A lively mix of Mexican, Italian and American
If you and your dining partners are divided about your choice of food and you want somewhere with a lively atmosphere, then Tapanco could be the perfect choice.
It offers a vast menu, combining food from Mexico, Italy and America - so there’s a choice between a full range of pizzas, pasta, burgers, tapas and fajitas.
We decided to test their tapas menu, and had more than 30 dishes, many influenced by Mexico, Italy and America, to pick from.
My choice was a Quesadilla - a tortilla filled with melted cheese, mixed vegetables and jalapeno, costing £5.35. My companion opted for Zafferano - mussels in a creamed saffron sauce (£6.95).
I know tapas is meant to share, but I’m not a fan of mussels. However, we shared Patas Bravas (£3.95) - saute potatoes in a spicy sauce, and Millefoglie (£5.65) - layers of toasted bread, grilled aubergine, baby mozzarella, roasted pepper, tomato and pesto.
My Quesadilla was a generous and colourful plateful - maybe not spicy enough for some people, but it was spot-on for me. I was told the mussels were just right and I couldn’t resist a sample of the saffron sauce - yummy!
We both enjoyed the spicy saute potatoes, with the Millefoglie acting as a bit of a filler. And the meal certainly did fill us up - as we only had room to share a dessert.
We went for the Acapulco - vanilla ice cream with crushed Amaretto biscuits and liquor (£4.95). This was also a large helping, but the ice cream was very smooth and we somehow managed it.
As a bit of a coffee aficionado, I honed in on the Irish nut cappuccino (£2.55) to round the meal off. It did have a nice, nutty flavour, but was perhaps a bit too milky for me.
To accompany our meal, I’d had a glass of the house red, while my dining partner went for the Merlot. Both were absolutely fine, although the glass of Merlot was worth the extra 50p.
The combination of food offered by Tapanco obviously goes down well in Wimbledon as there wasn’t an empty table left by the time we went to leave and its location behind the Odeon cinema certainly helps.
The atmosphere got increasingly buzzy as the evening wore on and later on they had live music. The solo singer/keyboard player was not too over-powering and certainly added to the lively mood.
Table service was faultless, with the pleasant waitress taking a genuine interest in us, so I was happy with a 10% service charge being added to the bill. The total price was £41.30, which was good value for the evening.
Tapanco, which is in Hartfield Road, also offers a variety of ‘specials’ - including early bird discounts, Thursday deals and a lunchtime special menu.
Sue Choularton
April 13, 2010
|