Sun, sea, sand and Sangria….At least La Tasca managed to deliver one of the four on a rainy evening in May.
There is nothing I like more than being invited to a restaurant I already love, except for the promise of free sangria at a restaurant I love, well, that and free Paella. The freebies were to celebrate the relaunch of the Nottingham La Tasca on Weekday Cross.
Let me start by being honest – honestly its looks pretty much the same as it did before the relaunch. Having visited the restaurant loads of times, even the tables looked in the same position and the fittings looked the same. Bar in the same place -tick, stairs in the same place – tick. The decor though does look notably brighter and fresher although thankfully they have kept the rustic charm held by La Tasca.
Upstairs there were Salsa classes to keep us entertained. The Paella on the night was the Paella De Carne (Valencia) Lovely smokey chorizo and chicken breast, a perfectly seasoned dish. I’d tried the Paella before at La Tasca, in fact they have special Paella nights on a Thursday as well as Fiesta evenings and student nights. I’ve also tried most of the award winning tapas dishes too over a bottle of wine on many occasions. I noticed at the relaunch though that there are a few new additions to tapas menu waiting for me to try such as the Pollo con crema and the pork ribs. Having opened in Manchester in 1993 and now having over 40 restaurants across the UK, La Tasca are passionate about their ingredients which are sourced directly from Regional Spanish producers in order to make the most authentic Tapas and Paella which their head chef apparently personally visiting the suppliers.
Spanish food cooked well can be lovely. Last year I was lucky enough to visit Barcelona and couldn’t wait to try some Spanish cuisine at its best. Honestly I was disappointed. There was a couple of places I’d recommend. Segons Mercat was a great restaurant for a sit down meal, or alternatively, round the corner from our hotel was a bar where every time you ordered a drink you could take a piece of tapas from a plate that had been sitting sweating on top of the bar. It was here that we got chatting to some locals. We told them we wanted to sample some of their best Spanish cuisine and asked them to recommend their favourite restaurant. We booked it for our last night. Full of excitement we ordered our meals only to find to our disappointment when it arrived what was essentially a plate of chicken and French fries! It was when we got home that we realised that what we had actually been searching for was a La Tasca in Spain. Not bad for a restaurant that’s part of a chain these days.
So what if the ‘New Look’ La Tasca doesn’t look much different. Why try and improve what’s already great anyway.
By Tanya Raybould
