Sharing a meal with friends is a great way to spend a couple of hours, and one of our favourite ways to eat with friends is tapas. What could be better?! Smaller portions, a wider selection of food, dishes to suit everyone, and you all get to try each other’s food.
Recently we caught up with friends for dinner at Simpatico. Quite simply, this place is brilliant. Despite a small hiccup with our table not being reserved, that was sorted at once and the food and service throughout the evening was faultless.
It’s not immediately obvious from reading the menu that the dishes are designed to share but the staff were very helpful and quickly explained how it works, making recommendations on what the stand out dishes were and how many we should order for the number of people dining.
There were four of us, so we ordered six delectable dishes:
- tart of caramelised red onion and goat’s cheese
- seared scallops w crab, sweet corn, baby basil and hazelnut dressing
- witlof, pear, gorgonzola and walnut salad
- beetroot cured salmon w granny smith and goat curd
- slow roasted pork belly w green papaya and nam jim (Thai salad dressing that’s hot, sour, salty and sweet)
- sautéed prawns w dill and galangal dressing, pickled carrot.
Of these, the pork belly was definitely the favourite. It had been cooked to perfection: sticky, savoury pork that you barely need to chew, it literally melted in the mouth. The crackling was incredible, giving great crunch that beautifully complemented the softness of the meat. And the green papaya salad was slightly sweet and tangy, which broke the richness of the dish. Delicious! It was so rich, though, I’m glad it was only tapas…
Everything else was wonderful too. The flavours and textures were just superb. The produce was really fresh and the way each dish was served highlighted that. There was no place to hide in fancy sauces, just pure taste from premium ingredients. It meant that at the end of the meal we felt like we’d eaten well and healthily, without being too weighted down by fat and carbohydrate.
I look forward to going back sometime soon to try some of the other dishes on the menu.