I HEADED to Pablo’s Bistro with a Valencian friend, whose expectations for his native cuisine were rather low.

In fact, attending the Spanish restaurant with one of its native sons was an agonising experience as he slowly began to dissect each detail of the restaurant in an excruciating way.

Apparently playing South American music in a Spanish restaurant conflates two hugely different cultures separated by a vast swathe of water; a wholly wrong and bad thing to do. I was not aware of this in the slightest.

Despite the music, we ordered. A round of tapas, including chorizo and morcilla (£4.95), croquetas of jamon (ham, £4.70), solomillo (pan fried steak, £5.95) and a Spanish omelette (£3.95).

To my delight, my friend seemed to love the opening dishes and said he thought the chef must be Spanish. He was not.

Sadly, however, the Spaniard’s scepticism about Spanglish food was later confirmed when our main, a fish paella (£10.95), was served.

We had actually ordered a meat paella but in the end it did not matter as what came was a mixed-bag of fish, meat and water; a mix that caused my friend, whose home town created the famous dish, to stop eating and tell me (very loudly) “this is not paella”.

It was not paella as I know it and certainly not as my friend knew it. It was far too watery and, to be frank, incredibly bland, which for the principal dish in a Spanish restaurant was a shame.

But for me, in the end, the food was largely good and only came to £37.60.

My friend’s take on the night, on the other hand, was slightly different but he did say that for English people attempting to do Spanish food it was a solid effort.

PABLOS BISTRO

6 Lambs Yard,

Bradford on Avon

01225 866823

www.pablostapas.com

EDDIE DAVIES