This Saturday was the third meeting of 2016 restaurant club and we ate at Maratimo on Plymouth Hoe. I thought it was fantastic, but I don't know if that was the restaurant, or the fact that I've never really eaten at a tapas place before. It's hard to find the restaurant, and once you have its hard to find the door. The entrance is unwelcoming and the dining room wasn't quite as nice as I was hoping. The view is fantastic – or would have been if the weather was good, and the food and drink were even better. We ordered dozens of dishes from a ridiculously cheerful Spaniard and they arrived in a steady and delicious stream until we were full. My favourites were the sardines and the squid... until we started ordering desserts... Freshly fried churros and crema-catalan were wonderful. Crema-catalan is basically a crème-brulee, but with a less rich custard. Mine was flavoured with orange and served with candied peel.
I ordered a paella, but the experience wasn't what I expected. As it was a Spanish restaurant I had expected to be warned sternly that it would take at least half an hour, and then a scalding charred paella pan would be balanced before me on a makeshift refractory trivet. In fact it was in a china dish, and it came too quickly to have been cooked specially for me.
Richard "the first rule of restaurant club" B
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