We'd read up on this place before we visited and apparently with every beer you purchase you're provided a tapa... and the more you drink the better the tapa you get... Great stuff we thought!
One of the things I really wanted to experience is finding somewhere where you could get the Spanish beer / tapa combo. The idea of having food served to you with and to compliment your drink being very novel (yet I find very appealing) to us Brits.
1st Drink: we're provided with meatballs, crisps and bread to share. It's okay, but feels a little cheap and stodgy.
2nd Drink: comes with this absolutely horrible plate of vegetables, small peppers, onions etc., in crispy fried breadcrumbs... It felt like it was drenched in oil and we picked the contents out of the breadcrumbs in fear for our arteries.
3rd Drink: they appear to have had enough of us and the tapa stops. This is maybe because they have decided that we're not hungry as we left the oil soaked crumbs of the previous tapa... but we're really not impressed by this!
The quality of tapa was really quite low, and I really didn't find the look of any of the food coming out to the other tables appealing. They seemed to have some nice looking desserts, but from the tapa we had I wasn't willing to try anything from the menu.
The beer was pretty good though, it was the local Alhambra and we enjoyed sitting at the bar and looking at the ornate beer taps. The rest of the restaurant decor seemed a little cliche and drab. They had lots of hanging dried corn for some reason, I wonder if there is a tradition regarding this!
Staff appeared responsive, however sitting at the beer tap in plain sight of the staff, I'd expect this, so I don't feel I can really comment on service here.
We left with a nice beer buzz, but disappointed after all the positive hype we'd heard about this place. read more