Having enjoyed Kiss me Kate at the Barbican featuring the delightful Adrian Dunbar, we headed out to St John Street, a 15-minute walk, where after searching Google, we’d booked an Argentinian and Spanish tapas restaurant, Bocas.
Having walked past the restaurant without noticing the rather unassuming place, we retraced our steps and eventually found it on the corner of a busy road. At 5.45pm the place was empty, and we wondered if we’d made a big mistake.
When booking, I’d asked for a table in a quiet area due to my friend’s deafness and so was pleased to be shown to a table in a corner although the benches on either side were a little rocky.
Despite serving Spanish food, the fizz was Italian prosecco rather than Spanish cava, however, at £33 it was reasonable value for the area, and a bottle was ordered. And in the absence of olives, hot salty padron peppers provided an ideal nibble whilst we checked out the food.
It was a relatively simple menu with a focus on empanada with various fillings including a rather bizarre, mozzarella, olives and champagne. We went for a rather more mundane creamed sweetcorn, and although it was a reasonable size for us to share, it was a little bland. We fared much better with our next choices. Four round jamon croquetas were lovely and crisp on the outside and soft and squidgy in the middle, whilst the patatas bravas ‘with a twist’, had a spicy garlic aioli rather than the traditional tomato sauce. The generous slice of tortilla was light and appeared less ‘eggy’ than usual and having ordered chorizo, it was suggested this was a small dish to share and we were recommended the Argentinian sausage instead which was a large meaty sausage cut into two lengthways, which sat on pieces of French bread to soak up the delicious juices.
Shortly after we arrived, the place quickly filled up which added to a lively buzzy atmosphere, and it was obviously a popular place.
We finished with churros which came as a portion of three, along with a delicious but rather thick melted chocolate before dipping. Whilst we normally accompany these with a glass of Pedro Ximénez, the only options were a rather dry Fino sherry, or another we were unfamiliar with. Having been given a taste of each, we settled on the latter although it wasn’t as smooth and sticky as the PX.
The service from the three young girls was exceptional and they were more than happy to make recommendations and chat about the dishes. And best of all, they didn’t hurry us out. Our bill was a reasonable £101.00.
