Andalucia tapas restaurant, Leek
Andalucia, a Spanish tapas restaurant, opened this month in the centre of Leek in the Staffordshire Moorlands. Not entirely new to the area, Andalucia had a former life as La Casona out on Buxton Road.
Last weekend, I paid my first visit to their new venue, but it won’t be my last. I found tasty, no-frills tapas that won’t break the bank: a great addition to the town’s food scene.
LA CASONA BECOMES ANDALUCIA
I’ve lived in the Staffordshire Moorlands for nearly ten years. But they say (only half-jokingly, I think) that you don’t get provisional resident status until you’ve been here twenty-five years or more. However, even during my relatively short stay, the venue on the corner of Buxton Road and Thorncliffe Road, just outside Leek, has had several different guises.
When I first came here, it was the Moss Rose. Then Sera, then The Olive Tree. Finally, in Autumn 2019 La Casona, a Spanish tapas restaurant took over. I went along shortly after, enjoyed a tapas Sunday lunch and wrote about it on social media and included it in my Food & Drink Round-Up for November 2019.
Of course, it wasn’t long after that COVID struck and the closing down of virtually all hospitality put the kibosh on any plans to revisit. But, like so many in the industry, La Casona rose to the challenge and kept us fed with takeaways like this gargantuan one I enjoyed at home.
So I was hugely pleased when it was announced that La Casona, with its new name of Andalucia, would be moving to Leek town centre.
The new Andalucia tapas restaurant is situated on two floors of 1 Stanley Street. Many of you will recognise it as the former home of the much-loved Market Kitchen Cafe and the sadly short-lived Belfield’s Bistro.
On the Saturday night I went to Andalucia, a couple of weeks after the opening, the downstairs area was already full. And it wasn’t even 7.00 pm yet.
Downstairs, it’s fresh and light. Upstairs, things are moodier with a dark blue decor. There are striking paintings of flamenco dancers adorning the walls both upstairs and down.
ANDALUCIA TAPAS RESTAURANT MENU
From memory, I think the menu at Andalucia tapas restaurant is the same as they had at La Casona. I’m pretty sure I spotted all my favourites anyway.
The menu is divided into Platos Vegetarianos (£4.95 – £5.95), Platos de Carne (meat: £5.95 – £11.95), Salads (£6.95 – £8.95), Platos de Pescado (fish and seafood: £5.45 – £10.95), Las Paellas (£7.95 – £16.95), and Side Orders (£3.50 – £4.50). For those whose Spanish pronunciation isn’t what it might be, all dishes are handily numbered.
Note that there are no starters or main courses. This is tapas, remember. Expect dishes with a relatively higher price to have either more expensive ingredients (e.g. the lamb chops) or serve more than one person e.g. some of the paellas.
The menu says not to expect all dishes to be served at the same time, as is traditional with tapas. However, most of ours did, although not all. If you’re not used to eating this way, my advice would be to just go with the flow.
There’s a comprehensive drinks menu, although no draught beer. I was slightly disappointed they were out of Cruzcampo as that’s what I almost always drank with tapas in actual Andalucía when I travelled to cities like Seville, Granada, and Ronda. But I was happy with a bottle of Estrella Damm (£3.95) which took me back to my first visits to Spain and Barcelona over 25 years ago.
TAPAS: MADE FOR SHARING
If you want to go it alone, you can. But tapas is really best enjoyed as a social occasion where you share dishes with others.
I had my partner along and, both big eaters, we chose eight dishes between us. If you’re not sure how much food to order, don’t worry. Just pick a few dishes to start and then order more as needed.
BREAD BASKET
Guessing that many of Andalucia‘s dishes would have lots of tasty sauces we’d want to mop up, the Bread Basket (£4.50) just had to be among our choices. It came as a medium, crusty loaf, cut into eight to ten chunky pieces.
This wasn’t your handmade, artisan, sourdough type affair. Just plain everyday bread.
It came with a pot of aioli garlic mayonnaise and another of oil and Balsamic vinegar. But these were unnecessary for my purposes. All I wanted was to tear it into chunks for dipping into the tasty little dishes. And it was perfectly fine for that job.
PATATAS BRAVAS
Is Patatas Bravas (£4.95) the most well-known and popular tapas dish in Britain? Given our love of chips and roast potatoes, I shouldn’t be surprised. Which means you probably don’t need me to tell you that it consists of chunks of fried potato covered in a spicy tomato sauce.
The word brava, which gives the dish its name, means bold or fierce in Spanish. I’d had patatas bravas several times from La Casona including some that were spicily and perkily ‘brava’. At Andalucia I’d say the sauce had medium chilli heat.
The portion was pretty generous given the modest price.
SALADS
Wanting a bit of fresh salad to balance the other dishes, we ordered Ensalada Mediterranea (£6.95). With diced feta cheese, it lived up its Mediterranean title rather than being specifically Spanish.
The mixed leaves, cucumber, tomato, and peppers were all very fresh. There were green and black olives too and the dish was brought together by a pleasantly herby dressing.
Although I haven’t tried it, there is a Tuna Salad on the menu (£7.95) which sounds very like those you’d get in Spain, the sweetcorn giving it away! So, if you want something more Spanish, that might be the way to go.
The house salad, Ensalada La Casona (£8.95), which includes chicken, chorizo and halloumi, I’ve had as a takeaway dish in Andalucia‘s previous incarnation. I enjoyed it very much and suspect it would be good in the restaurant too.
CHICKEN (and MEATBALLS)
There are two choices of chicken dish at Andalucia tapas restaurant. We’d already tried and enjoyed the creamy, garlicky Pollo a la Crema (£5.95) at La Casona. So, this time, we went for Brochetas de Pollo (£6.95)
This came as four large, chunky pieces of nicely charred grilled chicken breast. Very tender and well-seasoned, they were accompanied by browned peppers and onions.
I made a slip-up with our next dish of Albondigas (£5.95) or meatballs. I committed the cardinal sin of food bloggers and forgot to take a photo. So, I’m afraid you’ll have to make do with the half eaten ones behind the chicken in the photo above.
But what I can tell you is that the beefy balls were good and we mopped up every drop of their accompanying tomato sauce. You can also get the meatballs topped with melted mozzarella cheese for £6.50.
MUSSELS
Next, let me show you the first of our seafood dishes: Mejillones en Salsa Roja (£7.95). Although I associate salsa roja or red sauce with Mexican rather than Spanish cuisine, the dish of mussels in tomato, white wine and garlic was familiar enough.
Not something I eat that often in the landlocked Moorlands, the mussels tasted good and fresh. My only slight quibble is that I’d have preferred the sauce to be a little more reduced to intensify the flavour.
PRAWNS WITH GARLIC
One tapa I will almost always order, here or in Spain, is Gambas al Ajillo or prawns with garlic sauce. For me, there’s something about the aroma of prawns sizzling in garlic that gets the appetite roaring.
Gambas al Ajillo (£7.95) at Andalucia was five fat and juicy king prawns bathed in olive oil and parsley which, quite rightly, was immensely garlicky.
Even after the prawns were eaten (yours truly scoffed three of the five, of course) we kept going back in with the bread to finish off that fab sauce. We vowed that, next time, we’ll have a pan of these apiece.
LAMB
Our final tapa was Estofado de Cordero (£8.95) or lamb stew. Here was another tomato sauce, but this time as well as garlic, paprika and onions there was the flavour of bay leaves. The sauce had also taken up the meaty flavour of the chunks of lamb that had been cooked in it.
I say ‘chunks’, but the meat was fall apart tender. Once again, we went to work with that big basket of bread to eat up every morsel.
DESSERT
Although tapas bars and restaurants aren’t known for their desserts, I do occasionally like something sweet to end the shared feast.
At Andalucia, there was a choice of three simple desserts: a fudge cake, an orange cake, and a cheesecake. I’m assuming they aren’t homemade but am happy to be corrected.
I went for the plain cheesecake served with raspberry ripple ice cream. Other half had the orange cake we’d eaten before at La Casona.
Both gave the sweet hit we wanted before heading off. No bells and whistles to shout about but, at £5.95 apiece in these inflationary times, absolutely zero wrong with them either.
TASTY TAPAS THAT WON’T BREAK THE BANK
With the same owners and menu as La Casona, Andalucia already has a tried and tested formula. A good range of tapas that are well known and well-loved in Britain plus prompt service.
In its new central location, just off the town’s marketplace, I think Andalucia tapas restaurant is a great addition to Leek’s food scene.
Whether you’re out for lunch, an evening meal, or just want to sample a few plates before visiting Leek’s bars and pubs, I think Andalucia‘s varied menu offers something everyone can enjoy.
We’re not talking innovative, unusual food here. Just tasty, no-frills tapas that won’t break the bank.
Recommended.
Menu and prices correct at time of writing. Visit Andalucia’s Facebook page for the latest info.
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