What could be better than a good meal out followed by the last Harry Potter film. As a food junkie the meal should have been the more exciting part, however, my love of Harry Potter is equally as obsessive. Beatrice and I headed out to Salt House Tapas last week, hoping for magical offerings from both the food and film.
They’re not quite up to the number of Italian joints in the city, but tapas restaurants, a once unheard of entity in Liverpool, are now a much more common sight. I’ve written about the different options before, and came to the conclusion that of the four I tried they all offered something different. It had been a considerable amount of time since I’d last eaten here, thus a return trip was in order. Salt House is a modern, clean and informal tapas restaurant, there are no Spanish cliches to be seen, the menu is in plain English.
Shown to our seat by a friendly waitress, we quickly ordered some sourdough bread and a couple of glasses of Nandu Sauvignon Blanc, a fragrant and pleasing wine at £4.05 for a small glass. I always feel, the the bread served by a restaurant is a good indicator of the meal to come, being a keen home baker I feel its something I have a good eye for. It should be easy to get right, bake your own or find a good baker, and only serve bread that has been baked that day. Our bread was of good quality with a faint sourdough flavour and deep dark crust, however it did feel quite cool. Was it from the fridge or had it been frozen? Possibly this wasn’t as fresh as it could be.
Our choice of seven dishes, was perhaps a bit too much, but confirmed food lovers like us struggled to compromise on a plethora of tempting dishes. The menu is modern and has a refined style, showing food more evolved from tapas’s rustic roots. Dishes like the Seared prawns and whitebait with saffron potatoes (£5.95) and the Slow roasted shoulder of lamb with crushed peas and broadbeans (£5.25) showed skill in cooking and quality produce. The prawns were perfectly cooked, soft and sweet accompanied well with crisp whitebait and scented potatoes. The lamb been slow cooked for considerable time leaving it very tender, full of flavour and complimented by the minted peas and beans that had a hint of added sharpness. A dish of Slow roasted belly pork with peaches (£6.50) was another more refined dish, fruit and pork is a well know combination that works well, however the pork could have done with longer cooking, it was a bit chewy.
Other dishes were of a more rustic style, the Fried padron peppers (£3.95) were really excellent, adding excitement to the meal wondering if you were about to bite into a hot or sweet one. Chicken and chorizo kabab (£5.50), was well cooked very soft tender chicken breast with subtle chorizo, no cheap rubbery overpowering chorizo that, all too frequently nowadays, appears in some restaurants. The board of vegetarian crudities (£4.95) was equally simple; slices of pepper, a few olives, some crostini, red pepper humus and bean salad; very simple but consisting of quality produce, the olives were particularly good, I’m heading to the local deli to buy some as soon as I can. A radish and fennel salad (£4.00) added pleasingly fresh crunch and texture to our meal. We also enjoyed a glass of Rioja for £4.85 for a small glass, it was very nice although serving wine in tumblers rather than wine glasses is not to my taste.
Having rather over indulged with the main courses, we opted for one pudding between two, in an attempt to feel slightly less gluttonous. Our Baked turron cheese cake (£4.50), was really very nice, only slightly sweet with a gentle tang to it. It came served with some tomato jam, that was nice but perhaps not best suited to this dessert.
Salt House Tapas, is a contemporary restaurant offering a good selection of dishes that show both refined modern food and traditional rustic tapas. The overall prices are reasonable, but with careful choice and less greedy appetites avery good value meal is available here. We had a really good meal, it wasn’t as magical as Harry Potter, but I wouldn’t hesitate to go back. If you want tapas in Liverpool there are quite a few choices, but Salt House has to be one of the best.
Read this great post by The Girl With The Wooden Spoon, highlighting another great liverpool restaurant, Salt House Tapas. I really like this restaurant and it looks like it runs great special events, I'll certainly try and get down to the next ham night they run.
