Location
La Casa Tomada on Facebook
Per Person
2 bottled beers, shared starter, main, shared dessert.
€25 or so.
In Short
Hopes?
Something new.
Reality?
Enormous submarine sandwiches. Action stations!
First Impressions?
A slightly noisy space, perhaps because they were only half a dozen customers. Light and airy.
A USP?
Portion size and a touch of North American sensibility.
The food in three words?
Really, really, big.
Can they get the staff?
Not too busy today, so one was enough.
Service with a smile?
Very amiable. Service is speedy, we think, but food production is a bit leisurely.
Would you take your friends?
I'd not put them off.
Rating for a dating?
Perhaps not the cuisine to encourage canoodling.
Tip?
Yep. No freebies at all though.
If you could change one thing, what would it be?
I'd have checked the price of the excellent artisan beer.
Going back?
No reason why not.
In Pictures
On Google Images
In Depth
On a street not replete with bars, El Casa Tomada's bright mauve exterior means it's king of the road. A purple reign, if you will.
The decor is neat and attractive. Tables aren't wedged in and the place is bright, if a bit echoey with only a few customers in on the Wednesday before the epic Easter weekend. I can't knock the eclectic music choic which kicked off with some ska. Perhaps they're murder mystery fans as A3series watchers (translation: those of us with too much free time) will know it's used for this.
So, to our investigation, kicking off with one of the usual suspects. Deep breath. We're following a fashionable meme. How did they pull off pulled pork?
It tasted more orangey than I expected and somehow not quite...as porky as it might. Topping a moutain of guacamole, cheese and chips, this was ginormous, probably enough for a table of four and, all in all pretty good. My only doubt was that barbecue sauce. I'm not a massive fan and drenching guacamole with it is not an idea to write home about. Just send a postcard. Put on it "Please don't..."
Main course: a choripan sub sandwich and chillibeef hotdog.
It's not sold as such, but the ballistic-sized Choripan is - fanfare, Alberto - a successful fusion dish. A mustardy sauce, loads of onion, pepper, coriander and very mild butterflied chorizo. North American sensibilities, Iberian key ingredient. Good stuff. Truth be told, I was sunk by this submarine. After that starter it was simply too huge. The good-natured server was obviously well-used to this, as she didn't skip a beat in offering to wrap it to take away.
The chilli hotdog was almost submerged in a sea of cheese. We shouldn't judge this harshly as we'd ordered it without its pepper and chilli topping, that would have added a bit of acidity to balance things.
Drinks? We tried the Moustache. I nearly went for something else and missed out, so, a close shave. A decent beer, with thyme flavouring. It's very drinkable but at €6 a bottle, probably not the choice if you intend to get drunkable.
Dessert time, with more from the soundtrack. Thank you for the music, the song you're singing, Herman's Hermits. The boys get it wrong re. a dearth of daily dairy, as an excellent wodge of creamy vanilla cheesecake arrived. A megasplodge of nice strawberry gunge and what might have been Vanilla Carte D'Or, which wasn't really needed, but we shan't be churlish.
Good food, memorable flavours, nice decor. Food prep was slower than I'd have liked, but service was good. We may be back, and reckon you should go judge for yourselves.
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