Restaurant Reviews and Food Musings

Restaurant

Galicia
269 High St
Croydon

Phone:- 0208 686 0043

Overview

It was one of the hotter evenings of the year (31 degrees), and an old chum of mine from university was paying a social call.

Duly fortified with Pimms; we strolled into central Croydon for a meal at Galicia, a Spanish restaurant.

Ambience

Galicia is a large, bright, cheerful and lively tapas bar and family friendly Spanish restaurant; it is always busy.

The walls and floors are tiled, giving it an unfussy appearance; but the tiles reflect, rather than absorb, sound making it seem quite noisy. Particularly welcome on a hot day is the air conditioning; set, I am pleased to say, at a sensible level (ie not New York arctic!).

The tapas bar accommodates a large number of people on the neatly arranged wooden tables and chairs. The restaurant is equally spacious, with the tables being laid with white and blue linen.

Menu

Galicia offers an excellent selection of dishes and tapas including; fabada, king prawns, kidneys in cream, veal, paella and Dover sole.

Service

The restaurant is “stuffed to the gunnels” with staff, it gets very busy and so do the staff. All of whom are friendly, cheerful and efficient. We had not booked, but a table in the restaurant was quickly set up for us without any fuss.

Food

I chose the fabada (beans, Chorizo and pork) for my starter. Piquant and tasty, a fine way to start the meal.

I had the chicken breast in a cream and mushroom sauce for my main course. The chicken was succulent, and was complemented by the sauce; which did not overpower it.

David kicked off with a very generous portion of prawns, served with a fan tailed cut avocado and salad.

He chose the lamb cutlets for his main course; these were plump and succulent, and were served with a sauce boat of creamy garlic sauce.

Our main courses were accompanied by a very generous silver platter of sauté potatoes, battered courgettes and haricot vert.

The meal, which included; cocktails, a bottle of Chardonnay and brandy, came to £60 including service.

Overall Opinion

A great place to go for good food, a lively atmosphere and value for money.