La Boca in Glasgow

My husband bought us tickets to see INALA, South African singing, dance and Zulu ballet show at the Theatre Royal last Friday night. We decided to go for something to eat before the show.

As I did not want to see the show with full stomach we decided to try La Boca (http://www.labocatapas.com) on Hope Street in Glasgow for their Spanish tapas.

We did not book a table but we were hoping that we could walk in and get a table if we were there just after five.  Wrong! It's Friday after all. The place was fully booked until 6:15pm at least, which means that we would have to wait for almost an hour and we did not want to eat in a rush and get to the theatre. My husband suggested to go to Las Iguanas.  The lady at the bar said we could sit at the counter if we would not mind. No, I would not mind at all. I really wanted to try La Boca and really felt like having Spanish tapas. So we settled with that idea and took our seats on the bar stools.

This was my view at the counter.

This was my view behind me.

Actually, sitting at the bar was not a bad idea at all. It reminded us of a tapas bar we went in Barcelona long long time ago.

Main menu looked good but as this was our first visit and we were going to the theatre later on, we literally tried their pre-theatre menu - £10.95 for 3 tapas and we chose 6 dishes between us.

As we were not driving, we could both drink too. We decided to try medium size glasses of red wine - Torres Mas Rabell Tinto, Catalunya.  The restaurant also has a separate wine menu. 

This was a lovely wine....  Next time we order a bottle.

As we were sipping the wine, our order started arriving as they were prepared.

First one was sweet peppers stuffed with tuna, egg and caramelised onion. This was tasty. We wished there were more tuna stuffed into the pepper, however, it was tasty.

Then Fresh Mediterranean anchovies marinated in olive oil, vinegar, lemon and garlic on bed of potato crisps.  This one was tasty too, would go well with a nice cold beer!  Quite a good accompaniment to a drink.

Next came fried Spanish baby green peppers sprinked with sea salt. This one was my favourite.

I just remembered the grilled green peppers we had at a tapas place in Lisbon where they mix normal and hot (and really hot) green chilli peppers and it was just your luck as to which one you would get!

Also came was a whole fried baby squid in a batter. The squid was perfectly fried, lovely (not rubbery) and soft. It was sitting on squid ink mayonnaise.  Well, I just assumed it was mayonnaise with squid ink as it was grey ...   I don't think grey is a colour for any food. My brain could not compute the colour of grey and its actual flavour. It is a very strange feeling.  However, the squid was very nice.

Then came fried potato cubes with alioli sauce. This was really good too.

We ordered bread and olives to go with the food.

And lastly arrived was king prawns in Piri Piri sauce. Wow, you should see the lots of chilis and garlic swimming in the oil.

...once king prawns were gone, dip the bread into the hot chilli oils....

By this time, we were comfortably full. You think  3 tapas each was not a lot but actually it was a right amount.  I then saw one of the staff carrying a plate of huge freshly made Spanish omelette from the kitchen to the bar and placed them on top of the glass display case. They were big, thick and fluffy looking and perfectly golden without any burned bits.  I must try this. If I don't, I would regret it and would probably keep thinking about it during the entire show later, so we ordered one.

The lady at the counter asked if we like it hot or cold. I asked which would be better. Another staff said he would prefer hot.  The lady said we could try cold and she could heat it up if we wanted it hot later.  As it was freshly made, it was still warm so no need to heat it up.  The omelette was really tasty, with lots of potatoes. I have tried to make spanish omelette at home but I have not mastered it, not to mentioning making it this thick and without burning it at all.  

Night was still young and I must keep myself awake during the show. We ordered two espresso to finish our meal.

We liked this place. Food was really tasty. Service was very good and friendly.  I am sure we would come back here again. Next time we shall try other dishes from a la carte menu and a bottle of wine. I also saw this on the back of their menu - Sherry Flight Experience.  I don't drink sherry but I may learn something if I tried this ...? Next time ....

We really enjoyed our tapas and Torres wine.  Just as well we still had a theatre to go to after this and were sitting at the bar, otherwise we would miss our show as we would be happily sitting there, kept eating and drinking till we fall off the bar stool!

That's all forks!