casa asturiana, city

How do you feed 34 hungry students who have just endured their last set of exams? Tapas, of course!

Casa Asturiana was willing to take a booking on a Friday night without a deposit which I was pretty impressed with. We had already tried to book Encasa (50% deposit required) and Miro (no bookings of more than 8 on a Friday)...

Unfortunately didn't manage to snap all the food, so this is more a representative sample. We had the $45 a head tapas and paella banquet, which comes with the choice of a jug of sangria for every 5 people or casadiellas (a cinnamon pastry dessert). The owner said most people opt for the sangria - we ordered half-half and then added extra sangria on top ($11 a jug) - I think the all sangria option is the better one (the dessert wasn't that good, but the sangria was great).



Appetiser of roast almonds



The first of the mixed salads - I'm not sure what the orange sauce was...



The second of the salads - nice and fresh



Marinated capsicums. Yum :)



Marinated artichokes. Not everyone's cup of tea apparently (but I liked it)



The start of the tapas dishes - there were prawns...



Calamari...



Meatballs... and I didn't manage to take photos of the chorizo, mushrooms and chicken.



Giant paella! There's a choice between seafood or chicken. We ordered some seafood and some chicken but unfortunately they came out all seafood. It was very nice though - lots of fish in the rice as well as all the goodies on top.



The dessert - casadiellas. They reminded me of sausage rolls (even the filling looked a bit like sausage roll filling!) Note the large amount of cash in the background (moneys!!)

I was a little worried after reading the reviews at eatability but I shouldn't have been - the food was great (and served in copious amounts!), the staff friendly and helpful and the restaurant itself bright and cheerful. We were seated upstairs in a little section of our own and were treated to a dance performance at around 8:30pm.

I read in the Good Food Guide 2009 that the best tapas in the Spanish Quarter is at Capitan Torres and Miro - but most of us agreed that Capitan Torres is a bit salty. Will have to try Miro with a smaller group next time!

Casa Asturiana
77 Liverpool Street
Sydney NSW 2000

(02) 9264 1010

Open for lunch and dinner, 7 days