La Tasca Spanish for Meeting Place! - (La Tasca (Lakeside))

Member Name: sdean

Product:	La Tasca (Lakeside)
Date:	26/03/09 (161 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good food, excellent service

Disadvantages: Can be expensive - without a 'deal'

La Tasca has been a place I always wanted to visit as I love tapas and meze style food, where you pick from lots of different dishes. I love to have variety especially when eating out. So we decided on one sunny weekend to go out for lunch to La Tasca at Lakeside.

~History~
La Tasca started its humble beginnings in Manchester City Centre in 1993. La Tasca is now present in 70 locations within the United Kingdom.

~Location~

The Boardwalk is a mini complex of restaurants, bars and a cinema attached to the Lakeside Shopping complex. Despite being purpose built each restaurant I have been in has its own identity and doesn't seem purpose built. La Tasca was no different. Entering the restaurant just after 1pm, on a Saturday, it was quite busy, but not too packed. We were escorted to a table at the back and were presented with menus and a drinks list. Looking around the room was adorned with Spanish pictures, paintings, murals and it made it look authentic for its Essex home.

~Staff~

Our waitress Angi was Spanish and really nice. She recommended wine and food to us and told us what the best way to approach tapas. 3-4 dishes per person, spread across the meat, vegetable and carbohydrate groups, like you would have in a normal meal. We could see all the other staff running around and looking after their customers. We could see the kitchen from our seats, there was no Ramsey style shouting, it was all very calm and controlled and food was coming out at a regular pace.

~Food & Drinks~

We ordered a beer (San Miguel) and a large glass of wine which was house white and Spanish. We were there for lunch, so decided to only order 5 dishes between us plus bread and olives. The bread was standard baguette, nothing special or Spanish about it. The olives were - it seemed from a can. This was fine, but a couple were really soft, which wasn't pleasant.
Mixed Fish - We ordered this as we both love fish. This came with Calamari rings, battered tuna, battered whitebait and a lovely lemon mayonnaise. For £4.95, this was quite a lot as the amount of fish on the plate didn't seem to be as much as the price.
Chorizo - Spanish sausage cooked in a red wine sauce. Absolutely delicious, enough sausage for the price of approx £4.25
Patatas Bravas - Squares of fried potato in a spicy tomato sauce. This was nice, but I have had better, more crisp in the potato and more spice in the sauce would have been great. A regular bowl of these was £3.25.
Lamb Casserole - Approx £4.25 this had a couple of nice bits of lamb in it that melted in the mouth and were lovely and soft. The sauce was meaty and rich and it was also topped with small fried potatoes.
Meat Paella - This is a smaller tapas version of Paella, this lacked meat, only had a couple of bits in it, but the rice was nice. Approx £4.25
All in all was really excellent.

~Total~

The total bill came to £38.05, which included a large glass of wine (£5.50) and 2 Pints of beer (2x £3.25) So not too bad. This filled us up for the day and we did not have dinner that night, so an excellent filler meal.

~Other Options~
The other options available at the moment are 'Lunch for 2 £10' From a selected number of dishes you can choose 5 dishes for £10, add a bottle of wine for £10, add bread and olives for £1, which is an excellent deal.
On the website www.latasca.co.uk you can get 50% off the food bill when you join their club (until the 15th March), for Mothers Day, children eat free. The website is a colourful place where their latest offers are displayed. Each menu for each restaurant is available on their website, including a drinks, dessert and food menu, complete with prices, so you can pre plan if you are on a budget.

~Conclusion~

I would definitely visit there again, it was a lovely location, the staff were excellent, and the food was lovely. I would probably go again when there was some sort of offer on, or take advantage the deals they run to make it cheaper.

Summary: La Tasca for Spanish food !