British Tapas at Number 23, St Albans

G and I have an ever-growing to-do list of St Albans restaurants; for a small city, it sure does have a seemingly endless supply of places providing good grub.

Number 23 is a stone’s throw from the cathedral and set back from the street; down a quaint little alleyway decorated with plants and fairy lights. Through the bold red door is a handful of cosy, low-beamed rooms filled with an excellent playlist and plenty of atmosphere.

They recommend 3-4 tapas dishes per person, and so we picked out 7 different plates between us.

In my opinion, the pulled pork wasn’t anything to write home about. Nice, don’t get me wrong, but fairly standard.

Everything else though, I’d order again in a heartbeat. Particularly the sugar and spice chorizo, soaked in a touch of merlot and drizzled with manchego cheese; we practically licked the bowl.

The Cumberland sausage & duck egg scotch egg went down a storm with my scotch-egg-loving companion, although I only had a small portion of it as I was distracted by the cheese. The warm honeyed goat’s cheese served with beetroot and sautéed peppers & onions was a thing of beauty and the deep fried brie served with cranberry sauce went down a treat.

The haddock and ginger fishcake was soft with just a touch of crunch from the breadcrumbs, and so very tasty. The ginger was subtle, adding just the right amount of ‘zing’, and it came with a garlic mayonnaise that went perfectly with the triple cooked chips, which were utterly dreamy. Perfectly crunchy (just how I like them) and cooked in salt, pepper, garlic and red onion; I’m hankering to go back just for these guys alone.

We were full to bursting by the time we’d finished, but couldn’t resist trying some of the tapas puddings. We went for the tiramisu, amaretto chocolate mousse and blueberry pana cotta. G and I firmly agreed that the blueberry pana cotta stood out by a mile (not to discredit the tiramisu & chocolate mousse which were fine indeed).

The staff were friendly and attentive, and the bill came in a mini chest full of sweets which I thought was a cute touch.

The cherry on top was the music played throughout the rooms (and for the tables outside). We both commented several times during the meal that the play list was on point. It was a mixture of funk & soul, old school ‘proper R&B’ (G’s words) and, towards the end of the night, the Rolling Stones. As G put it: ‘any restaurant that plays a Rolling Stones album gets a thumbs up in my book’.