A little gem in the heart of Alicante town. What better location to dine in this beautiful city…read morethan La Piazza? In the middle of 'El Barrio' - Alicante's old town, right in front of the magnificent Concatedral de San Nicolas. The pretty, and full, terrace drew us towards the menu. We were approached and greeted by a waiter while we had a look. He didn't try to force us in like almost every other restaurant nearby. I appreciated this. And to me it is a good sign when you don't have to harass people to get them in to your place. We were told that we could wait inside, or in the adjoining bar, owned by the same people while we waited for a table outside to come free. We went inside. It was tranquil and dimly lit with relaxing music in the background. We grabbed a beautiful glass of homemade sangría and a local beer while we pondered our food options. Soon after we were notified our table was ready outside and were helped out with our drinks. Great!
Our party decided to have a starter each as we were having great difficulty narrowing down what we wanted. A selection of tapas, oven-baked octopus, goats cheese salad and garlic prawns. Wow. Those prawns were out of this world. I also sampled the goats cheese salad and can confirm it was delicious. We also got a homemade bread basket which arrived still warm from the oven. Onto the mains; crispy suckling pig, seafood paella for two and sea bass fillets. The quality of the starters most certainly followed through to the seconds. I can't recommend the pig highly enough. It is like nothing you have ever tasted before. Under the light and crispy skin you will find the most tender and tasty meat. Falls off the bone. My party also declared their mains as fantastic. Everybody more than happy.
Dessert time. One chocolate coulant and one cheesecake between us. Too full already. The coulant is exquisite. A little volcano of hot chocolate sauce encased in a baked chocolate pastry. Cheesecake also unlike any you will try back home. Baked, thick and creamy, drenched in a red fruit coulis, all accompanied with ice cream and crunchy almonds.
The staff here know their game. That can be seen. The young serving team were run off their feet with a full terrace, people constantly arriving asking for seats and also several tables inside. But they managed it wonderfully and we didn't notice a single disgruntled or ignored customer. Heck, I raised my hand once throughout our experience to request another beer and had the waitress at my side immediately. The team are multilingual and consists of several native English speakers, from Ireland. It's nice to be able to order and chat freely abroad in your own language! Although I do try my luck with Spanish where I can!
All in all, I will most certainly be back here and I would recommend you do not miss out should you be in Alicante for whatever reason. Give it a go!
