I quite fancied another visit to the Big Rig Diner and knowing that Dave liked his burgers it was an obvious suggestion. We arrived at one minute to seven; the menus outside said open from six, the windows were open and the door was ajar so we bowled in; only be told quite abruptly to get out because they didn't open until seven! It left a bad taste in the mouth, so rather than hanging around we headed next door to Cantina Bar and Grill.
I wasn't too hopeful from the outside as the word Cantina is written in the same typeset as you usual associate with dodgy Mexican restaurants, however, I was pleasantly surprised.
The tapas menu is designed for sharing. We had the dip plate which came with five different dips and toasted sourdough. My favourite was the pumpkin puree dip followed by the humous.
The star dish came next which was the roast beetroot salad. A large mound of beetroot, sat on a bed of rocket, covered in a goats cheese dressing and scattered with chopped walnuts. The combination of crunch from the walnuts, a richness from the dressing and the beetroot was excellent.
Next up came a bowl of chorizo that was cooked with apples and raisins. I've never had chrizo with fruit before, but it worked well. I was surprised that the slight sweetness from the fruit complimented the chorizo. Our final dish was the chilli tiger prawns. They had sprinkled rock salt on the prawns just before serving them which made the first bite unpleasant with lumps of salt. Having left the prawns for a few minutes, the salt crystals had dissolved and they became much more pleasant. The prawns were big and juicy, but I couldn't detect much chilli.
I couldn't fault Cantina for the atmosphere or friendly service. Overall the food was very good too. My only gripe was that I thought it was a touch, but not excessively, expensive.
Richard, when was the last time you had a sandwich for lunch??
ReplyDeleteI can only think of one time in the last six months!
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