Photo of
August 19, 2016

Tapas in Glasgow is ten a penny nowadays but how do you know you’re getting the authentic experience, tapas like it’s served in Spain? Does it matter? As long as the patatas bravas are spicy, the paella full of flavour, and the diners are enjoying it, maybe not.

La Boca To Stephen Gilmour, owner of La Boca, Glasgow city centre, it matters. It matters very much. The attention to detail Stephen, who lived in Marbella for six years, pays to ensure every aspect of La Boca exactly mirrors a tapas restaurant in Spain is ferocious. From the ingredients on the menu, to the restaurant frontage, to the toilets, there is nothing in La Boca you won’t find in a restaurant in Spain. The result is the number of Spanish customers. “There’s not a day that goes by that we don’t have Spanish customers,” Stephen said. “That says what we are doing is good”

La Boca’s ethos is “Spanish food: no compromise.” Here Stephen explains in his own words what that means.

Spanish food, no compromise

LaBoca2 copy

“Everything we do is the experience you get in Spain,” Stephen says. “We stick with those principles. We don’t concede. If you go to our Facebook page we say ‘Spanish food. No compromise.’ We will not compromise with that. We will not concede with that. This means we have been slagged off. We have been criticised on TripAdvsior. However, the people that know, love us. We are constantly in the top 100 restaurants in Glasgow out the 2,000 odd on TripAdvisor.  We have such a loyal customer base of regulars.”

Restaurant

La Boca

“The details go right down to the single toilets in the same way the toilets in Spain are single toilets. These are not things I’d expect people to pick up on, but for me, planning it, it was all part of the process. You come in here and at the front you have the tapas display unit and the bar where you have the option of having something to eat or drink in the bar, as you would in Spain.”

Chefs

La Boca

“The chefs are all from Spain. The head chef is from Granada, which they call ‘the home of tapas’ – he was specially selected to be the head chef here. Others are from Barcelona, Majorca, etc.”

Produce

La Boca tortilla

“The produce is the best that we can possibly buy. The quality of food we offer is on par with the best restaurants in Glasgow. Everything we make here is made in this kitchen with our Spanish chefs on a daily basis. I buy the food daily. We buy our fish daily – our fishmonger is the guy that supplies Corrigan’s Fishmonger. So the fish is only banded the day before.  The only stuff on our menu that isn’t made here is stuff we can’t make here, black pudding, ham, items we can’t make here so we bring over from Spain. We bring the olives from Spain, we don’t just pick any olives.  We don’t buy black pudding from a supplier and say it’s a Spanish black pudding because it’s not. Black pudding comes from Burgos, north of Spain, and its made from rice rather than groats.”

Cava

LaBoca7

“One thing that breaks my heart is in Glasgow its Prosecco, Prosecco, Prosecco. Prosecco is a sparkling wine. Cava used to be labelled ‘Spanish Champagne’. About 450-500 years ago, there was a drought in the Champagne region of France. They moved their wines and producing methods down to Catalonia in the north of Spain and started producing Champagne. Spain continued to produce cava to the exact same method that Champagne is produced – that’s why it’s different to sparkling wines. If you go to Spain and spent 15 euros on a cava you’re going to get something that’s the equivalent of any bottle of Moet you can buy. We’ve done a deal with Codorniu who are the oldest cava house in Spain and they produce all our cavas.”

Spanish drinks

La Boca wine

“Our beer selection is the biggest selection of Spanish imported beers in the whole of Scotland. We have three on draft – no one has three on draft. On draft we’ve got Estrella Galicia, Mahou from Madrid and Cruzcampo. We try to stock whenever possible, Spanish brandies, Spanish sherries. It’s the whole Spanish experience, even down to our soft drinks. We wont stock ginger beers as you can’t get them in Spain. The only product we have conceded is Irn Bru and we conceded on that because you can get it in the Costas. Even our mineral water, Solaris, is brought over from Spain.”

£6.95 for 3 tapas on express lunch menu and £10.95 for 3 tapas on pre theatre menu at La Boca, Glasgow on 5pm Dining.