Galicia

So I saw these alien octopus tentacles coming from Fairfield Halls and decided I should get octopus at Galicia restaurant on the High Street in Croydon.

Most of that is a lie, but it won’t be the first lie you’ve read on the internet in your life.

So I’m coming up to my 3rd anniversary of buying a flat in Croydon – yeah congrats on the negative equity and all that jazz, and I haven’t even vaguely considered going to our premier cultural centre.

You could easily know this doesn’t exist, were it not for their new advertising board on the side blinding your eyes with images of MAGIC MIKE or whatever gash (well, specifically not gash in that case) they are offering.

The Ultimate Classic Rock Show.

Dreamboys World Tour.

Michael Starring Ben.

South London Darts Showdown.

Country Superstars.

I guess I’m just not the audience. But who is? Does anyone go? It feels a shame, they spent £70m on a refurb, they have some gorgeous fonts and it looks quite retro-cool inside. Not that I’ve been inside. Why would I?

Al Fresco In Croydon

And another shame – the imaginatively-named The Terrace Bistro could be a nice little spot to enjoy the sunshine, a glass of wine and the view of, erm, the world’s largest tombstone (the shell of the Nestle building) – yet I’ve never seen it open. I did see someone piss on the windows the other night though.

Which just about leads me onto Galicia, where you can have a glass of wine in the sunshine, and a view of…a bus stop.

So I told you some lies earlier. I didn’t order polpo (octopus) because I’m solo dining and looking at Google reviews suggested it comes as a huge bowl. I really didn’t need a huge bowl of octopus, no matter how much I like it.

And the alien octopus thing didn’t inspire me originally. I actually went twice, once long before the aliens took over.

It’s a little experiment to see if multiple visits can help me judge a restaurant more than one visit can. More on that later.

Galicia have a lunch deal on, and helpfully I cannot remember what it is – but it was something like 2 tapa for £15.00, from a lunchtime list.

To the best of my Spanish cuisine knowledge, Galicia doesn’t specialise in Galician food – it might serve Galician octopus (not on the lunch menu) and Raxo – but most other dishes are either general Spanish, or from other regions, such as Fabada, which I think is Asturian – albeit next to Galicia.

Let’s start with the wine – I really need to get better at either writing notes, taking photographs or just writing these blog posts maybe the same month that I visit, because I don’t remember what was on the menu – but by the glass I think there were just two choices, house or Rioja.

Alas, I ordered Rioja and white arrived – but it was swapped without quibble. The red was, hmmm, pretty basic. But drinkable and only £6.00 for a large wine, I think 250ml. Again…I need to improve my note-taking. Beer was only £4.00 if that is more your thing, and there was a group of lads there for the cheap beer in the sunshine. Why not?

Y La Comida?

So for my first visit, I ordered ensaladilla (tuna, vegetables and mayyonaise salad) and berenjenas con tomate (augergines baked in a tomato sauce).

Firstly – the portions are huge. This is like one dish for me in a normal lunch, surely it is for most?

Mostly this dish was pleasing though far from world-beating. The salad was fresh, there was plenty of tuna (plenty of everything really), olives were pretty decent quality and there was a fair flavouring of lemon throughout.

Within the tuna mayyonaise salad part itself there were carrots and peas, plus potatoes.

Alas the boiled egg seemed not so fresh, but minor quibble I guess.

The other dish looked more impressive.

But actually was confusing.

First, it was absolutely boiling hot, even considering both dishes arrived at once and I ate the salad first. Too long in the microwave?

I wasn’t expecting cheese on this dish, and I didn’t think it went especially well – cheese with aubergines and a tomato sauce? Bit OTT.

The tomato sauce tasted kind of basic – the aubergines were nicely reduced but lacked any depth of flavour.

Visitando Otra Vez?

For visit two, I upped the stakes and asked for a glass of sangria. I’m pretty sure it was sangria from a carton, and not made freshly – it had a slight kick, yet almost tasted like Malibu.

Hmmm. Probably more enjoyable than the red wine from the previous time.

Again way too much food though this time I had the sense to ask for a take-out box.

Starting with Patatas Riojana – almost certainly the potatoes were cooked earlier, quite some time (days?) earlier and warmed up – soft but a bit on the stale side.

Again the tomato sauce was pretty plain tasting – did I need a second visit to find this out?

Chorizo also pretty sure was cooked earlier in the day, but actually this had a pleasing earthy texture and really quite a pointed taste – this was damn good chorizo, in my humble English opinion anyway.

Guess how hot fabada was? Yep, boiling hot, and way too much of it.

This is proper comfort food – eaten at the end of August, possibly 3 months too early, but hey, blog to write.

It seemed like a different chorizo to the previous dish, more a cooking chorizo and less of a punch to it. The sauce was very beans-y, the mochilla soft and the beans themselves pretty earthy.

This was very much a comforting dish, I think my favourite of the 4 I tried, though could be improved with punchier ingredients.

Galicia Overall

I don’t think I needed to go to Galicia twice to get the vibe – the second visit didn’t change my mind on anything – portions are huge, so value for money, at least from the lunchtime menu is very much there.

There were some fairly obvious pre-preparation having gone on. Nothing unusual in a restaurant, especially when they offer plenty of dishes, some of which repeat ingredients, but also it was quite clear when things come microwave-hot. It’s nice to at least pretend that what you ordered was freshly cooked.

Both drinks were of dubious quality – food ingredients not so, but also rarely was I impressed on anything other than quantity of food – the chorizo in the Patatas Riojana the exception.

Galicia, the restaurant, is a reasonable enough restaurant – better than say La Tasca, if you remember that, but not a patch on Jose Pizarro’s restaurants in Bermondsey (I feel like he runs a whole street there).

My rating is a 6.7 / 10. Go if you love big portions.

I’l be curious to know what I’m missing from Galicia – I suspect there are some dishes that wow more than I had.