Because of the moneygeddon (I thank Charlie Brooker’s Newswipe for that new term), eating out can be a very tricky thing. On the one hand you would like to eat somewhere that is relatively good in terms of food but on the other hand you would like to cut costs. This brings me on very nicely to La Tasca. Every now and again, the Spanish tapas chain offers a 50% off ALL food voucher, which is easily one of the beat deals on the market right now.
For example, I met up with a few people in Edinburgh before a Franz Ferdinand concert a couple of months ago and I said that I had one of these vouchers so we decided to go there. We had whatever tapas we wanted (although this was about 2-3 dishes a person) and the total cost between all six of us was £45. Instead of paying nearly £100, we saved a godlike amount and left incredibly happy and well-fed!
Martin Lewis, who runs the excellent financial advice site Money Saving Expert, went there recently and raved about it in his blog:
Do vouchers work for restaurants? Well, I just tried somewhere new & loved it!
Having scanned down the restaurant vouchers list, the other day, to see what was available. My eyes popped onto a La Tasca 50% off deal; actually better than a 2for1 as it’s 50% off all food including starters and desserts.
Now I’m not the biggest fan of tapas, but decided to give it a try anyway. We went to the one in Chiswick. Interestingly, there was also a Tapas for £10 deal on the table. It’s an all you can eat offer, but on a limited range of plates, so I did a quick calculation, comparing my voucher to the all you can eat for value.
Using the voucher meant more range, and lots of dishes; in the end we had nine main plates and a dessert each, plus drinks for £21 for two. Now frankly this is big greedy pig territory – a serious amount of food – though of course I manfully did my bit and finished it off. Yet it did make La Tasca not that much more expensive than Le Tesco (ok, well maybe quite a bit more but still pretty reasonable for a night out in a restaurant).
The food was great. I was especially impressed by the Mushroom croquettes, though the orange sorbet and chocolate and orange cheesecake at the end were big competition too.
So for me, a personal thumbs up for a seriously good value meal; and for La Tasca – it’s acquired a new future new customer.
And if it’s good enough for him, then it’s certainly good enough for me.
