El Gusto

¡Delicioso!
NOM NOM!
My other half and I have been meaning to try this place for a while and when his mum gave us some money to go out for dinner we decided to go here. I love Spanish food. Probably more than I love Mexican or Italian. It’s my favourite type of cuisine.
So we had three tapas, paella and some bread and olive oil to share. We had Ponchos De Ronda which was a kind of chicken breast on a skewer with spicy tomato sauce and chilli. That was wonderful and was grilled to perfection. We also had patatas bravas covered in spicy tomato sauce and albondigas which are meatballs covered on tomato sauce. The tapas were amazing and full of flavour– better than some tapas I’ve had in Spain.
We had the Paella Montaña which had chicken and Chorizo which was flavoursome and tasty– the Chorizo was smoky and very tasty!
After food, we had coffee which was excellent. If the owner (who is a bit of a hero, he takes the orders, makes them and then brings them to you whilst simultaneously cooking orders for home deliveries).
It was quite quiet, the restaurant is more like a café, but that makes it all the more authentic. The bill was reasonable for what was essentially a three course meal for two people. There is no alcohol but you can go to one of the nearby shops and get some wine or beer.
Rather than going to La Tasca or Café Andaluz, go here.

This place has been open for a little under a year and I finally found an excuse to visit last night to try it out. It’s a lot smaller than I expected — there’s a seating area at the front which could fit around 20 diners. But the food is out-​of-​this world good, which is what really matters.
I was meeting a friend here and the owner let me sit at a large table of 4 rather than a tiny table for two, which was nice. You can pop along to the shop and buy your booze to bring — wine corkage is £3 and I think beers are £1. As I was driving I was happy with soft drinks anyway, but it’s handy to know for future visits.
There’s pretty standard offerings on the menu — the usual tapas selection you’d expect, plus paella and some larger dishes. The owner himself is from Madrid and we took his guidance when ordering — a paella to share and three tapas between two. We got the seafood paella with prawn, mussels, fish and squid (£8.95), patatas bravas (£4.50), mushrooms sauteed in garlic (£4.95) and goats cheese salad with chili and rocket (£5.25).
The food arrived quickly and as it was ready rather than in any order. At first glance it looks pretty standard but the flavour was immense — the mushrooms in garlic were so flavoursome and delicious, and I loved that there was crunchy slices of garlic at the bottom of the dish to add even more flavour. The goats cheese salad was a whole circle of cheese baked in the dish so it was nice and oozy, and a good amount of chili to give it a kick. The paella was the real stand out dish — a massive portion which easily did two people and a nice amount of seafood mixed through it. There was one large prawn in it too which was easy to split up between us, and overall I thought this was a really tasty dish which I’d head back here just to have. The patatas bravas arrived last and while this is a pretty token Spanish dish, I really enjoyed it and the potatoes were the right amount of crispy.
There was nothing I could fault about the food here, and with the bill coming in at just over £25 for dinner for two, it was crazy cheap too. The décor is really casual — think more of a café than a classy restaurant, and service is relaxed and friendly. They have some really good lunch deals like £6.50 paella sit-​in, they also do takeaway and outside catering. Take yourself on an adventure and head here for a meal — it was an absolute delight.