IT was a rare visit home from our son and heir accompanied by the lead guitarist from his band that prompted us to go out for a meal.

He had come home for a flying visit to the dentist - after all a budding indie rock star can't be seen with chipped teeth.

So my wife and I and the two starving young men decided to go somewhere we all liked - La Tasca tapas bar in Bolton town centre.

It is a firm favourite of ours and our son Alex and his pal Will also like tapas.

Lots of different small dishes are not to everyone's taste, but we really enjoy this little outpost of sunny Spain in the middle of rain-swept Bolton. For some reason it is usually raining when we visit La Tasca.

We didn't book on a Friday night but it was early doors so we managed to walk straight in and got a table for four at the far end of the long restaurant.

The dim lighting is always a problem in La Tasca but when we arrived the lights were up but as soon as we started reading the menu - the lights went down. Not good when you need reading glasses in ordinary light.

We have our favourites which we always order but because there were four of us we chose more dishes, doubling up on the real favourites, to share.

We started with an Acompanamientos - garlic bread with cheese at £2.95 (pan de ajo con queso) which helped stave off the hunger pangs until the rest of the food arrived.

I love the casserole of lamb and potatoes with mustard and peppercorns (cordero en salsa) where the meat is so soft it melts in your mouth and as Will liked that as well we ordered two and doubled up on the meatball dishes (albondigas a la jardinera) as they are a firm favourite of my son's.

What we really like about La Tasca is the friendly service from the generally young staff and the prompt arrival of the food.

In the end we had so many dishes that we could only just fit them on the table. But it's a funny thing - they were all empty at the end of the meal.

We tucked into a tender chicken dish in white wine (pollo al ajillo) which was delicious, and the meatballs were as good as they always are, firm, tasty and in a very nice rich sauce.

We also had anchovies in olive oil and garlic (boquerones en vinagre) which were superb as always.

Patatas al la pobre is roast potatoes with slices of red and green peppers and onions and is also a firm favourite of ours.

Another dish we always enjoy is (fritura mixta de pescado), a selection of squid, king prawns, tuna and whitebait in batter served with lemon and sea salt and a mayonnaise dip - delicious as always.

We also had a big extra-sized chunk of Spanish omelette (tortilla Espanola) omelette with onions and potatoes and a tasty aubergine with cheese and herbs (berenjenas gratinadas).

Despite saying they were full my son and his pal suddenly decided there was still room for dessert.

So Alex shared a chocolate dessert with his mother while Will was overfaced with a large portion of ice cream.

As usual we enjoyed our meal at La Tasca, the food was delicious, the ambience (despite the low lighting) was pleasant and the service attentive but not intrusive.

The bill for four came to a reasonable £75 as it included several dishes, some in larger portions, two desserts, a pitcher of beer, four cokes and two shorts.