Zara  the Spanish Tapas Bar on Cathedral
Road is unique-  not in the cocktails it serves, a lot of
places do that, but because it’s the only place that serves you tapas

 I called for a reservation
and the guy told me that they do not take reservations for after eight in the
evening. He also warned us that men without shoes “will not be entered”. For a moment,
I thought he mistook us for pieces of data….

 We made sure we wore shoes
and were duly “entered” and,my friend and I being environmentalists,  ordered a cocktail called “Green Eyes” , which,
 the menu told us, was a combination of vodka,
blue Curacao, pineapple
juice, lime juice and lemonade.  200 was
the number against it on the right hand side of the menu.  My wife ordered something called “Frida” in
which fresh strawberry, fresh watermelon and peach puree accompanied the vodka.

 Both cocktails tasted good
and went down well but our Green Eyes turned out to be blue not green ! So the
next time around I asked for a “Queens cocktail” -  Vodka, fresh mint, fresh strawberry , fresh
lime juice, sugar... another nice drink. 
Incidentally, the menu exhorts you to “drink responsibly” so when I next
asked for something called “Summer Sailor”, I stopped reading the menu in
detail to find out what the ingredients were.… that. I thought, may be a bit
irresponsible !

 But then, the cocktails are not what we went to Zaras for, it
was the Tapas that stirs the imagination. “Gernika”, made with crab and prawn paste on a small
piece of bread, was delicious and merited repeat orders.

 “Croquetas de espinacas” 
-- croquettes with spinach and cheese stuffing—as well as “croquetas de
marisco”, which had meat filling, were really good. Something else topped with
crab and yet something else topped with prawn garlic pepper were all very
tasty. So was “alboningas con salsa” , some kind of meatballs.

 You don’t have to order dinner at Zara -  by the time you have tried a small percentage
of the short eats on offer, you are already stuffed ! From the dessert menu we only tried Contreau crème brule and Chocolate
mouse with kahlua cream  both were yum.

 Zara is worth
repeated visits !!