La Rioja, 28-30 Regent Road, Altrincham, WA14 1RP
Telephone 0161 929 1124

La Rioja is a very well established and extremely popular Spanish restaurant on Regent Road in the heart of Altrincham. It’s been here since
1994, run by the same Chef-Patron, and has recently been expanded to include a new ground floor, child-friendly café bar.
It was a bitterly cold Saturday evening in January when our party of 4 decided to visit La Rioja. With all the talk of the credit
crisis, and January notoriously being a quiet month in the restaurant trade, we expected it to be a quiet night. Fortunately
we had made a reservation, because La Rioja was fully booked.

After a little initial confusion we were seated upstairs and given copies of the menu and our drinks orders were taken promptly—a bottle of house red to warm us up on a chilly evening, and a couple of colas.

Our children have never tried tapas before, so it was a new experience, and I don’t think they were quite sure what to expect.
However, there’s a good description of everything on the menu, so we all chose two different dishes plus lots of their lovely
fresh bread and Patatas Bravas (spicy roast potatoes) and sat back to enjoy the evening and await their arrival.

This was skilfully achieved, as enough dishes arrived to get us all started, but not too many that they became cold, or that we were overfaced. Between us all we tried
Gambas Pil-Pil—delicious garlicky prawns; Bacalao—strips of battered cod; Costillas— marinated spare ribs; Cordero Asado —
roast garlic & herb lamb; Pollo Al Ajillo—tender strips of garlicky chicken; Albondigas— delicious, herby meatballs; Salmon AlHorno—a great combination of salmon, olives, potato and cheese; and Calamares—beautifully crisp & tender squid.

There wasn’t much room for pudding after all this, but we managed some ices and a Requeson with almonds—a refreshing and unusual Spanish milk pudding. The evening whizzed by and we all thoroughly enjoyed the food and the atmosphere—a bill of £75 for four seemed a very reasonable price to pay.

On returning to get some photos I was told that during February and March children under 12 eat free at La Rioja (1 child per adult), plus to look out for details of their
Dinner with the Psychics on Thurs 19 Feb!

And TMD’s Verdict:

Atmosphere 9/10
Service 8/10
Food 9/10
Will we return?

Certainly! Lively atmosphere, great food and quick service—we’re booking again!