The owners of Leeds Spanish tapas restaurant El Bareto promise traditional dishes with recipes passed down the generations from their grandparents.
The tapas restaurant is located in Chapel Allerton at the end of a parade of shops in Gledhow Valley Road, looking onto Harrogate Road, providing ample parking space. The restaurant looks inviting with a range of outdoor plants and vines snaking across the wooden shopfront.
In the main entrance, visitors are greeted by a rustic looking bar with Spanish flags and a TV in the corner. It does feel as if you’re stepping into a tavern across the Mediterranean sea, with the cosy dark wooded interior and shelves brimming with exotic liquor.
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Our waiter led us to the dining area which is in the basement level. It was a peculiar shaped room, with a long bench lining the walls and stools on the other side of each table.
The red cushions adorning each bench and yellow walls, the colours of the national flag, further served to instil the feeling of stepping through a portal to Spain. This utilitarian, basic, set up was a foreboding sign however – I could tell my back was going to be absolutely knackered if I sat on one of the stools without any support.
We asked the waiter to bring us a normal chair so we wouldn’t have sit beside each other just to have our backs to the wall but he said there were none available. Fortunately, we’d arrived early and had our pick of tables so we elected to sit in a corner table where we could each have some back rest.
This wasn’t particularly comfortable however, and I struggle to figure out why, after about 20 years of being in business, they hadn’t arranged to have more comfortable seating. I was having to sit bolt upright for my whole meal, I couldn’t lean back comfortably as I was against the wall with just a cushion for comfort.
There were also a range of ancient looking cooking utensils hanging up on the walls. I could just picture the owner’s grandparents slaving over a stew.
The waiter introduced himself as Shaun (I’m unsure of the correct spelling, my apologies if this one is incorrect). He was an excellent waiter who would even say 'Here you go, amigo' in his broad Yorkshire accent to heighten the feel that we were in Spain – he would say more in Spanish but I was lost within the aromas of our intoxicating food at that stage.
Shaun was very helpful with the order, even suggesting that we order less food as we were initially over-eager with our order of tapas dishes from the extensive menu. The Yorkshireman reeled off all the most popular dishes and gave us some helpful tips. Fantastic service.
He promised the dishes were made with authentic recipes, slightly adjusted over time.
First came the potatoes in blue cheese sauce – it was a very big dish, even bigger than we had expected after Shaun’s warnings not to order any other potato dishes as it would be 'too much'. Our sliced potatoes were practically swimming in the sauce, they didn’t skimp, it tasted rich and full of flavour.
On Shaun’s express recommendation, I ordered a bowl of Spanish meatballs. Again it was a really generous serving. The dishes here are bigger than at other tapas restaurants I’ve been to. While the delicate meatballs did taste sumptuous, the tomato sauce they came in was bland. I was annoyed with myself for going with a ‘safe option’, I just wish I had been more adventurous as there are so many options.
With my main dish, not a tapas dish, I had no regrets. I ordered a portion of slow-cooked ox cheek from the specials menu which came with boiled potatoes. Slicing through the ox cheek felt like a knife going through butter, the heady tones red wine, bay leaves, rosemary and stock, pulsed through each bite. It was a joyous dish.
I was joined by dad who had the Sea Bass, which came as two fillets with lots of seasoning – definitely the most aesthetically pleasing dish out of the ones we ordered. He described it as flavoursome and loved the paprika. He also ordered a portion of roasted peppers, described as a vegetable and cheese mix on the menu. He was disappointed the dish was mostly cheese and would have preferred more vegetables.
We shared a slice of Baileys and White Chocolate Cheesecake for dessert. Shaun described this as homemade and said he’s 'accidentally cut us a slightly bigger slice'.
The slice not only looked fantastic, it had a slick velvety texture which went down very easily after our big meal. I felt there could have perhaps been more of a Baileys flavour but this is niggling at what was ultimately a fantastic slice of cake.
The seating arrangement made me feel uncomfortable throughout the whole meal and I could feel an aching in my back even the next day. This to me, poses a major factor on whether I would return to El Bareto. It presents a dilemma as the food and service is so fantastic – yet the layout is too utilitarian.
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The bill
Potatoes in blue cheese sauce - £5.45
Spanish meatballs - £6.95
Roasted Peppers - £8.50
Sea bass - £14.95
Ox Cheek - £14.95
Baileys and White Chocolate Cheesecake - £5.8
Estrella Damm - 4£4.2
Americano - £2.5
Total (+ service charge) - £69.63
