GOOD RICE and nastiness

Tapelia is a franchise from Alicante which is now expanding all over Spain. Its speciality is making traditional Mediterranean rices as the world famous Paella. A few months ago Tapelia opened a restaurant in Zaragoza (General Sueiro 11) and the success of the food made us go. We wanted to go there for Sunday midday lunch, so we phoned on Saturday afternoon in order to book the table. So crowded was the place we could only eat at the smokers area. Fine, we'll make an effort, if there's no other choice. 14'45 was the time we agreed with the person in charge of the restaurant.

We arrived on time, but didn't reach the table after half an hour later. I hope the rice will be worth it... It was time to make our choice. The first surprise was that the minimum was 2 people for each kind of rice, but the maximum was 2 types of rice for the whole table... and we were 6... Four of us agreed to eat the traditional Black Rice (Arroz Negro), and the other two, rice with chicken and vegetables. We had to wait another half an hour to meet our friendly waiter, the one who would take note about we were going to eat; for those who don't know, cooking rice is already long, so we started eating at about 16'00.

But the worst was still to come, when we found out the size of our "paellera", that tiny little thing. And we were starving! A lovely waitress served the rice as a bulldozer. Yes, the rice was tasty, but it was small and awfully expensive. The restaurant is pretentious, trying so hard to be jazzy, and so far to it. I hope the Tapelia from Paseo de Gracia en Barcelona would be better. Next time in Zaragoza I'll come back to the Paella of the Mesón Tomás, in Camino de las Torres 92, close to my mother's place: much better and more affordable.

Mrs de Winter, don't worry: I have many tips about Paris ready to be published.