Baresca on Byard Lane near the Lace Market Tram stop in Nottingham is a pretty cool place to hang out for a drink, a coffee, some tapas, and as it happens a leisurely Brunch.
Their website boldy says “When was the last time you had a great breakfast? Visit us and we’ll serve you a breakfast you won’t forget”
OK then bring it on! 🙂
I first came here for one of the #NottsTweetUp events when we took over the cellar bar and had a few samples off their tapas menu. It wasn’t nearly enough to satiate my desires so I knew that I would be back. Part of me wanted to do the tapas, especially after chatting with one of the regular TweetUp peeps Jeremy who tweets and blogs at Jeremy’s Food Tour, but you know tapas is a communal sharing thing and I was dining alone, and, to be honest, I kind of really needed some comfort that only a breakfast plate can provide!
I skipped the tapas and pondered my Brunch and Breakfast Options
Now that all looks fine and dandy, I could easily have scoffed the ‘Catalan bread and eggs’, or the ‘Scrambled egg with fried onion, patatas, and migas’.
However once I saw the small box on the menu listing the ‘baresca breakfast completo’ all semblance of restraint left the building.
I was having that!
My style of eggs? a sausage, some dry cured bacon (nice), mushrooms, patatas (fried potato), morcilla (some kind of blood sausage / black pudding), tomato, chargrilled bread (posh toast), tea and a glass of fruit juice (do I need two drinks? hell yes!)
All for just under, (and I mean a fraction under), the sum of £10
I know that this picture was a little blurred, but it is somewhat in keeping with the moment in my mind, where I was fighting a light hangover with some extended breakfast enthusiasm.
It doesn’t look that huge, but don’t be fooled, this is a serious breakfast platter that will require you to return home for a little snooze after you have partaken.
The picture kind of shows the layout of the plate, and makes it look classy, but it doesn’t tell us the whole story. Hidden behind and beneath those two lovely fried eggs are bacon, sausage, mushrooms, and a small pile of potato or patatas as they like to call them here.
The glass of orange juice and big pot of tea behind perhaps give a little perspective, and if not they act as a aide memoire to note that you get both with the ‘baresca breakfast completo’
It is amazing how a dish can look so different from another angle. I span the plate around so that I could get my knife and fork into the bacon more easily and suddenly I was accosted by an almost builders breakfast affair, only this was just a visual trick, as this was to turn out to be a far classier Spanish affair.
I loved the thick cut bacon it was really nicely flavoured, a little taste of smoke almost hickory mixed with a tang that was another level up from saltiness. It is hard to describe how good the taste of this bacon is. If I could I would put a piece into your mouth right now, and you would be going like all smiley and happy.
I loved everything about this plateful, I even ate all of the grilled tomato! the patatas were nice and crispy and considering, in the end, that they are just fried potatoes they had a place on the plate. The fried eggs were good, I might have had scrambled eggs but no-one actually asked me what sort of eggs I wanted (so not eggs of choice), they were nice and clean.
The morcilla was really good, I do love black pudding and this is a great variant. Traditionally Morcilla is made with pork blood and fat, rice, onions, and salt. I am not sure if this was, but I liked it all the same. I would need to eat a whole lot more, and I would be happy to do so, I am the man for that task.
The star for me on this plate, as I may have said already is that bacon, and I would love to be able to buy a plate just of that as a tapas plate. Not sure if you can do that, but I may ask.
All in All this is a damn good Brunch / Breakfast plate and well worth the price. I will eat this again without a shadow of a doubt
Baresca is located at just down from the Cross Keys pub and next to Nottingham stalwart Paul Smith’s shop, down that little jitty known to us all as Byards lane.
On their Twitter Page they describe Baresca as “An exciting mix of authentic and unique tapas to be savoured and shared by families and friends. A perfect place to meet all day, every day.”
That sounds good to me
Sounds good! 😉