Tapa

My mother taught me well: "hunt out the bargains Nicola!"  Over the years, I have become a master of the red/yellow sticker hunting (depending on supermarket) and I am not ashamed to rummage through the reduced shelves.  However, when B came across a website with massive savings on all sorts of things - my brain kicked in with "too good to be true!"  But £17 for 6 tapas and a bottle of wine between 2 was a gamble we were willing to take.  All we had to do was print out a voucher and mention it when we booked.  Simple!  I recommend you check out this website (http://www.groupon.co.uk/) if you haven't already, just choose your city...

So, Tapa it was then!  I love tapas (true Spanish tapas that is, not just small dishes!) but I have been put off by La Tasca and other chain restaurants.  I feel that these do not offer good value for money and I have to say that I have never really enjoyed myself there.  We were already on to a winner with Tapa when it came to the value part thanks to groupon, but we were both pleasantly surprised by the portion sizes.  In fact - tapas my ass - these were very close to meals in their own right!  ("...well not quite" says B.)  I know that the idea behind the vouchers would be to get new customers into the restaurant and hope that they will return, but part of me always assumes that there would be a catch i.e. cheaper dishes or smaller portions.  However, from the moment we walked in we had excellent service and were treated like 'real' customers!

The menu is clearly divided into meat, fish and vegetable sections which makes it easy for you to ensure that you are going to end up with a nice mix of dishes.  I think that is always wise to order a stew with chickpeas as part of my tapa so that there is a bit of sustenance.  Patatas Bravas is a favourite too, but there is always a fight for this one, B is not so keen on chickpeas...  Being the bargain hunter that I am, I made sure that we got our moneys worth and we ordered the most expensive dish at £7.50, a selection of air cured meat and Spanish cheese.  This was not as large a portion as the others, which means quality over quantity - and a relief as we were getting full by this point!  The staff were very good at clearing us space on the table as we ploughed through and at no point seemed to be hovering.  As I have previously mentioned, I am not a dessert kind of gal, but, and there appears to always be a 'but', (adding no doubt to my butt) - I managed to squeeze one in.  It is more of a can't resist if something grabs me, and the almond sponge most certainly did.  This of course had to be accompanied with an espresso, so B decided to match me in the dessert and hot drink stakes.  He opted for the cinamon "enriched" rice pudding and a white hot chocolate.  If you are a hot chocolate fan I think that you should make haste to Tapa, eat a meal and then sit back and enjoy 'the best white hot chocolate' that B has ever had!  It was made by melting real white chocolate into hot milk and then garnished with - wait for it - a flump!  Hats off to who ever  came up with that idea!  But hey, I don't touch the stuff, I just sat watching, with envy, at B playing.  I had my delicious sponge to console me.  I was sooo full, but it was sooo good that I just had to finish it all, oh and B enjoyed his rice pudding, but I think that it fell to the way side due to the hot chocolate.

We had paid upfront for the voucher, but obviously we had to settle up for the desserts and the hot drinks.  a fact that appeared to be more obvious to us than to the staff.  Up until the end of the meal, Tapa was 'up there' in restaurant experiences, not only since I began this blog, but in recent memory.  I have to say, that nothing went wrong, and it was not bad as such - but the chore of trying to get the attention of the staff when you want to pay is certainly a pet hate of mine.  I owe you money - it is not really my responsibility to chase you to give it to you, if you don't want it...  It is nice to be able to sit and digest your meal and not feel rushed but in this situation we were getting more and more full by the minute, and by the time about 30 of those minutes had gone by, I went to the bar to ask for our bill.

After we waddled home, we (I) went straight on to the website to work out the really cost of our bill.  We got around £44 worth, including wine, but excluding the dessert etc.  A bargin in deed.  The real testament to this restaurant is that we would happily return and pay full price (and I think only order 5 dishes between 2).  Also I think next time B would forgo his dessert and proceed directly to flump dipping!