Jacqui Felgate reviews the number one place people have told her to go
La Pinta opens at 5pm and I suggest you don’t wait too long before arriving.
This beyond cool little tapas bar doesn’t take bookings for groups smaller than 5 — and by 6pm it was full. It’s probably as close to the perfect local as you can get if you live northside.
La Pinta is up the hill on High Street in Reservoir. It’s essentially Spanish but with a few other European influences thrown in for good measure. Go early and you won’t be disappointed. Even on a warm Wednesday night, the cool crowd was here, every table was packed and there wasn’t a seat at the bar.
We started with a green split pea dip with pepitas and pickles. Pickles just make everything better right? It was creamy and moorish and the serving size was overly generous. We then moved on to venetian style sardines, coated in a delicious olive oil, both sweet and tart in flavour. The must order mutton and scamorza empanada is served as a slice of the pie rather than individual, turned over pastries. It’s AMAZING. The mussels, potato and aioli was another standout dish.
We then moved on to a larger portion – grilled lamb leg, onions and anchovy. with a side of grilled fennel. So much salty goodness!
By that stage we were well and truly stuffed – but didn’t want to miss out on a big slice of Basque cheesecake. In my opinion there is no better dessert than a Basque cheesecake.
La Pinta is also GREAT value for money. dishes are between $10-20 dollars, the menu changes regularly and it’s written up on a blackboard. La Pinta takes suburban Spanish to a whole new level.
Pro tip: arrive at 5pm and grab a seat at the horseshoe bar – and watch the chefs work their magic.
La Pinta
791 High Street, Reservoir
lapintareservoir.com.au
Find Jacqui’s past reviews HERE.
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