Yesterday we went out for a sneaky Tuesday tea as the boys are away for a few days over half term. I wanted to try somewhere new, and my search led me to La Mama on Abbeydale Road on the west side of town. The restaurant seems to have been around for years, having multiple eating out awards over the last few years.

It’s a small tapas restaurant and bar, with Chilean and Spanish influence, so some of the dishes are a bit different to those in a regular Spanish tapas place.

I was very pleased to find the gluten free dishes were all marked clearly on the menu, which makes for a pleasant ordering experience, and there were plenty to choose from. You can have a look at the menu on their website. I was told the kitchen has a separate fryer for cooking gluten free items, which was reassuring.

We completely over ordered, with eight tapas between the two of us, but really six would have been plenty for a quick weeknight meal, as the portion sizes were generous.

We ordered a variety of meat, fish and vegetarian dishes. Of the meat dishes, my favourites were Garbanzos con Chorizo, a chickpea stew with chorizo and Caldereta de Cordero, a delicious casseroled lamb. The fish was a beautifully cooked hake loin in a tomato and olive sauce.

We also had a baked aubergine, Berenjenas al Horno; and a really delicious green beans with paprika and pine nuts (which I’m going to try to recreate). And of course, some spiced La Mama potatoes.

It was all really good. The place was rather quiet, but then it was an early Tuesday evening in half term, and also the night of the Bake Off final. But I get the impression the place will have a really nice buzz about it on a weekend.

As well as a variety of cocktails, they serve Daura Damm Spanish gluten free beer – what more could you want? Next time we’ll go at the weekend and I will be testing out the Pisco Sour…

We didn’t linger, as I needed to get back to watch the Bake Off final before I could accidentally find out the winner!

La Mama,  238 Abbeydale Road, Sheffield S7 1FL