TASCA (in Spanish) means an unpretentious, local, backstreet bar / eatery, offering a few tapas to accompany the drinking (and gambling!) that goes on until the small hours.

Here in Auckland, Café Tasca started life as a tiny café bar in Upper Vulcan Lane in the heart of the city – so named because of it’s resemblance of the location (the closest of any that we have here in NZ) to the alleyways and back streets of the old cities of Europe. 

With the main influences coming from the simple tasty foods of Spain (much of it cooked in the woodfired oven), other tastes have crept into the menu – yet all in keeping with the simple philosophy of Mediterranean eating – real food with not too much done to it. A selection of tapas – ideally shared over the evening, not all at once – could fit the mood, washed down with a jug of homemade Sangria. Or settle in for a major meal with a bottle of Spanish red – the Cordero (wood roasted lamb shoulder) basted with pomegranate molasses and harissa, just falls off the bone…