La Boca

So after having some bad luck on my birthday I was wandering through town trying to find somewhere to have lunch with my mum and gran. It can be pretty tricky to get somewhere we all like, and as we walked down hope street I remembered their lunch 3 dished for £6 offer and thought perfect!
After getting in, there were a few other tables in but it wasn’t mobbed, we were greeted with a very warm welcome and shown to our seats. We were offered drinks and given our menus. We ordered a beautiful bottle of cava, it was my birthday after all! And my mum got a coffee which she said was great. They had a few specials included in the lunch deal, langoustine grilled and a small chicken and prawn paella.
The food was where the experience stopped being fantastic… Some dishes were great, some were very mediocre. :(I order calamari, blue cheese and spinach croquettes and the langoustine special! My mum and gran shared a few pork dishes, chicken croquettes, potatas bravas and the paella special.
The specials were great, easily the bet things on the table, however by the time the langoustine arrived at the table everything else was finished. There was a combination of food coming out very slowly from the kitchen and the portions being tiny (even for tapas!) so they disappeared in a couple of bites. My dishes seemed to be last to come out, I guess because they were fish, but it meant other dishes were finished or cold by the time they got there.
The calamari were pretty terrible, which was sad as it’s my favourite tapas dish! Bland, thin, over cooked and no aioli?! The potatoes weren’t great, or the croquettes, neither chicken (apparently) or the blue cheese ones. The potatoes also lacked the lovely tomato based sauce you’d expect, although nice enough they kinda reminded me of super crunchy frozen roast potatoes.
I’d give it a second chance at lunch time again, but it didn’t make me want to go back and splurge out on a dinner.

Tapas!
What’s better than Tapas?
I’ll tell you… NADA
Having eaten Spanish Tapas whilst in Spain, I can honestly say that La Boca is just as good or better than most that I’ve been to and just as authentic tasting.
£2.50 Tuesdays are a godsend! So much choice means you can try things you wouldn’t normally because of not wanting to waste money. I don’t like Aubergines, however the fried aubergine stack with the sugar syrup is brilliant and the manchego is great.
Definitely visit for a budget friendly meal!

Tapas! Mmm! It’s becoming a tradition for once a month a friend and I to go for Tapas. This month it was time to try La Boca. We booked in advance, but were given a small, high stool table in the corner by the window. Not a huge issue but we will remember in future to request a different table.
The staff were very helpful and even let us have a little taste of the wine before buying the bottle, it was delicious.
Food wise I went for fried calamari, chorizo in red wine sauce, and garlic and chilli prawns.
The fried calamari was very moorish, nom nom, the garlic and chilli prawns were just right, but the chorizo wasn’t quite up to scratch. The pieces were a bit too thick and the cause a little too tangy.
For desert I then ordered Churros and dark chocolate dipping sauce. Mmmm it’s been a long time since I’ve had churros quite as good as this.
Overall, this place has a lovely feel, very traditional, great snappish music playing. The staff were friendly but unfortunately they were closing at 10pm so we did have to scoot a bit earlier than we had anticipated.
Cost wise I feel like for the portion size and quality it was a little steep. But they have £2.50 Tapas Tuesday which I’m sure will make the whole experience a lot better. However the main reason for 4 stars rather than 5 was more the menu options, I didn’t feel like there was enough variety really.
Other than that, a great place to spend an evening!

We popped in on a Wednesday night after work. I was pleased to see they they’ve labeled gluten free menu items, though there are a few sneaky meats in the vegetable section so vegetarians beware! We opted to order one of the pre theatre deals (3 tapas off a shorter menu, including daily specials) and then a couple extra items off the full menu. I ate the daily special paella with chicken and cheese. Everyone should put cheese in paella — it was so good! I also had the garlic pork — really, really garlicky and tasty. My partner and I split the potato dish — they were fried with onions and peppers, tasty but maybe a little too soft for me. He had the cream of leek soup special, which was decent, and a fried aubergine dish that was served looking like a Jenga game. He enjoyed it.
The food overall is like home cooking — simple but really enjoyable. We’re excited to go back on a Tuesday, when almost the entire menu is priced at £2.50 a dish!

Meh.
I’m not sure why this place has such rave reviews. Ewan and I went for lunch one day and took advantage of the 3 tapas for £6 deal. We got 6 tapas for £12. We had the Pan y Tomate, which was underwhelming, the Albondigas Caseras which were fairly tasty, but there wasn’t enough of them– you only get two, Carne con tomate which was surprisingly tasty, given I’m not a big pork fan, the Chorizo con Vino which I enjoyed (I love Chorizo), the Morcilla which was also underwhelming and a bit tasteless and patatas bravas which are fairly difficult to get wrong.
It was a quiet Tuesday lunchtime. The service was decent. However, I’m not sure if we’ll be back here. The food was nothing to write home about. If you REALLY want the best tapas in Glasgow, get yourself along to El Gusto in the West End…

I can’t believe, according to Unilocal,this is best Tapas in Glasgow — what are you thinking Unilocalers!
We went on a Friday evening. I started with olives, which arrived… Just. Apparently try they only had a few green olives left. So I got 7 green olives — they had the decency to not charge me.
I ordered the Spanish tomato garlic bread and it was nice to eat without blowing me away. It was followed by the special pork. It would have been decent had it not had half a jar of sea salt poured over it. I actually coughed on first bite.
The dessert was also just OK. It was churros with some chocolate syrup.

Great tapas bar — the kind of place you can go for a meal or just pop in for a drink and have a small snack. Have been twice for dinner and really enjoyed both visits. The staff are confident that their food is good, and rightfully so. Dishes are brought to the table individually as soon as they are ready. My favourite dishes were the huevos rotos — a delicious mess of melt-​in-​the-​mouth potato slices with onions, peppers, cheese and egg, and berenjenas con miel de cana — long strips of aubergine in a light batter drizzled with a dark sugar cane honey. They have some good offers too — Loco Tuesdays with all tapas £2.50, and a weekday lunch offer of 3 tapas for £6.

As it says on the poster «the best tapas in Glasgow». They were not kidding. We visited on an it is on deal five tapas bread and olives.
Food came out as it should do when it was ready and a small bit at a time. The food was so good my vegetarian wife even tasted some of the reserve ham and I as a meatitarian ate some aubergine.
The atmosphere was very nice with attentive and friendly staff. Already planning my next visit.

I’ve visited La Boca twice now and have to say that the first experience was much better than the second. The first time I had lunch with a friend, it was an odd time during the week so the place was quite empty — we had good service and the food was tasty, plus there was a special on tapas (3 for 10). The second time I went back and took someone new, the place was packed so we sat at the bar. Normally I actually enjoy the bar, its a fun environment and the ‘staff watching’ is entertaining. However, this time we were virtually ignored, the staff seem very unorganised and inexperienced. I will say that the food was still good but the experience left us with not wanting to go back. I would say its worth a visit during an off-​time, but on busy nights I would avoid it.

Estrella Galicia… ON TAP!!! I’m sold.
I love La Boca. Having lived in Spain I really enjoy tapas, plus… I can never decide what to get when I go out for dinner so this is a great way to order EVERYTHING you want :) I’m not a fan of the chain restaurants trying to do tapas and this is where La Boca ticks every box for me. Informal, true to self and simple. Don’t expect a restaurant set with linen and cutlery. It’s a proper tapas bar. Mana playing in the background, the best olives I’ve tasted in the UK, as much lomo as you can eat and delicious gambas ajillo.
Muy bien :)

In truth, I didn’t even know this place existed until a couple of days ago — it seems to be one of Glasgow’s newest & best kept secrets.
Heading into the back past the bar, the place is *warm* — the couple of fans which they had helpfully supplied not doing a lot to cool it, but can hardly blame the unusually nice weather on the restaurant. The service throughout was attentive and friendly — yet never over-​bearing.
I’m a huge fan of Tapas (I mean, who doesn’t love chorizo??) so we ordered quite a lot of food! I was converted to Calamari here, it was beautifully cooked. To be honest, everything we ordered was beautiful. From the garlic and herb pork, patatas bravas or the anchovies, I was really impressed.
It was a bit quiet when we were in, but it was a Monday night. If you haven’t been and you like Tapas, then you HAVE to go to this place.

La Boca might just make you forget you’re even in Glasgow, with the hustle and bustle and volume of a Spanish tapas bar. Thankfully the food lives up to the vibe so you won’t leave disappointed.
We needed an early meal before a gig at the Royal Concert Hall, and La Boca being just a few blocks away looked ideal. As we headed in, it was like being transported a couple of hours south — it was loud, vibrant and the food smelt delicious. There’s a bar area at the front and we headed to the back to a small table for two against a faux tiled wall (it looks nice even if it is wallpaper).
We went for a few different dishes to share between us — croquetas caseras (chicken, there was also cod and spinach with blue cheese options), secreto Iberico (secret pork), pollo rebozado (crumbed chicken), calamares fritos, boquerones (anchovies), berenjenas con miel de cana (fried aubergine) and patatas bravas (token UK Spanish dish!).
Out of these, there was only two dishes which didn’t really live up to my expectations — the calamari was pretty bland and lacking seasoning, and the secret pork was raw in the middle on one end (the rest of it was fine and delicious).
My favourite dishes were the anchovies — these were simply amazing, and I loved them. They weren’t too salty and were served on top of some crisps which was weird but awesome. The aubergine was also amazing and was presented like a jenga puzzle, and it was a huge portion. I really liked the flavouring of the chicken croquette, it was way more interesting than a standard croquette as it had a lot of depth of flavour.
Service was good and the place had a great atmosphere. The bill wasn’t too pricey either, somewhere in the £40 mark for 7 dishes, a wine, beer and a couple of soft drinks. On other tables, there was people drinking and sharing smaller dishes so it definitely has more of a bar vibe than a restaurant. A great addition to Glasgow’s Spanish scene!

I thought this place was great. Really informal and authentic.
The jamon Iberico and secreto pork were my favourites but our brochetta and prawns were also great.
Dessert was strange (a custard thing that had not set with a rich tea on top) but the owner took it off the bill because we had not eaten it & he said it wasn’t meant to be like that.
Looking forward to going back and trying more.

felt I needed to go for tapas in Glasgow, as that was one of the things I didn’t had in quite a while. So Friends and the WWW suggested ‘La Boca’. First, it looks very unnoticeable from the outside. I was tons of times in Hope St (Pot Still!) but never noticed it before since there opening in the beginning of this year.
Inside it looks very small, not cluttered with (sorry) crap, but nice. Everything says: ’ That’s a nice place to hang out and ENJOY the food. we had a lot of different tapas, ranging from patatas bravas, gambas, tortillas to one with chorizo and one with mini squid. everything very tasty and and well priced. Plus a nice bottle of red wine. Paid £13 each which is a good price. So defo a recommendation if you’re in Glasgow and feel for Tapas.

A greeting with smile. Always a good start
Our host and hostess were cheerfully and welcoming and thus we were seated. We ordered promptly and the food came out bit by bit, as it was ready and as you’d expect from tapas. Gambas, tortilla, patatas bravas, ‘carne de cerdo’, meatballs (albondigas) amongst others — All extremely tasty* and all reasonably priced, as were the drinks.
So why not a 5? I’d definitely go back and I’d recommend it to others, but it doesn’t compare to the best tapas I’ve had. The menu seemed anglicised? (maybe a bit harsh on my part), *the paprika mayo on the patatas was over salted and the ambiance was lacking. Perhaps the modernistic/​trad Spanish décor mix played its part, it just didn’t WOW me :-/​
That last paragraph seems very harsh. I don’t mean it to be. I could’ve expressed how wonderful the food, service and ambience were and left it at that. A ⁴⁄₅ is still very acceptable, but I want it to be more. I am a fan and would love to scream to the rafters on how good it was. IT IS good, but just not super good :-/))

La Boca is an actual, proper, honest-​to-​goodness tapas bar, not a restaurant. A streetfood take-​out with plenty of comfortable seating in a bright, clean, tiled diner that reminds me a lot more of Spain than any of the usual, kitsch British versions. It has a short, unfussy, but interesting menu, and a helpful, friendly owner who takes great pride in the authentic Spanish-​sourced produce.
My partner and I started off with olives and bread and for once, instead of olive oil and balsamic, they were served with garlic mayo. Way better, loved the mayo! We ordered Salmon Ahumado (ie smoked salmon, served on toasted bread), Gambas Pil Pil (chilli king prawns again!), Brochette (chicken with peppers and onion) x 2, Albondigas Caseras (meatballs — as per my usual — in a special sauce) and a Secreto Iberico, I just had to get this because I had no idea what it was — shhh, it’s a secret.
Everything came very speedily and it all looked fantastic. Getting back to the Secreto Iberico, apparently it’s one of the tastiest cuts of pork, from between the shoulder blade and the loin, well I don’t know about that but it was really tasty. Noone else dared sink a fork in! The salmon was a bit like a bruschetta, it was really well-​flavoured and there was plenty of it so we shared it around the three of us. The king prawns were cooked and spiced just nice, the chicken was lovely, and my albondigas were right up there. Spicy, dense and plenty of them, the special sauce was excellent.
Great place, great value, great experience. It might just be the best in the city. Definitely worth a keek!