THE last time I’d been in Tapeo it had been Modelzone, a boys’ shop of planes, trains, automobiles, tanks, glue and kit-building.
The aubergine crisps glazed with extra virgin olive oil and honey, are suddenly one of the standout snacks in the city
Now it's a Spanish restaurant. After giving us time to examine the menu the waitress came over.
“Are you ready to order?” she asked.
“Yes, please,” I said.
"Go ahead," she said.
“I’d like a Hawker Siddeley Harrier, a remote control T-34, an 00 scale Mallard train, with sides of enamel olive green, matt black and sky blue modelling paint, but hold the plastic glue and the balsa wood.”
“Excuse me?” said the waitress.
So then I ordered properly and while we waited for our food reminisced with my fifteen-year-old son about all the stuff we'd bought in the restaurant when it was a shop.
Ralph is the youngest of three boys and the oldest, Jacob, is twenty-three. So from around 1996 to 2012 I spent a lot of time and money in Modelzone. There's evidence of all the joy we gained from those visits in our cellar where the train layout lurks, populated by a medley of abandoned toys, discarded as the years have flown by. Meanwhile the remote controlled T-34 tank waits for the next big push under the peonies and the strawberry plants in the garden. Later in the year it will be surrounded by juicy fruit.
Discarded toys
Waiting for the next big push
Restaurants are the theatre of chatter; the 'speakers corner' everyone can access, to converse about politics, art, love, the minutiae of the day, or in this case, to get misty-eyed and nostalgic about the toys we had known. If the chatter is good then any restaurant visit can work. If the food is just as good then a sort of magic happens.
Tapeo's food was superb.
The utterly simple berenjena frita (£4.50), aubergine crisps glazed with extra virgin olive oil and honey, are suddenly and at once the standout snacks in the city. Get them. Get bags of them. They are simply exquisite.
The conejo al ajillo (£5.50), the rabbit, was another winner. Fiddly, as these bunnies are, there is finger-licking reward in their sweet flesh sharpened with a tang of garlic and onion. The padron peppers at £4.20 with sea salt showed that Tapeo was in control of the Spanish standards.
"What are you doing?" I asked Ralph as he ate the whole thing, stalk and all.
"You always tell me not to be wasteful," he said. "I like the crunch of the stalk with the salt."
Fair enough.
Berenjena frita - the best new snack in Manchester
The Deansgate interior
The other dishes were excellent too. The Fideua Negra, a Valencian dish of prawns, cuttlefish and squid ink pasta for £15.80 was rich with the sea, bolstering, distinctive and wolfed down by the boy.
"Don't eat that like the peppers, the shell won't agree with you," I said pointing at the prawn. "I know," he said raising his eyes to the ceiling.
The huevos rotos con jamon de bellota (£9.20), an egg sat like a monarch on a throne of yielding lovely ham and crunchy salty fries, not only tasted very good but felt very good for you as well.
But it was the paletilla de cordero lechal (£23.50) that was the real marvel. This leg and shoulder of milk-fed lamb is all about the delicate flesh, the forgiving way it falls from the bone and the massive flavour it delivers in the mouth. It isn't a big dish but it's a worth a long journey to try.
The Fideua Negra
Huevos rotos con jamon de bellota - ham and eggs in a manner of speaking
The Estrella Galicia pint was £4.85 and ok. The Vega Valbosque Crianza at £8.80 for 2.50ml was better, if chalk can be measured with cheese. It was better because it was distinctive and memorable.
The whole Tapeo experience was distinctive and memorable with simple and effective decor too, all clean lines, with a judicious use of tiles, over a ground floor and basement.
Padron peppers
Milk-fed heaven
There are currently so many Spanish restaurants opening I'm sort of waiting for one to be a dud. Yet the thing is there is nothing wrong with any of the recent openings: Iberica, La Bandera, Lunya and El Gato Negro, but there's an awful lot right with them. That they all offer something different from each other is the key.
Tapeo is another fine addition to Manchester dining.
You should put it on the list of places to visit soon. It's a real asset. Mind you, in that large basement I'd like them to do one thing. I'd like them to open an Airfix concession. I miss Modelzone, so snacking on those honeyed aubergine crisps while constructing a Spitfire would be some consolation.
There's another consolation. I'm proud of the fact that this food review is unique. I reckon it's the first in history to mention a Hawker Siddeley Harrier and have a picture of a T34 under a peonie. Much like graphene, defining the nucleus of an atom and coming up with the unit of energy, it's another Manchester first.
Tapeo & Wine, 209 Deansgate, Manchester M3 3NW (Tapeo sits in Onward Buildings, a fascinating place we wrote about here). Tel: 0161 832 2770
Rating 15/20
Food: 8 (bread 7, aubergine crisps 9, rabbit 8, peppers 7, eggs and ham 7.5, squid ink pasta 8, lamb 9)
Ambience: 3
Service: 4
