Tast Catala

Tast Catala is a delightful Spanish restaurant on King Street in Manchester, and our recent visit was a pleasure. We ordered six small plates, which turned out to be ample for two for lunch. Each dish was beautifully presented and packed with authentic flavors that truly showcased the richness of Spanish cuisine. The highlights included a variety of fresh ingredients and traditional recipes that left us wanting more. To accompany our meal, we enjoyed a jug of sangria, which was refreshing and perfectly balanced, adding a lovely touch to our lunch experience. The restaurant’s ambiance was warm and inviting, complemented by a friendly staff that provided excellent service throughout our visit. Overall, Tast Catala is a must-visit for anyone looking to explore delicious Spanish dishes in a welcoming setting. I highly recommend it!

Everything good , great Ribero del Duero wine, with the usual obscene UK mark up. Good ham pan Catalan, cod croquettes and their famous foie tras donuts. Only let down was the main course , the veg and potatoes beautiful but the bone in steak too a while to come and when it did, half of the steak was beautifully cooked medium rare as requested but the other end of the steak was either medium well or well done , including the best part , the bone, that was cremated. Had we not had a football match to go to, I’d have sent that dish back , which of course a good restaurant like this would I’m sure have accepted .

Absolutely lovely afternoon. Every dish was amazing, we chose to just order a few of the small plates (but maybe ordered a few too many) the food and service was brilliant. Definitely reckoned the white cosmos.

We booked the restaurant a while ago and were really looking forward to it. Upon arrival we nipped to the loo be almost left straight after such was the state of the toilets (disgusting). The service was friendly and the food was nice enough, but we didn’t order as much s planned as the menu was limited and the quality only ok… so we ended up moving on to el gato negro on the same road, which was FAR better.

Beautiful food. The tables are quite close together so be prepared to hear someone else’s conversation but the food made it well worth it!

Excellent food and great service. We had a wonderful evening celebrating my birthday. The calamari and the octopus dishes were sublime and the 2 different croquettes were delicious. Loved the cheesecake they kindly brought me out at the end of the meal. Ended up taking the churros we ordered home! Highly recommend.

Been looking forward to visiting and decided to go on my birthday. It was Christmas Eve and it was quite quiet so there wasn’t much of an atmosphere. But the upside was that we were served quickly and our food arrived fast as well. Unfortunately , the tapas wasn’t entirely to our liking - the anchovies were overly seasoned and small compared to others we’ve had in Spanish restaurants (but at a higher cost here), the Spanish omelette was ok but a little bland. The tomato bread and patron peppers were good. The rice dish but nice, but didn’t blow us away. So overall, it didn’t live up to our expectations - but it could just have been timing.

Visited on a few occasions with family and never disappoints. The menu is varied, staff engaging and ambience always spot on. I try new menu items each time and this lunchtime was no different.

The food at Tast isn't brilliant, save the honey lemon foam with the cod fritters which was kind of inspired and the very tasty ham and cheese croquetas. The patron peppers were also fine. Otherwise the tortilla was under-salted and the patatas bravas were imo too big and the sauce basically just tasted like passata. The asparagus dish I didn't really like but my friend loved it so that seems like personal taste. However, the service here was really great, both our waiters and the barman were extremely friendly, helpful and efficient. They moved around tables so we and other guests could be comfortable and made it a very welcoming environment. Drinks wise, they have two of my favourite vermouths - martini riserva speciale and Gonzalez Byass which is so cool. The servings were a bit off though, more like they were cocktail measures. So I'd probably return here for some vermouth if I could convince them to serve it in proper amounts and just a couple of tapas rather than a whole meal.

Tast Catala is one of the best places in Manchester to grab some Spanish/Catalan cuisine, located in a rather fitting place on King Street within the city centre, which is basically just off Deansgate close to the House of Fraser, the immediate surrounding area and cuisine, made me feel like I was back in Barcelona which is the capital of Catalonia, of which many of the dishes originate from. As a Manchester City supporter, I really had to check out this place as it's part-owned by our manager Pep Guardiola, as well as Paco Pérez who has 5 Michelin Stars, including two at the restauraunt he has in Barcelona which is named after him, Enoteca Paco Pérez. It is over two floors, with a bar area on the lower floor which still has a pretty nice menu and a restauraunt upstairs, the bar area has both bar-style and restauraunt seating so it is a pretty nice area to get something to eat, especially when the main restauraunt is closed between 2:30 and 5 pm. Firstly, I must say the staff here were really friendly and excellent, not only did they reply fast with great information regarding allergies ahead of my visit, but they were also attentive and friendly while I was in a restauraunt, they had common-sense which made service go further, for example, I was dining with a lunch offer where I'd have two drinks and my server offered to keep one in the fridge until I was ready for it, so it'd stay both cold and fresh. The staff also seemed to know the whole menu inside out in detail, as he placed my food down he explained the dish which again was really thoughtful and gave it a truly authentic feel. By the overall look and taste, you can tell they use the finest quality ingredients. I even loved how with my drinks they'd put in a generous portion of fruit, for example, I had a tasty, thin slice of roasted pear and a juicy chunk of orange with my orange juice. My main course was the Half Picantó A L'ast (Poussin Chicken, Herbs, Garlic, Fine Herb Mash Potato) with Pa De Pagès Amb Tomàquet (Coca Bread, Tomato and Olive Oil) - they were able to make this gluten-free by swapping the bread over to their fresh gluten-free bread. The flavours really were outstanding, while the chicken wasn't in any form of sauce, it obviously was cooked and marinated with herbs and garlic producing great flavour, and the only complaint I have from the mashed potato was that there wasn't more, again the herbs really complimented the flavour, they were tasty and perfectly seasoned. The one flaw with my dish was perhaps there wasn't a great deal of meat on the chicken and the meat was darker meat, and I do prefer breast meat. While the portion wasn't huge, the fact it came with two fresh juices and bread meant it did certainly warrant value for money at £15 for everything. In terms of the main offering, the tastets, which are smaller than a portion but larger than a typical tapas, I was pretty disappointed with the poor gluten-free selection on that front. I couldn't have any of the fried options which I presume is down to them only having one frier. It was a little surprising how many options I couldn't have, given the fact the staff are so good with gluten-free knowledge and they do make fresh gluten-free bread, which was pretty good minus the crust part. Probably the best place to get Spanish/Catalan cuisine in Manchester, despite having a couple of flaws such as a slightly confusing reservation system (due to the restauraunt closing in the mid-afternoon) and the issues with the meat being used mainly being darker meat and the lack of meat options from the tastets plates, Tast really does warrant a strong four-star rating.