Whilst staying in York for a few days, we thought we’d book tapas and chose “Sotano”:https://sotano.co.uk/, an independent place which promised authentic food with a modern twist.
The day before we’d been to check it out and simply found a rather inconspicuous doorway which appeared to lead to an upstairs restaurant. On arrival, we found the door now open, and stairs did indeed take us to a first-floor restaurant.
Having asked for a quiet table when I made my booking, the guy who greeted us showed us to our table, asked if was ok and said it was the best they had. It was fine as it was not in the row of tables for two and was set slightly apart.
We ordered a bottle of Banaras Sauvignon Blanc and tap water which came with ice in the jug.
To eat, we chose a selection of dishes from the “menu”:https://sotano.co.uk/menu-1 which came in the following order: prawns pil pil, which were hot and garlicy, pan con tomate, two thick slices of sourdough with a pile of crushed garlicy tomatoes on top, champiñóns (garlic mushrooms), albondigas (five lovely firm tasty meatballs), and my all-time favourite, patatas bravas with a spicy sauce which coated only a few of the potato chunks so that they were nice and crisp. It was certainly plenty for two and we enjoyed the slow, leisurely evening.
Service was good and smiles retained, even when the lady at the nearest table to us sent two dishes back, for what sounded like spurious reasons. In chatting to the young girl serving, we found there was a covered heated terrace at the back and that during Covid, they had also created another small rooftop patio, but as it was uncovered, it was only really used during the summer.
Instead of pudding we indulged in another large glass of wine each and our bill came to £74 without a tip.
Sotano appears to have some connection with “Kennedy’s”:https://www.kennedysbaryork.co.uk/ which is underneath on the ground floor, as instead of exiting via the stairs, we came out through their bar.
