No 48 Tapas & Grill

48 Kingsbury Street, Marlborough, SN8 1JE

01672 515848

Open Tuesday-Saturday midday-2pm, 5.30pm-10pm, Monday 5.30pm-10pm, Sunday midday-3pm.

NEW restaurant No 48 Tapas & Grill has opened its doors behind the town hall in Marlborough and is creating a buzz with locals.

One minute it was Bollywood with its brash sign, followed briefly by Jyoti, with its low key signage, and now another business has taken over to the delight of locals, if the rave reviews on Facebook are anything to go by.

“How many dishes of tapas is normal before you start looking greedy?” is what my boyfriend James and I whispered to each other as we scanned the long menu while sipping our complimentary sangria, which was a nice touch by the Spanish staff.

We decided seven, eventually - the chorizo (£4.95), chef’s chicken of the day (£4.95), crusty warm bread with olive oil (£1.20) to mop up the leftover sauce from the tasty meatballs (£4.95), calamari (£4.95), king prawns in chilli garlic (£5.95) and fried potatoes with garlic mayo (£2.95).

All the staff had smiles on their faces and our dishes arrived in terracotta pots. Luckily, there were equal amounts of the food including meatballs, so we did not have to squabble over who was having the last one.

My favourite was probably the chorizo in Rioja wine and the fried potatoes. In hindsight I think we should have ordered some rice or vegetables but every dish was delicious, cooked perfectly and we could have eaten more... so we did.

For dessert James had profiteroles with spicy chocolate sauce (£4.45) and I went for the chocolate fondant with vanilla ice cream and cream (£4.95).

James said it was the best meal he had eaten in a long time and his mum Mary, who had eaten lunch there the previous day, also gave it glowing feedback.

I had never been inside the restaurant before so cannot tell if it has drastically changed from how it looked before, but there is plenty of seating, it is modern and you even get to listen to Spanish music while you tuck into your food.

We arrived just after 7pm and as we were leaving at 8.30pm it was almost packed and this was only a Wednesday. But I think as it is new everyone is keen to experience it. The only downside is that it does not have a website to find opening hours, telephone number or menu.

My bill came to £42.80.

AMBER HICKS