Spanish Club

Of all the Spanish eateries along the Spanish Quarter there's only one I haven't been to - until now. The restaurant upstairs from the Spanish Club is pretty similar to the other Spanish restaurants along the Spanish quarter, but their tapas menu was slightly different. Apart from the standard Calamari, Chorizo, Garlic mushrooms there was also (to fellow taster's delight) Ceviche and stuffed eggplant, which were not seen on other menus if my memory serves me correctly.

For the 4 hungry souls we opted for tapas and paella. Of course the old favourites such as chorizos and garlic mushrooms were ordered. The chorizos were not quite the same as the standard chorizos I remember - different texture and flavour. Garlic mushrooms were ordinary - I had a much better garlic mushroom at Don Quixote (which is now unfortunately closed!!). The calamari was flavoured sweet and sour which was a bit odd (what's this, Oriental tapas?!). Lamb skewers were also average and I found the meat a bit on the dry side. The fish pieces in ceviche (salad of cold fish marinated in tangy citrus) was flavoursome and tender, but the pickles were not quite doing the ceviche justice. Stuffed eggplant was good, soft and juicy and rich and hearty. Overall the tapas dishes were not lighting fireworks for our tastebuds.

Then comes the paella. This has got to be the best paella I have had in ages. Full of seafood, the rice was cooked al dente. For those who had a lighter palate skimming the rice on top helped avoid the rice at the bottom, which was saturated in a rich aromatic stock (and was favoured by those with a heavier palate). It was also quite a pleasure to wash it all down with a refreshing spicy sangria.

We said we'd gauge how full we are before we order dessert... but of course we always manage to fit more in (indigestion to follow but we don't care do we). A test for all Spanish restaurant would be how good their churros is (if they have it). The churros passed the test by the most strict Spanish food fiend at the table. The dessert tasting plate for two contained three pieces of desserts from their dessert menu (orange and almond cake, vanilla rice pudding, flourless chocolate and walnut cake). Orange and almond cake was sweet and moist (touch of tang), vanilla rice pudding was ordinary (for a great rice pudding try Bather's Pavillion), chocolate and walnut cake was well received by others, but I personally found it a bit dry. Though I could be biased - my stomach was crying "stop stop" by the time I got to dessert.

In the evening the flamenco dancers came out for a performance - great entertainment especially when they started pulling restaurant guests up on stage - especially fantastic when they got to our table and dragged one of the girls up, and of course she wouldn't go up unless if we all went, so what did we do... gulp down our sangria and strut our stuff on the stage, of course.

Great fun night, highly recommend the paella, dessert selection and the sangria, though for tapas I would recommend one of the others across the road.

ps apologies for the poor photos - had to quickly shoot or risk the wrath of the hungry dinner party