Spanish food has always been somewhat underrepresented in the city of Birmingham. However, El Borracho De Oro is a new Spanish tapas bar and restaurant in town. Opened over a year ago, it has shamefully taken me this long to take a trip to the Birmingham restaurant.
I visited the restaurant for a press dinner on a balmy evening, where it was only right that we started the evening off outside; the perfect spot for an ice cold sangria. I picked a white Sangria for a change and sipping this outside on the grassy terrace felt particularly European.
Don't fancy sangria? There's a huge selection of wines by the glass, as well as wines by the bottle, beers, spirits and cocktails.
Proudly boasting that everything on the menu is Spanish, authentic and fresh, the menu is a mix of tapas of every variety. There's a great choice of cheese, bread, ham or jamon of course and even an egg selection.
We were offered a selection of tapas to try by Emma, the owner of the restaurant, who ensured we were able to try a variety of dishes to get a feel for the menu.
To start, we tried the cured meats selection (£10.50) and cheese selection (£8.95) along with a few nibbles in the form of breadsticks and almonds. Expertly sourced, the jamon was salty and perfect with booze, and the cheese varied and rich in flavour. I especially loved that the cheese was served with quince paste, an absolute favourite of mine and something that is particularly hard to find.
For the rest, there was also bread topped with tomato (£4.50), croquettes of cheese and ham (£4.50) and fried courgette flowers stuffed with cod (£8.50).
Next, I dived into plates of fresh mussels (£7.50). Served in a rich buttery sauce made of hazelnuts, paprika and white wine, these were the highlight of the meal for me. As much as I couldn't taste the nuts, the sauce, named fisherman's sauce, was heavenly and easily scooped up with the shells.
The others also tried the chicken cannelloni Barcelona style (£8.50) before the Iberian suckling pig, deboned and glazed served with an acid apple puree (£9.95).
Finally, there was churros for all, and I enjoyed scooping up the chocolate sauce alone!
All the dishes we tried were pretty reasonably priced, with the vegetarian tapas coming in at a great price for dishes that were so beautifully and carefully prepared.
Everything we tried had so clearly been made from scratch, and the sauces in particular were testament to this. So much time and care as well as expertise goes into crafting these small plates of morsels, and each dish had a personality all of its own.
I'm waiting to find an excuse to go back as there are so many other dishes I'd love to try. The staff were also really good at telling me which dishes were gluten free, so I'll be back to try a properly gluten free feast!
Have you guys been to El Borracho yet?
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