I've been to this marvellous Edinburgh restaurant twice this week, as its lunch menu is irresistible
It offers the best value lunch in the city
There’s always a lot of pressure when someone asks you where they should eat on their birthday.
I had SO many suggestions to give my sister. Except I kept hitting a wall. They were all too expensive.
Fair enough. It was lunch for four middle-aged women, including a couple of them who’re single parents, in a cost-of-living crisis. Remind us what a disposable income is, again? Nah, never heard of it.
Eventually, after I’d rattled off about 20 names, she settled on a Spanish restaurant that we’d never tried before.
Tapa is along a cobbled lane at The Shore and the lunch menu is an incredibly cheap £15. There didn’t seem to be a catch. This is not an EasyJet flight. Our handbags were not measured at the door. Their discounted offering is available from Tuesday to Saturday, noon until 4pm. They also do a Thursday club offer, which involves 50 per cent off your food bill after 5pm.
At those prices, my expectations were bumping along the ground, like a rusty exhaust.
Still, it’s lovely inside, I thought.
These days, I’m so used to places that have a pared-back Scandi aesthetic, which I adore, but this place is an old-school bistro, with flagstone floors, and vintage James Bond posters for no obvious reason.
They get extra brownie points, as my sister had mentioned that it was a special occasion when booking, and she had a sweet birthday card waiting for her on the table.
The £15 deal allows you to order two tapas per person, and they will chuck in sides of pimientos de padron and patatas mirta, to share.
As this was my first time here, I’d like to say that I ordered the most interesting and outre items on the menu.
However, since the offer was so cheap, I thought I better go for the options that I thought would be the most substantial. I was certain that portions would be microscopic.
I know, I am basic, but a girl gotta eat.
However, the spinach and manchego tortilla was definitely not a small dish. It was a huge slab, like a piece of Victoria sponge that’s been dished out by your favourite granny because you’re looking underfed and peely-wally. There were layers of cheese, and the billed leafy veg among the oozy strata of potato and onion.
I also had the puntillitas, or baby squid, which were rather bitty, but munchy and addictive, thanks to the crumbly and tawny-coloured batter and the vast quantities of garlic in the accompanying aioli.
The birthday girl had these cephalopod infants too, but also the brulee de queso de cabra - essentially, a huge coaster of warm goat’s cheese with a muscovado sugar topping and a peach and chilli-spiked aioli. It just needed a few candles on the top, for her to blow out.
Variously, in our group, there was also a portion of three super-savoury lemon and garlic roasted chicken croquettes, along with a black garlic aioli, and a set of gambas al pil pil, or four Jaffa Cake-sized plumped-up prawns in a lemony and garlicky dressing.
They’d also been very generous with the sides. For the four of us, there were two saucers that were stacked with chunky wedge-like tatties topped with a sweet tomato salsa and crema, and a double portion of frog green, singed-skinned and heavily sea-salted padron peppers.
To drink, we thought about getting a house Margarita each (£7.50) but thought we’d ask for a jug, instead, since we’d all probably have more than one to toast my sister’s forty-cough-cough-something trips around the sun.
It was slightly light on the tequila, but we all got about three glasses full each, so that’s probably just as well. On the bill, this pitcher was only £17.50.
Maybe it was a mistake, but we didn’t ask any questions.
We could’ve stuck around, for pudding, but we thought we should pay up and run, since we felt a bit like we’d mugged Tapa.
And, yes, I was back one week later, except this time with my elderly mum in tow. After the mushroom croquettes and those nibbly squid, she loved this place, too, and was also wowed by the prices.
That’s another of the Soutar clan’s frugal birthday locations sorted.
19 Shore, Leith, Edinburgh, www.tapaedinburgh.co.uk
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