NEW TAPAS PLACE ALERT! I love tapas. If I’m honest it’s the main reason I’m going back to Barcelona this year. So when I get chance to try tapas out I’m there in a shot! I was invited to a pop up taster menu launch for the new kid to Sheffield, Tapas Revolution. This isn’t another revolution chain (I do enjoy them though and there’s a post on them to come soon!) it’s a restaurant chain started by Omar Allibhoy. The one in Meadowhall Shopping centre will be the chains 5th restaurant. It opens today so if you’re around you should definitely go check it out!
I love that Omar wanted to spread the word about true Spanish food to the people of the U.K. He said he was frustrated here was a lack of real Spanish food in the UK especially as we are the biggest nation to holiday in Spain! When chatting to people who holiday there they admitted they loved Spanish food but didn’t know how to cook it as they’d never been shown, so never made it when they returned home. He drew a T on the UK map and travelled on a scooter up and across the T showing people how to cook real Spanish food with locally sourced ingredients after that was a sucess he then opened the first branch on the back of his journey. There are now 3 Tapas Revolution restaurants in London and one in Birmingham for my non local readers! 
The pop up was held at The Tramshed in Sheffield as the Meadowhall Tapas Revolution restaurant was still being kitted out and we got to try a heck of a lot of tapas, plus Omar was there to chat to us, cook paella and generally be a fab host- he is super nice!
I could hardly get a photo of some tapas before it was devoured (the Machego nibble and tomato bread were both amazing) but did manage a few shots!
We had special menus for the evening but were given copies of the menu that will be in the restaurant,it’s clear and suggests 3 main plates for 2 people, so if you’re one of those people that aren’t quite sure how much to order it’s perfect. I’d still over order though as I can never decide and when it’s this nice I can’t help myself! There’s a section called nibbles which could easily be added as a starter or to pad out the rest of the offerings.
They also have some set menu’s which I think would be a great option as a starter for ten, especially if you’re not sure what you like. The Del Chef option looks fab, as it has the octopus as a dish in it (Pulpo a la Gallega) which is this next photo and was my favourite dish of the night. If you’ve never had octopus you should try this, it’s not stringy or rubbery like some badly cooked octopus can be, it’s soft and ever so tasty. 
These are the Boquerones and sit in the nibbles section, its anchovies marinated in olive oil garlic and parsley. I’m told they were lush, I unfortunately chickened out on these as I hate anchovy.
These peppers were surprising nice and very salty which l liked. There’s meant to be a hot one hidden within the sweeter ones but we didn’t find it luckily! Look for Fried Green Sweet Peppers on the menu if you want to try these.
My second fave is always chorizo. This was delicious and I could eat it alllll night. It was just done very well, and was truly Spanish. It rivalled my fave in Barcelona so just have been good!
Looking like something off of school dinners circa 1990 these Croquetas de Jamon were a lot of people’s faves. I can’t get over the fact they remind me of a lot of things that I used to eat abroad on my very first Spanish holidays and these were so much better than them but I just can’t get over the breaded/fried aspect thinking back so I wouldn’t reorder.
And then paella, this massive dish was outside as it was so big, and the paella once served was gorgeous. The chicken was so soft and moist and the flavours were fab all together.
I’d highly recommend the sangria de la casa to wash it all down with, it was delicious and even converted some sangria haters to lovers as it tastes amazing. I switched to their lemonade quite quickly as I was driving and that was equally as nice, I could have drank it all day!
I’m hoping to make it down soon as Omar also announced that they would be opening a Churrerìa too! It will be near TGI’s I’m informed and will only sell Churros (and dip) and nothing else. These would be fab as a quick shopping pick me up, and will be my treat to myself after a hard days shopping!
As well as fab food for the evening, we were given a copy of Omar’s Cook Book, Paprika and some Spanish beers. I’m hoping the beer bribe for Mr E means he might make something out of the book- I’ll let you know if I’m successful! In the mean time I’d love to know what your faveoirite tapas dish is and if you’ll be trying out Tapas Revolution any time soon?