SPANISH: La Salsa, 54 Bridge Street, Bolton
11:31am Tuesday 5th September 2006 in Eating Out By Kat Dibbits
Open weekdays and Saturdays 11am-2pm, 5pm-11pm; Sundays booking only.
UNTIL very recently, if you thought "oh, I wouldn't mind a nice sociable tapas lunch" there was pretty much only one option.
La Tasca is big, it's brash, it's got a small rainforest's worth of plants lined up on the bar. It's glossy. It is, in fact, the Yates' Wine Lodge of the tapas bar world.
Now some people love Yates' Wine Lodge. They love that they recognise the wine names, and they're comforted by the fact that once you've been in one you'll be able to find your way to the bathroom in every single Wine Lodge. Anywhere.
Some people, on the other hand, think that sometimes it would be nice to go somewhere a bit smaller and a bit less polished...
That's La Salsa. Compared to its obvious rival, the new tapas place in town is tiny. There are no polished wooden floorboards or fancy tropical plants here. The bar itself (which is still awaiting a licence, so if you fancy a drink you'll currently have to take your own) takes up just a corner of the room.
But it's really, really friendly.
Contact Number
01204 364330
La Salsa's diminutive stature is by no means reflected in its menu, which boasts more than 40 different dishes, lulling easy-going lunchers into the desire to order a dozen dishes each because, well, they're only small and it's cheap and you want to try everything.
We restrained ourselves to six dishes between two of us - and one of those was Pan Fresco (£1.20), which is just bread and oil so it doesn't count.
Having made a mental pact not to order chorizo in red wine - eating in a new place should always mean at least a little break from routine - we opted for a mix of chicken, seafood, ham and mushroom dishes.
Polio al Ajillo (£3.10), is chicken cooked with olive oil, garlic and herbs. There are more exciting chicken dishes on the menu (such as chicken wings marinated with garlic and paprika (£2.95) or chicken breast with mushrooms in spicy tomato sauce (£3.10)) but sometimes you can't beat simplicity.
A common problem with ordering prawns in a Spanish restaurant is the time it takes to remove the heads and all the little legs. Ordering them deep fried means that is done for you, and the Gambas Gaberdina (£3.40), which is deep fried king prawns served with Spanish garlic mayonnaise, tasted great, although probably not the best choice for a gal on a diet.
My father has an issue with seafood paella, after a bad prawn once laid him low for days, but here the combination of squid rings and chicken in the Paella Valenciana (£3.20) create texture and taste.
Even better, the rice is dry - unlike in so many places where paella is served dripping in so much oil that the rice grains have turned to mush.
Our half-hearted attempt at health got so far as ordering mushrooms sauted in garlic olive oil and cheese (£2.65), again laden with calories.
When Spanish food tastes this good, it's a wonder you ever see a Senora under 16 stone.
In fact, the only let down was the Serrano ham and Manchego cheese, served on toasted bread (£3.25).
What sounded like a great idea, unfortunately bore too much of a resemblance to a common toastie, and the cheese was chewy rather than melted.
But that aside, lunch at La Salsa was a laid back and enjoyable affair.
This tiny, back-street bistro sized restaurant should quickly become a favourite with shoppers and workers sick of wasting their lunches on fast food.
Yes it would benefit from the atmosphere brought by more customers, but as it appears to have been open all of five minutes, we can trust that this is something that will come in time.
We weren't complaining - we had a personal waitress and she was lovely.
I for one will be going back - there's still mussels in spicy sauce (£3.50), Paella de Chorizo (£3.20), and spicy pork skewers (£3.30) I want to try. Oh, and probably the Chorizo frito al Vino (£3.45).
Some habits are hard to break.
