29/08/2021

Can Do Cocina, Trentham

Can Do Cocina is found in the shopping village of the Trentham Estate in Staffordshire with its renowned gardens.

The restaurant and bar opened in Spring this year and on my first visit I enjoyed tasty, reasonably priced tapas.

I must admit, I don’t often eat in so-called ‘shopping villages’.

But I was drawn to Can Do Cocina one Saturday night after another swelteringly hot day. I definitely wanted to eat out, but a large, heavy meal didn’t appeal.

Then I remembered that this new restaurant and bar offered tapas. Not having tried them yet, it felt like the perfect opportunity for a series of small dishes to share.

So, that’s exactly what myself and other half (ID) decided to do.

CAN DO COCINA

I’ve made several daytime visits to the renowned gardens and fabulous Monkey Forest on the Trentham Estate, three miles south of Stoke-on-Trent.

Sometimes, while there, I’ve had lunch at one of the cafes.

But I’ve been just once to eat in the evening. That was at the now closed David’s Brasserie which just happened to be one of my very first eating out reviews.

So it was quite a coincidence that my next evening visit, over three years later, would be at a new bar and restaurant in that very same building.

Back in 2018, it had been a chilly January night that was pretty quiet outside the restaurant.

But what a contrast this time! On a hot Summer’s day, the gardens were open with queues of people waiting to enter as well as milling around the shops, cafes and restaurants.

Due to the heat, we decided to sit inside with a cold beer apiece.

Initally, I was disappointed that were out of the Cruzcampo emblazoned on the sun shades outside. I’ve enjoyed it many times in Spain so it seemed fitting in the seeming absence of any local beers.

But we were both more than satisfied with the suggested house lager as a replacement.

TAPAS

Settling down to read the menu, I found it wasn’t huge.

But I think that’s generally a good sign that everything is made fresh in-house

ID and I shared a range of tapas. All those we chose were between £3.95 and £6, although there were one or two slightly more expensive.

view the current menu here

The prawns in our prawns with chilli and cream dish were big and fat.

They were nicely cooked too, and the sauce had a good kick of chilli heat.

Pork pinchos (little kebabs) were well flavoured with a spicy edge. They came with an unremarkable but welcome mayo dip on the side.

Modesty forbids me to comment on whether the pinchos were up to the standard of my own Pinchos Morunos recipe 😊.

In the pinchos photo, you’ll see one of the two Andalusian chargrilled flatbreads we ordered.

I’ve no idea what makes them ‘Andalusian’ but I’ve no complaints. We had the plain version but they also come flavoured with things like herbs, garlic or Manchego cheese.

As well as tapas bar favourites like albondigas (tender meatballs in tomato sauce), it was good to see a few more unusual dishes.

I particularly liked the slices of fried aubergine with sesame, chilli and honey.

They came in a featherlight, almost tempura-like batter and were very good.

The Catalan fish stew included plenty of squid, prawns and clams in the shell.

However, I think the sauce could have packed a bit more flavour. Perhaps more garlic and reduce it further?

I think regular patatas bravas (fried or roasted potatoes with a tomato-based spicy sauce) have almost been done to death in Britain.

So I was very pleased to see a couple of variations on offer at Can Do Cocina.

We chose ones with Manchego cheese and truffle oil.

So good, I can see me stealing this idea!

DESSERT

To finish, we each had churros: fried doughnut sticks with chocolate sauce. (Never mind ‘Can Do’, we DON’T DO shared puddings!).

Unfortunately, there was a bit of a mix up with the order. Only one arrived so we had to wait for the other portion.

After the wait, it was a shame that one or two of ID’s churros were a little underdone. Perhaps in the rush to correct the mistake, the oil hadn’t been quite hot enough?

Nevertheless, we polished off the lot with ID even slurping up the last of the sauce straight from the bowl.