from Meng (86%) on June 27th, 2008 (2 months ago)

La Tasca, Unit 2, Omni Centre, EH1 3AA, Edinburgh

Edinburgh's Omni Centre, home of drunken hen nights, stag nights, impatient cinema-goers, ill-advisedly dressed barely legal clubgoers, frustrated families and hungry little monster children, and an odd collection of food chains clumped together to pick and choose like a buffet of restaurants for your culinary pleasure at the top of Leith Walk.

And so now I brave the Spanish tapas chain that is La Tasca. Had the drinks there, but never the food, so here goes:

Drinking some wine and water with the complimentary platter of olives and bread with oil and balsamic, me and the Platinum Blonde ordered the seafood & chicken paella, the lamb casserole, the salsafied potatoes and squid rings. All very conservative really, but in another language: paella valenciana, cordero en salsa, patatas bravas & calamares, these tapas do taper to my tastes.

And tasty they were. The paella was pretty good, warm moist and stuffed with squid, prawn, mussels and chickeny goodness. The lamb casserole was delicious, squid rings crunchy, although the patatas bravas was mediocre. Nary a spiced piquanty potato, more like a tomato potato, but let's not call the whole thing awful.

The desserts were delightful: sorbete de naranja (that comes served to you in a frozen orange, an amusing touch) and the tarte de pera y canela (pear tart) which was what it says it were.

Bill came up to 15 quid per person. Admittedly, as these overcrowded food chains with distressed and sometimes busy service, loud crowds, cheesy decor come and go, if the food is good enough to get the punters coming back (and it is) this is a reliablely exciting Spain-in-Scotland dining experience. Brave your potatoes and it's och aye picante.

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