Best Friends Day In Manchester and Eating Tapas At La Tasca

Recently I spent a wonderful half-term day with friends in Manchester.

When I say friends, Joe and I and 2 of our favourite buddies. We had decided to head into Manchester, check out the Halloween pumpkins dotted around the city and visit the football museum.

The perfect day when you are 11. You can’t beat the adventure of a train ride at that age can you? And cities feel so huge and exciting, with so much to look at and indeed do.

We spent a wonderful Morning, hopping on stones, and checking out the sight of Manchester. And with the promise of an afternoon art the football museum the boys were eager to eat lunch early.

They were counting the time down and just wanted to get there. But with tweens, especially Joe I have learnt that if you allow them rush grab a snack and not eat properly you pay for it! Because only 10 minutes after said snack they are starving and all is bad with the world. Of course Joe has never know starvation. But the mild rumbling of a tummy sends him into a panic that he may never eat again.

Lucky for us we had been invited to La Tasca, Deansgate to try out the new menu and cocktails.

Yes, they had me at cocktails ha ha. However La Tasca is also the perfect place to feed adventurous kids in Manchester. And the promise of calamari had Joe skipping in the door.

La Tasca’s menu offers a fantastic tapas choice, and the perfect opportunity to encourage adventurous young souls to try out new and exciting food, without the commitment of a whole meal they may not enjoy.

Choosing our tapas was a huge decision with Joe and Fin going back and forth changing their final choices many times. Until they settled on a few options, to which Ruth and I added our choices to create a mini feast.

The wonderful thing about the La Tasca menu is that should your children not be so adventurous there are several options on the menu that make a parent’s heart sing when traveling with fussy eaters, such as mini fish and chips. And as a parent of one adventurous and one decidedly fussy eater seeing more simple choices on a menu triggers a huge sigh of relief.

We sipped our cocktails as we waited for our meal

Feeling very chilled as the boys battled through the kids quiz together. Once the quiz had been conquered, Joe and Fin kept us entertained with stories of school and their daily antics. Which I have to say at time had us in tears. I love how 11 year olds see the world, the innocence is still there just, yet they have a blunt realism that sometimes blows your mind and leaves you wishing 11 year olds ruled the world.

Our food arrived promptly and was delicious and most importantly all of our dished were hot. Luke warm food is a pet hate of mine. Tapas is such a wonderful opportunity to try out new food, and perfect for engagement and sharing and discussing each dish. Why they like the flavours, what they will try again?

The food was so good and we ate so much not one of us could manage dessert. And all left full and happy after a wonderful meal. I must also mention the service, which was fantastic very chilled yet friendly where nothing was too much trouble. The boys had both left having tried a new dish and very excited at the prospect of eating tapas, which apparently feels a very grown up thing to do. And something they would both love to do again.