‘I could immediately tell from the beautiful scent of freshly baked bread it was going to be heavenly’
The six tapas I ordered from the £25 January deal at Ambiente in Hull(Image: Sofie Jackson for Hull Live)
A Hull restaurant is “making January more affordable” with a special offer. Ambiente Tapas’s January tapas deal provides enough food for two people to eat for £25.
It was enough to tempt me back into a restaurant during the normally frugal post-Christmas month. The stylish restaurant in Humber Street is open every day of the week, with the offer running throughout the month from Sunday to Friday, all day until 5pm.
I visited on a Tuesday afternoon, chilled by the winter winds and with my stomach rumbling and ready for food. The atmosphere was warm and inviting and I was immediately shown to a cosy booth.
The special deal is essentially a set menu with three of your six tapas having to be focaccia bread with dipping oil, a bowl of meatballs (a vegan option is available), and a plate of patatas bravas which, if you have not tried them before, are the Spanish answer to roast potatoes.
For your other three tapas, you choose from a selection of 25 dishes, including hot honey chicken kebab, chorizo and potato (vegan option available), ox cheek ragu, and picanha steak.
For two of us to share, I picked fish croquettes, roast hispi cabbage, and caramelised blue cheese shallots. We also ordered coffee and were given a caraffe of water for the table, which was a thoughtful touch.
The food arrived promptly, and I could immediately tell from the beautiful scent of freshly baked bread that the focccia was going to be heavenly. We dug in appreciatively, the texture perfectly light and fluffy, our taste buds greeted by a mouth-watering harmony of rosemary and salt.
I loved the patatas bravas – they did not last long. Triple cooked and satisfyingly crunchy, they came with an ever-so-slightly spicy tomato sauce and a generous dollop of creamy aioli.
We also enjoyed the meatballs, which we picked the vegan version of. Although they were not real meat, they had a good savoury flavour and the sauce they were in was excellent, if a little salty.
The fish croquettes were another star of the meal. They tasted exceptionally fresh and the batter was delightfully light and crisp, creating a melt-in-the-mouth experience.
My one regret was the caramelised blue cheese shallots. Although they were delicious, the blue cheese did not really go with the rest of the meal and was quite overpowering, which in hindsight I should have considered before ordering.
The absolute best part of the tapas, for me, was the roasted hispi cabbage. This probably sounds odd – after all, it’s just a cabbage. But, under the searing heat of the josper oven, it somehow gets transformed into a perplexing mix of sweet and smoky flavours.
Even better, the roasted cabbage is drizzled with an incredible concotion: fermented chilli butter and cashew nut purée. I can’t get enough of it.
Despite being very full after the meal, we somehow found room for dessert. I found a new love with the burnt basque cheesecake – it was browned on top like a creme brule and with a delightfully boozy topping of sherry-infused raisins. More please!