I felt very at home at La Casa Vieja. The atmosphere is fab with little formality. The interior is very Mediterranean with cloth-covered tables and light, airy décor. It reminded me very much of a great tapas restaurant in Manchester called El Rincon — equally awesome. Seafood is a speciality and La Casa Vieja has a reputation for quality seafood and meat paellas. There is a specials board, so the menu does change a little each day. I was pleased to find on the a la carte and tapas menu that the dishes are a little bit different and there aren’t all of the usuals that I would suspect to find. Pudding wise, maybe have a try of the Spanish bread pudding!
Emma Louise M.
Rating des Ortes: 3 Manchester, United Kingdom
While it might be a little pricey compared to some other restaurants, this traditional Spanish tapas bar is a lovely addition to St Helens’ food scene. It’s family-run — Spanish family-run in fact, with the patriarch at the helm cooking in the kitchen and his lady offering greetings front of house whole the kids all muck in with the service, and they’ve obviously been well schooled because the service is absolutely fab. The ingredients used in the dishes taste deliciously fresh, and while I can only speak for the seafood and fish the other members of my party raved about the chicken, pork and beef, and there was plenty of choice for veggies as there should be in a tapas selection(think patatas bravas, Spanish tortilla, garlic mushrooms and soforth). If you’re needing something more substantial than picky bits then I’d heartily recommend the paella to share between two, as there’ll be enough for your friends to dive into as well. There’s so much choice so small portions are perfect for sampling everything. Be wary if you’re bringing a car as the area around the restaurant is pedestrianised so you might find yourself having a hefty walk to the nearest car park!
David K.
Rating des Ortes: 4 Warrington, United Kingdom
Apologies for this being a somewhat limited review, but I was one of a number of our staff taken there by the management as a reward — consequently, didn’t get to see the prices! I was told that it is rather expensive in comparison with other local restaurants. Anyway; This is a traditional Spanish tapas bar, run and staffed mainly by a wonderful Spanish family — father cooking, mother running the services and children helping with the food/drinks service. The food is genuine Spanish, as would be eaten by the family in the heart of the country. We had an amazing array of dishes, but all made with pure, fresh ingredients; beef, pork, chicken, cod and seafood predominated, but the couple of vegetarians with us managed to find sufficient choice to have a hearty meal. The paella was superb, although some of our party were a little timid about trying it when they found various pieces of squid, muscles, fish, octopus… a sort of fishy«lucky dip»! I particularly appreciated the small portions served up when I found how many choices there were — there would be no way anyone could feel hungry afterwards. The one star lost is mainly because of the difficulty for visitors to the area — it is in a basically(but not exclusively) pedestrianised area of the town centre. There are very few car parks nearby and, the one that I found wasn’t letting anyone on!