THE HOWFF - ABERDEEN, SCOTLAND

The Howff
365 Union St
Aberdeen, Scotland

This place is a little tucked away but it has great charm and is worth finding.

If you venture down their stairway off Union Street you will be rewarded by a warm room with pleasant atmosphere, decent drinks and solid food.

Mlady had the bangers and mash with gravy. It sounded simple and hearty and it was. The sausages were well prepared, the mash creamy and smooth and the gravy had good flavours. She really enjoyed it.

Sir had the crumbed shrimp with salad and chips. It was a good sized serving - plenty of shrimp and not over cooked like many are. The salad was pleasant and the chips were nice and crisp. 

The Howff is a decent place. We went there for a quick meal and we left full and satisfied. I'd go back there again.



CAFE NERO - ABERDEEN, SCOTLAND

Cafe Nero
160 Union St
Aberdeen

In an area where there's a shortage of coffee shops we eventually found Cafe Nero. Of course it's part of a chain, but it was getting quite good business. Possibly this was through a lack of local competition, possibly though it was for other reasons.

Its a fairly standard set out inside. Nothing different to the rest of the chain. Nevertheless it was clean and pleasant.

The service was fast and friendly as well.

We simply had coffee's each here so it's a bit hard to comment on the entirety of their offerings.

The coffee arrived quickly. It was hot and had nice flavours and aroma. The biscuit that came with it was nice as well.

The is nothing bad about Cafe Nero. It provides decent food and coffee to people in the heart of Aberdeen (well not quite the heart but close by).



LA TASCA - ABERDEEN, SCOTLAND

La Tasca
367 Union St
Aberdeen

We were in downtown Aberdeen on a snowy night so we didn't want to travel far. Fortunately we stumbled across La Tasca. It's entry is a bit sparse which doesn't do it justice, but once past this point you get to see that the place really does have some atmosphere. Sadly our photo's are terrible for this meal - but it was a good dinner so we decided to post them anyway.

We started with the rustic bread board. This was nice.

The breads were fresh, the oils fruity and the crisp bread was interesting as it came wrapped in greaseproof paper.

Its hard not to have sangria when you're having tapa. We have no willpower so we ordered a smallish jug and it turned out to be very good.

We both love to sip a sangria over a Spanish meal. It seems to fit so well.

We also both love chorizo - we even BBQ slices of it at home. We saw the chorizo (León) on the menu and it was always going to be one of our choices.

It was described as - simply sautéed on the plancha – no fuss! Sounded simple and ideal - and it was.

We then moved on to the roasted vegetables - described in the menu as spicy roasted vegetable cassolo with almond (Castile La Mancha). The menu detailed this dish as butternut squash, red onion, chickpeas, celeriac and cannellini beans in a winter warming spicy tomato sauce topped with crushed almonds and parsley.

Usually I'm the one not into vegetarian dishes and I have to confess the choice wasn't unanimous, but it actually turned out to be a great choice.

It was a lovely combination of textures and tastes.

We both love calamari so the calamares (Andalucía) described as crispy squid sprinkled with sea salt, served with homemade paprika and roasted garlic mayonnaise.

The squid was done perfectly. Light and crisp with out being chewy at all. The aioli-like mayonnaise that came with it was great too.

We chose the empanadas de carne (Galicia) next. Empanadas at a Spanish restaurant are like spring rolls at Chinese - a staple that is almost a must.

Ours were described as crispy puff pastry parcels, filled with spicy minced beef and regato cheese.

There were two in the serving and they were hot and crisp on the outside - and just hot on the inside.

We finished our very nice meal with the croquetas de pollo (Madrid).

They came in a serving of three hand-crumbed croquettes with chicken breast and served with roasted garlic mayonnaise.

They were really tasty and disappeared quickly.


We enjoyed our meal at La Tasca. Good food, pleasant service, nice decor and reasonable prices make it worth visiting.