La Tasca

23-24 Maiden Lane, Covent Garden
Tel: 020 7240 9062

Type of cuisine: Spanish / Tapas

Without any of the fuss and – as far as I can tell – the publicity of chains such as Dome or Café Rouge, La Tasca has quietly settled into cities across the UK, delivering pretty good tapas to the masses.

The unassuming double front of their Covent Garden venue hides a massive three floors of tables, all of which were packed on our visit. As that took place on a miserable January Friday several weeks after most people’s December payday, I’d say that speaks for itself. While I doubt even their biggest fan would champion La Tasca as the best tapas in the world, the restaurants have certainly hit on a winning formula of good food at sensible prices in a vibrant atmosphere.

The beauty of tapas is its flexibility. Whether you’re settling in for the evening or grabbing a pre-club/pub/cinema bite, tapas hits the spot – and is hopefully stealing a few customers from the common-or-garden McKing burger outlets. I mean, would you rather spend a fiver on a couple of limp bits of beef in a grim, flavourless roll, a watered down Coke substitute and some greasy fries in garish plastic surroundings? Or a tenner on meatballs, patatas bravas, some fresh bread and a glass of red while sitting in proper chairs, surrounded by dark wood and attractive fellow diners? Thought as much…

With a bottle of robust house wine to ease the way – £9.95 and as “gluggable” as billed on the menu – my companion and I had a fairly gentle wander down the menu of 30+ dishes. We started with a feisty Gambas Pil Pil (£3.65) – prawns in oil, garlic and hot Spanish peppers – Pollo an Salsa de Setas (£3.35) – chicken breast in a creamy wild mushroom sauce – and the ubiquitous Patatas Bravas (£2.25) and inevitable Chorizo (£3.45), which came pan fried in red wine. All were extremely decent, particularly the Pil Pil.

Accordingly – and to mark the accessible, grazing joy of tapas – we followed up with another Gambas Pil Pil, together with a Jamon Serrano (£3.75) –good quality cured ham – a portion of Albondigas (£3.35) – hearty, tasty meatballs in a rich vegetable and tomato sauce – and, at the waitress’s suggestion, Pinchito Moruno (£3.35), skewered marinated pork with spices. Oh, and a generous portion of Championes al Ajillo (£2.95) - garlic-sauteed mushrooms – which finished things off nicely. A couple of baskets of bread (£0.95 each) may have defied my Atkins kick but sauces this simple and flavoursome demand to be mopped up.

A shared piece of Spanish cheesecake – around £3.50, if memory serves – finished things off in sweet if slightly bland style, while a couple of coffees took the final bill to around the £45 mark. Great atmosphere – I’m feeling old these days but was ready to party when we left – decent food and change from 50 quid. How can you argue with that?


Food 3.5
Atmosphere 4
Value for Money 4
Service 4

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