A model taste of Spain
WELL away from the cluster of restaurants which have been transforming Chapel Allerton into a fashionable eating-out zone is a parade of shops where Gledhow Valley Road runs into Harrogate Road.
Over the years its character has changed somewhat and these days there is a hairdressers, a Chinese and a Thai take-away (Jumbo and Thai Basil) and El Bareto, a Spanish tapas bar. It still looks like a parade of shops, however. Or it does until one's eyes falls on the tapas bar.
El Bareto occupies the premises where models and modelling kits used to be sold, but model-making, apparently, ran out of model makers in this part of Leeds. Eating and drinking is apparently more popular, especially when the food is exotic. The one-time model shop has been customised with a wooden banister running up beside a ramp to the door.
There's a slightly distressed, rustic look to the place, not really in keeping with its crisp urban surroundings, and inside is a bar and a young Spanish woman who explains that yes, there is a restaurant, and that it's downstairs. What has happened here is a clever transformation of a shop cellar into a kind of cave, with mysterious iron cooking utensils decorating the uneven plastered walls, and sturdy wooden tables and sturdy wooden stools with red cushions. Apart from the giant fans in the ceiling, it all looks rather handcrafted and basic.
It is a Tuesday evening, and we are the only diners there, which means that the waiter has plenty of time for us. (It is all change on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, booking ahead being advisable). We learn that Shaun is a professional dancer – went to the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Chapeltown – but is injured now and on a Monday night gives Salsa dancing lessons in the restaurant before people come to eat, and on Wednesdays, musicians are brought in to provide entertainment.
He recommends a Raimat Abadia white wine, which gives us confidence in his judgment because it is delicate and floral and very pleasant.
He suggests we have four tapas dishes, speaking highly of the patatas jefa (potatoes, onions, sausage in a spicy sauce), albondigas (Spanish meatballs), totilla de cebolla (potato and onion omelette) and the langostinos a la plancha (grilled king prawns). We ask for a salad as well. Two small scones are delivered to the table, and when the dishes start arriving, two more. They look like rather under-risen bread rolls, but are more interesting.
On the face of it, this tapas thing of sitting down at a table in a restaurant-type setting and eating what are basically a series of snacks that might be presented to drinkers at a bar does seem a bit odd. On the other hand, it offers some benefits.
Foremost is the avoidance of boredom. This occurs when a dish arrives which is delicious for the first three mouthfuls, but then begins to slide into tedium because there is such a lot of it. In the end, getting to the end becomes an end in itself, and what had started off as fun, ends up as an endurance test.
Many attempts have been made to overcome boredom syndrome, the most famous, probably, being nouvelle cuisine with its minuscule but artistically-arranged portions and phenomenal prices.
Tapas is altogether a better, more pragmatic solution. And at El Bareto it comes together in a very satisfactory manner, with flavours and textures which provide a series of little pleasures.
The unpeeled prawns – unpeeled being requested – were certainly as good as I've had anywhere else, and were in piquant juices so that a bath rather than a finger bowl would have been more appropriate when cleaning up. The potato slices in the patatas jefa were surprisingly light, and charmed off the plate by their tomato-based sauce, as were the soft Spanish meatballs.
The dullest of our dishes was predictably the tortilla de cebolla, but it made a useful contribution by neutralising the distinct flavours in the other dishes so that when they were visited again, the surprise and pleasure were renewed.
This is where tapas scores over conventional meals, and no doubt explains its popularity. Business in the restaurant did pick up as the evening went on, and the bar upstairs got full.
Our meals also included champ al horno (oven-baked mushroom with bacon); for pudding, Spanish custard, distinguished by the cinnamon lavished on it, and a very powerful espresso coffee. The food and wine came to a little over 50.
Smoking is not permitted in the restaurant, but there is an adjoining downstairs bar where it is allowed.
El Bareto, 120 Gledhow Valley Road , Leeds, LS176LX Tel 0113 266 6946.Parking is not an issue, the parade of which El Bareto belongs being served by its own little cul de sac. It is open 5.30pm to 12.30am Mondays to Saturdays.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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