Pinchjos Tapas Bar

Pinchjos is a quaint little tapas bar situated on Burton Road in the heart of Didsbury. Spanish food and mediterranean style tapas is becoming really quite popular at the moment with restaurants popping up all over the place. I remember when La Tasca was the only tapas you could find outside of Spain.

Unlike the La Tasca chain that packs diners in, the Pinchjos is only a small venue with maybe 20 tables max, so booking is probably recommended. We booked for 6pm on a Saturday night and although it wasn’t too busy when we arrived, the restaurant quickly got full.

The menu is quite sparse with perhaps only 20 different items, most of the dishes are classic Spanish tapas, think standard ingredients like chicken, prawns and potatoes, rather than octopus, lamb or quail. Prices are reasonable and in-line with most other taps bars around Manchester, with each plate averaging about £6.50.

We chose 6 dishes in total and a side order of bread and there was plenty for two people to share. Dishes arrived quickly but not too quickly to make you think they were already prepared.

Gambas Pil Pil is a must have wehenever we visit a tapas restaurant and Pinchjos version was very nice. The prawns were a reasonable size and the chilli oil was really quite spicy. My only complaint, like with most places is that there is always an odd number. I don’t know why restaurants that suggest you share dishes do this? Baffling.

Patats bravas is also standard for many diners and we are no exception, as well as the traditional dish, Pincjos have their own version of patatas bravas, ‘Joe’s bravas.’ This version is topped with Pinchjos street salad,  a mix of shredded cabbage, radish, onions, carrots, chillies and coriander, topped with lime. It sounds delicious but it really wasn’t and I wish we would have chosen the traditional patatas bravas dish, so much so that I ordered a separate portion. Joe’s bravas just seemed rather dry and bland. Sadly the standard patatas bravas wasn’t that great either, better than Joe’s version but it still lacked that kick you expect from potatoes smothered in a spicy sauce.

Other dishes we sampled were chorizo pan fried with peppers, chick pea salad and the meat paellea which was really just chicken. The menu did say it was chicken with chorizo but there wan’t much chorizo in there, good job we had a separate dish of chorizo. The paella was served in a deep bowl and was a little too wet for my liking. A good traditional paella, for me in any case, is usually served on a flat dish and has only a thin layer of rice , no thicker than a half-inch, so when it arrives in a bowl and looks more like a stew, I begin to worry. The taste wasn’t too bad but the texture, consistency and lack of any real ingredients just didn’t cut it.

Overall Pinchjos isn’t a bad place, especially if you are local, the premises are clean and warm, the ambience was nice, the staff were all pleasant and helpful and the wine was good but I do question the authenticity of some of the food.