Went the Salt House Baraco in Castle street, which is a sort of Italian tapas place, which is unusual concept. The first thing I liked was the atmosphere and the friendly staff which is one of the reasons I liked the original Salt House Tapas where you always felt welcome. It's a bar with tables rather than a restaurant and get's it right for me, you might describe it as fairly trendy without being pretentious, not full of the 'look at me I'm an extra in Hollyoaks and on the look out for a footballer' crowd that spoilt the San Carlo, this is far more relaxed and much the better for it
The portion sizes are fairly large for tapas and more raciones size in Spanish terms which lend themselves more to individual dishes rather than sharing, we got two each after our starters and we were quite satisfied portion wise. I had fillet steak with tempura scallops and Blackpudding, chicken livers in a marsalla sauce and the rest of our party had pan fried seabass, fritto misto, little pizzas, confit of duck leg, tagliatelle bolognese and crab linguine with chilli, which were all very good without being spectacular. It's not fine dining and doesn't try to be it's good food with a bit of thought and care gone into it.
The bill came to £80 between the four of us with drinks, which is only £20 a head for a very enjoyable break from Xmas shopping, i'd reccomend the place, we eat of the a la carte menu but the lunch menu looks very good value and I'll be trying it next time I'm in town of a dinnertime.
