($5) advertised "honey mascarpone stuffed figs," but delivered hard-to-cut, chewy, dried figs alongside a scoop of mascarpone.

Lack of "cinnamon brandy caramel sauce" to soak the sponge cake cubes made the bisocho borracho ($6) less inviting and the chocolava ($6) was a very dry brownie-like thing that wasn't "warm" and did not have a "rich ganache center."

That said, I'm still happy to recommend the Ninth Door as a fun place to grab a bite (or two) to eat, have some drinks and talk to friends. All I know is that I'd be delighted to sample some of those rellenos again along with more bleu cheese-infused filet and another lemon flan.

The Ninth Door

• Hours: 4:30 p.m. to 2 a.m. Mondays through Saturdays

• Food: tapas

• How much: $2-$12 tapas

• How loud: Moderate to extremely loud

• Reservations: For 6 or more

John Lehndorff is the dining critic; lehndorffj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-5103.

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