El Coto - Great Tapas In Newcastle

Introduction

Someone once said that Tapas was just Spanish Leftovers. If they are just leftovers I would love to try the full meal, but that was just a joke and leftovers are usually smaller portions of what they were leftover from.

El Coto Newcastle has been open since April 2004 and is just a few minutes away from Eldon Square behind St James’ Park, ideal for hungry shoppers and for a pre or post match meal.

This is one of two incredible Tapas restaurants in Newcastle, the other being El Torerro ("The Bullfighter) but El Coto ("The Reserve/Preserve") is closer to the centre and a more convenient option for me, but if I am around the quayside the El Torerro is a great place to eat.

I was under the impression they had some kind of relationship, but they are two great restaurants, and let's face it, many places don't even have one.

Tapas At El Coto

In my piece on eating at the Grainger Market (check the end of this article) I said that one of the problems with eating at a good restaurant is that you always drift towards your favourite meal, even though there may be other items on the menu that you would like to try, especially when you see others eating them.

El Coto's has been with us for twenty years and there have been various chains (La Tasca and Tapas Revolution) that have stopped off and gone, but we still have two great Tapas restaurants with us today.

I remember once being in El Coto and seeing two guys looking aghast at the size of the portions that were coming to their table. They were obviously used to Tapas Chain restaurants. I don't know if they finished their meal.

Now the thing is with Tapas is you have a large choices of small dishes, that you can combine to make a full meal. This means that each time you visit that you can have something different, some of the ingredients or choices may be the same but the overall meal will be different.

Also when you eat with friends you get the chance to share your choices with each other, so you end up having small portions of many mini meals.

I usually go with Fiona and we share five or six portions between us. This was today's selection.

A selection of Tapas from El Coto.

This is one they say about their choice options:

Tapas are small portions of food and the idea is to share as few or as many dishes as you fancy. Our tapas are portions of dishes typically found in the gastronomy of Southern Spain and all of our dishes are home-cooked using both ingredients sourced from Spain and locally bought produce.

Our extensive menu has a wide range of hot and cold tapas, salads, cured meats and of course “paellas”; a traditional Spanish rice dish. We also offer a range of tapas selection menus, great for large groups and for the indecisive diners who find it too hard to choose from our large range of dishes!

This is their menu and impressed that a pdf allows you to scroll while staying in this article, so you can see the choice that I have each time I visit this wonderful place.

I have been remiss in that I haven't mentioned the layout that you approach through a bar, along a corridor to the large dining area with the option to eat inside or out.

The staff are wonderfully welcoming and helpful and are some of the best that you will ever meet when you are eating out.

Conclusion

There are a lot of great places to eat for resident Novocastrians and this is one of them.

A Family Meal at El Cotos. Mark, Kirsty, Alexis Leia (in Cool Shades), Me, Fiona and Juliet.

Thank you for reading.

Oh, and that piece on eating in the Grainger Market: