Manna for Indecisive Eaters; Tapas at La Tasca (La Tasca (Docklands))

Member Name: Puggers

Product:	La Tasca (Docklands)
Date:	21/05/09 (186 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Tasty, affordable food, warm, laid-back atmosphere.

Disadvantages: Poor salads, only a few stand-out dishes.

The idea of Tapas sits extremely well with me - the cost less so. As such, La Tasca's recent offers have gone down extremely smoothly. The concept of Tapas, of course, entails the selection of a number of small dishes, either hot or cold, traditionally eaten alongside a succession of drinks, but now - at least in the version imported to England - considered more of a meal in their own right. An informal, sociable way to eat, it is for a glutton like myself who agonises endlessly over equally wonderful-sounding options on a menu, a godsend!

With seventy restaurants across Britain, La Tasca is a frequent sight in our towns and cities. The venues share an identical menu and are pretty uniform in appearance and atmosphere; a deep, rustic colourscheme lit up with bold splashes of primary colours and a plethora of Spanish-themed wall decorations and faintly kitschy touches here and there. The overall effect is a pleasing, welcoming one - a first impression that treads a happy line between the familiar and the individual; the restaurants don't feel too strongly like they're part of a chain when inside. A laid-back, unhurried atmosphere is one of the key attractions of the place; there never seems to be any pressure to finish up smartly, and the staff seem quite happy for you to take your time lingering over your meal.

The seating - of which there is a fair amount, although it stops short of overcrowding - tends to be a combination of chairs and benches covered with bright cushions. This certainly adds to the aesthetic appeal, but the latter aren't especially comfortable, unless you enjoy peering down upon your food from on high.

Food-wise, the Spanish-English menu is broken up into four main sections - appetisers (breads, olives, some cold tapas); "Tapas to share", the bulk of the choices; three set-menus (meat, fish and vegetarian-based); and desserts. There's the usual selection of drinks, plus some Spanish lagers (Estrella and San Miguel) and rather sweet Sangria.

The meat dishes are the strongest part of La Tasca's menu; the Chorizo in red wine being a regular staple of our visits, rich and faintly spicy - they go well with the garlic and oil-fried mushrooms and the earthy, deeply tasty Patatas Bravas (fried potatoes in a tomato-based sauce). The meatballs are simple, but go down well, and the seafood is generally well-cooked and pleasantly flavoured - the prawns (gambas) especially so. The Tortilla Espanola is another dish with plain, basic flavours, but has a nice texture to it and sits well alongside a couple of more distinctively accented plates, "mopping up" a bit of the intense flavour and providing a welcome contrast.

If there's a weak point to the menu, it is for me the salads - there's nothing especially wrong with them, but they are chronically lacking in a bit of imagination. As touched upon above, simple is far from a bad thing, but the salads, undressed and loaded with cheaper ingredients - most objectionably tinned Tuna - just do nothing for me - it just doesn't feel like much of an effort has been made to make them stand out.

The desserts, on the other hand, are well worth saving room for - I rarely bother with this course, as I don't have an especially sweet tooth, but I make an exception here. Alongside a decent flan and some chocolatey mousse, the Churros with fruits and chocolate sauce is a winner - plenty enough to share, it's a near-relative of a fondue; a pot of melted chocolate, strawberry and apple slices and a few doughnut-sticks for dunking. Utterly delicious to stuff one's face with.

Price-wise, La Tasca is pretty reasonable - even more so if taking advantage of their frequent offers. These vary of course, but Tapas for a Tenner (an all-you-can-eat option from a limited, but wide-ranging enough, menu) is a recurrent one, and others will offer some variant on the 50% off theme - applying occasionally to all food, or more often only part of the menu. Even without these discounts, prices are attractive enough - around £2-4 for a vegetarian option, £3-5 for a meat-based one, while the set-menus tend to be in the twenties. Three dishes per person tends to be the suggestion, and this is more often than not about right, especially if you're planning on adding in bread and a dessert. All in all, I guess we average paying somewhere in the £15-20 bracket each, which certainly agrees with my cheapskate sensibilities.

La Tasca is a good, reliable restaurant, but I wouldn't rate it much higher - other, independent chains serve more exciting tapas and possess the personal touch. However, if you want to be relatively sure of getting a table without booking, and eating tasty, satisfying food in a pleasant, lively environment without worrying about the mounting bill appeals, then La Tasca fits the bill. After all, Tapas makes for a fun, informal meal - cheap Tapas even more so.



***

The above refers mostly to our local restaurant in Brighton, but having eaten at a number of others, including those in Portsmouth and Milton Keynes, it applies pretty equally across the venues. Specific information about the menu can occasionally be found at www.latasca.co.uk, if you happen to visit on one of the rare days when the website is working.

Summary: Good food at good prices - and lots of it. What's not to like?