Date Night – Serrano Manchego

Martyn and I started ‘date night’ about 6 months ago when we were still living in Tollcross. There are so many lovely independent restaurants in Edinburgh we are completely spoilt! In a quest to work our way around some of these places we declared ‘date night’. 

The rules of date night;

Once a month on pay day.

Must be local (walking distance from the flat).

We take turns on who pays.

When he is paying I choose the location.

When I’m paying he chooses the location.

We never go to the same place twice for date night.

We visited some great places around Tollcross; Mezbaan, a brilliant South Indian place which is superb value for money and fab for vegetarians, Tuk Tuk, BYOB which I love and more modern ‘Indian street food’ style Menu and My Big Fat Greek Kitchen, traditional Greek food in a quaint wee spot that had the most tantalising flavours just to name a few!

Our first Leith date night was at Serrano Manchego, a bright wee Spanish tapas bar on Leith Walk, we’d walked past it a few times while doing food shopping or running errands. I had said that I’d like to go there and Martyn had nodded in agreement. On our way back from the weekly Lidl adventure I popped in to book a table for the next date night, the place smelt amazing and the staff were very friendly.

So Monday night came round, I got home from the gym, showered, did my hair, my face, put on my pretty new H! by Henry Holland dress and grabbed my we red Push Lock Cambridge Satchel bag. Martyn got home from work and changed his polo shirt (it’s so much easier to be a boy!) 

We arrived at 7pm and there were a handful of tables already in, it was that nice level where you can have a conversation without having to shout across the table. We were asked if we’d like to sit but the window, which I jumped at, and were handed a drinks and food menus. I chose a lovely Rioja, Don Paulino Crianza, and Martyn ordered a diet coke.

We had a look over the menu trying to decide what we wanted to share, what meat to get him and what mushroom based dish I should get, I’m veggie and he hates mushrooms! I would say we over ordered but our lovely, authentically Spanish, waitress would probably have let us order the whole menu without stopping us. We had bread with oil and vinegar, manchego cheese, quince jelly, grapes and nuts, pimientos de padrón, garlic mushrooms, patatas bravas, chorizo al vino, serrano & manchego croquettes and a last minute edition of chorizo sausage & chicken skewers (which really were not needed). It was a lot of food and it just seemed to keep coming! Martyn definitely didn’t need the chorizo al vino and the skewers! Saying that it was all delicious, the pimientos de padrón were a highlight for me as I’d had them on holiday last year and devoured them, the mushrooms were so tasty and the manchego was buttery and smooth. Martyn assures me that the meaty options were also to the same high standards and you could tell by the clear plates and bowls.

After stuffing our faces we were offered dessert, we ordered churros – we should have only ordered one to share… but we didn’t… They were sweet and crisp with a pot of warm chocolate sauce and a scoop of ice cream – dreamy! We took our time tidying them up, the feel of the place is very relaxed, we never felt rushed but at the same time didn’t feel as though we were waiting a long time for our food. As we over ordered the bill came to slightly more than we would normally pay for date night but I think we learnt our lesson and would still come back.

Over all we really enjoyed it, the food was fresh and tasty, they obviously take a lot of pride in it and the atmosphere of the place and the staff were friendly. I think it would be a great place to go with a few friends and catch up, order a couple bottles of wine and relax in the authentic Spanish feel of the place. I’d definitely recommend it to family and friends.

Serrano Manchego - 297 Leith Walk, Edinburgh - Website