A little bit of authentic Spain (La Tasca (Manchester))

Member Name: aylawarner

Product:	La Tasca (Manchester)
Date:	30/04/09 (113 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Romantic, delicious range of tapas, perfect setting

Disadvantages: A little expensive but not when with a voucher, not for everyone

La Tasca is a Spanish tapas restaurant and bar which you can find all over the UK. My mum first introduced me to the restaurant a few years ago when she took me for a mother and daughter night out. I loved the place straight away and often find myself eating in various La Tasca restaurants now.

As soon as you see the restaurant from the outside you can tell that it is Spanish with it's decoration. When stepping inside, the feel of the place is wonderful. The lights are dimmed low, candles are alight on each table, and Spanish music is playing. The tables are a dark wooden colour and each chair is covered in soft cushions in deep, dark traditional Spanish colours. The place is very romantic and would be the perfect place to go on a date or with your other half.

The entire menu is tapas (little dishes) and the recommended portion is about 3 or 4 dishes to each person. The menu includes many traditional Spanish dishes such as paella, tortilla (Spanish omelette), meats and cheeses. There are also a lot of chicken and fish dishes as well as a lot of salad dishes and other items suitable for vegetarians. On the menu the dishes are named in Spanish with a description of what the are written in English below. It obviously helps if you're Spanish or if you can speak a little Spanish as you'll be able to pronounce everything correctly, and the waiters are all Spanish as well, which I think is great as it just adds to the feeling of being in Spain.

Some of mine and my husband's favourite dishes:
Alitas de pollo - marinated chicken wings
Croquetas de pollo - chicken croquettes with roasted garlic mayonnaise
Patatas bravas - fried potato topped with a spicy tomato sauce
Tortilla Epañola - a Spanish-style potato and onion omelette
Brocheta de pollo - skewers of chicken breast and red pepper marinated in paprika
Chorizo frito al vino - spicy Spanish sausage sautéed in red wine
Pan de ajo con queso - garlic bread with cheese

As you can see, we both love chicken, and we're not too keen on red meat but the spicy Spanish chorizos are rather tasty. We usually order a dish of tortilla each as we love it so much! We usually end up ordering way too much than we can actually eat as everything on the menu sounds so delicious. They also have a dessert menu but I've never even looked at this as I've always been too full and satisfied with the main course!

Each tapas dish is roughly priced between £3 and £5 and when you add it all up it usually comes to about £25 for the two of us. La Tasca have the Tapas for a Tenner offer where you can eat as much as you want from a selection of tapas for only £10 Sunday-Wednesday, or Lunch for 2 where you choose 5 tapas to share between 2 people for £10. You can also often find vouchers, such as buy 1 tapas get one free, on sites like moneysavingexpert.com - so if you bought 8 dishes you'd only pay for 4 which is great value.

They have all the usual range of drinks and you can just go in here for drinks at the bar if you don't want to eat. If you're in a Spanish restaurant though you have to have a Spanish drink and the Sangria here is so delicious. You can buy a glass of Sangria for £3.15 or a jug for £12.50. La Tasca makes some of the nicest Sangria I've ever tasted.

There are a lot of negative reviews on here about La Tasca and I really can't understand why. Admittedly, the food isn't huge and you won't get some enormous meal that you can stuff your face with but what's wrong with that? I love the place. It's romantic, elegant, relaxed and has a wonderful authentic taste of Spain. It is one of my favourite restaurants and all my family thoroughly enjoy it too and you'll often find us in one of the restaurants taking up a huge table of 15 for a family birthday! My aunt is from Gibraltar so most of our family know a bit of Spanish and I love it when I can pronounce everything properly!

If you like Spain, Spanish food and drink, and romantic meals, then definitely try this restaurant. Actually I think I'll take a trip there this bank holiday as I'm rather fancying some tortilla now!

Summary: One of my top 3 restaurants!