to it?

i love it, loads of differant plates of stuff……very nice.

often quite expensive for not very full (tight scot attitude maybe !)

the real Spanish stuff is great. luckily the family is fluent…

need to go to Andalucia

I can't understand why we don't adopt the custom here. It's an excellent idea. Food, and booze, in the same place. You have a drink, have a snack. Gives the booze something to soak into, you don't feel like drinking as much, less drunkenness, better all round.

How often are you in a pub, you think 'ooh, I could do with something to eat' and all that's on offer is crisps? Pubs used to do food. And none of this trrendy bollocks gastro pub shite, just tasty little dishes. Oh, and something to eat, too! 😀

Don't eat the octopus. It's like eating a bath mat.

It's alright. Squid rings are horrible and chewy.

Ooh I love octopus (pulpo)! And squid!

Mm, tapas.

Thing is it'd need to be cheap; £2-3 per dish, with a half of beer, for example. £4-5 tops for exotic stuff.

I think its a brilliant idea done well. I dont think I need more excuses to eat tho.

best i have ever eaten was in palma old town last year.
full mini squid tubes…….not calamare, in a very light batter with lemon juice. delicious…….. 8)

If you're ever down Barcelona way

cerveceria_catalana_in_barcelona is truly amazing – just don't go there if you're in a hurry….

My favourites from last trip to Spain:
– Boccorones! (not deep fried, just on their own in a little vinegar and lemon juice)
– Broccoli croquettes – why, why, why don't we have these in Britain?
– Some fantastic Spanish black pudding thing
– And last but definitely not least, the sheer orgasmic yumminess of dates wrapped in bacon

Cheers to Jonny @ Sierra for the local knowledge that made such life-changing discoveries possible 😉

Barrafina in London does very good tapas

If you're ever down Barcelona way

I'm 99% sure I've been in there! 😀

Yes, fantastic. I ordered several dishes, without realising you get a beer with each! Din't realise you're supposed to order one at a time!

Mmm….

mmmm tapas…

Can you main line chorizo?

Can't comment, I wasn't there…

Poor tapas gives Spanish food a bad name and puts people off, regardless of whether they're pi55ed at the time or not.

Great tapas is exactly that: great. However, I've yet to find a tapas bar/restaurant (in the UK) that does every dish very well – often it's a case of half a dozen good dishes and a couple of ropey ones. Paella has always been a let down which really pi55se me off because it's one of my favourites. Tis usually dry, chewy and devoid of any flavour.

Miniature food.

Paella – as tapas?

Awful food.

Paella or tapas?

CaptJon – Member

Awful food.

Really? Why?

Paella? Could be interesting… You're up north aren't you Mackem? Some great tapas bars in you neck of the woods.

So popular there's a chain, even one in Leicester!

I like it. Especially the seafood. I love those little fried anchovy type things.

there is a nice thai tapas restaurant in southampton somewhere.

i don't know where, i was pissed when I got there and even more so when I left.

Saying you dont like tapas is the same as saying you dont like food, it's so varied, from the simple to the OTT, theres meat, fish, vegetarian, cheese, basically anything is possible. There are excellent tapas up here (they are called pintxos here though), unfortunately you have to pay for them. Was down south in the summer and was nice to be given free tapas with a drink. The quality and effort put into these freebies seems to have gone up too, made the decision to make dinner or go out for a couple of drinks very easy.

If you are ever round Manchester way I can strongly recommend El Rincon de Rafa. Fantastic food and excellent atmosphere.

Really? Why?

Paella? Could be interesting… You're up north aren't you Mackem? Some great tapas bars in you neck of the woods.

So popular there's a chain, even one in Leicester!

I live in Newcastle, but i'm from London – not that that has anything do do with it. Every time i've been for tapas i've only enjoyed about 3 of the dishes, but you can't properly enjoy them because everyone else is eating them too. I also don't like seafood much.

I'd much rather eat Italian or French food.

mmmm tapas. We went for a tablefull last night. Great even if it was in the shopping centre in Exeter (La Tasca for the Deb'n folks).

Saying you dont like tapas is the same as saying you dont like food

I couldn't put it better

my gf moved to horwich earlier in the year and it seems there's 2 tapas places there, both having a pretty good reputation (and one actually claiming to be "vegan friendly" in their window!)- we're yet to try either of them though. anyone any experience of them?

last night we went to azucabar……….which was very nice.
viva cuba used to be very good too, but it shut down………. 🙁

Done properly its just great! +1 for andalucia – pay for a small beer or even a coke and get food. Brilliant!

Best i've had was with some friends from lagronia (sp?) in rioja one sunday afternoon. They took us around all the bars and ordered so we had some great stuff. Not convinced it would work over here though, not in the same format at any rate.

And yes, you can mainline chorizo

Ooh, Logrono, nice place, theres some great bars there.

me, the wife and a couple we are friends with went to barcelona for a weekends fun.
we ended up in the market half way up the ramblas………..what a fantastic place to spend a couple of hours.
seafood the like of which you never see at home, some still live and crawling about.
and the little tapas stall's where the local's nip in for their lunch breaks are fantastic.

i think i am gonna go to barcelona for a autumn break, just to visit that market……….. 8)

Love it. Has to be fairly authentic though. A lot of the stuff you get in uk tapas joints is frozen/boil in bag crap.

Pinxtos (spelling?) in Bilbao is a brilliant system… you walk around the city from bar to bar having a nice glass of red or a wee beer, plus a couple of bites (most served on a slice of bread) in each place. Each seems to have a different special ingredient… ie one bar will be known for it's bacalao, another for its jamon, another for its pulpo etc etc. Before you know it, you've sampled about half a dozen good wines and tasted about 20 little portions of lovely food.

Hungry now!

ton…you might have just decided my sunday lunch!

Ton… ah, la Boqueria… best market I've ever been to 😀

I'll try and find the name, but there's a bar in Madrid where they say that the tapas are so good that you don't need a sit down dinner, just drink and eat the night away.
I don't think an evening could be any more perfect, good food, good drink, good company and a bit of sun on your face.

Every time i've been for tapas i've only enjoyed about 3 of the dishes, but you can't properly enjoy them because everyone else is eating them too. I also don't like seafood much.

I still, genuinely, don't understand. There is such a variety that it is exactly as Mackem says, it's like saying you don't like food!! Each to their own.
You don't enjoy riding your bike either, because everyone else is riding one?? Not a critisism, I just find it difficult to understand. 😉

My sister and brother in law live in Spain – we had really struggled eating out in Spain, expecting to find somewhere to get a nice big plate of steak and chips, until they introduced us to tapas. Still laugh at our first attempt when the four of us went into a bar in Malaga and we ended up trying nearly everything off the menu and had more dishes than the poor waiter could fit on the table . . . we've got the hang of it now though 😉 . We tend to walk loads on holiday so the idea of beer and tapas every so often is good one. Jerez last year was great – mmmmm sherry and patatas bravas.

The thing I love about tapas is that it keeps everyone chatting…it's a very social way of eating.

Undoubtedly, there are good tapas bars all over the UK but as a rule, I find we're not very good at them in general. We're a bit set on the starter/main course/pudding idea when we go out for a meal. And a lot of "tapas" places (yes El Puerto in Bristol, across the road from Mud Dock…I AM looking at you) try and bridge the gap between how the Spanish eat and how we eat. This never works…either bloody do it or don't.

A bunch of us went mountain biking in Fuengirola a few years ago. I managed to find a tapas place in the tiny quarter of town where the Spanish seemed to do all their eating and drinking and wasn't overrun with Eastenders/Rovers Return type places. In fairness to some of the lads, they just didn't get it. The menus didn't have English translations and the delightful staff didn't speak English, so I had great fun ordering stuff and seeing what would come out. Can't say I liked everything, but hey, if you didn't like one thing, it was only a few euro down the drain.

A couple of us ate like kings there every night for around 15 euro a head…including beers and coffee…and our first experience of pulpo..and plenty of chat and laughter. I'd love somewhere like that near me.

Tapas should really be done going from bar to bar trying each bars speciality. Bit difficult to do in the UK I suppose.