Galway’s only Spanish restaurant, Cava is located just a stones throw from the main shopping/restaurant area around Shop Street and Quay Street, and has always had the feeling of a confident, well-run business.
Owner-operated by chef JP McMahon and his partner, Drigín Gaffey, who supervises service, the ambience is authentically Spanish. Not a bull or toreador poster to be seen but the menu in the Spanish language, with English sub-titles, and an all-Spanish wine list (wines from Mad About Wine in Moycullen) leave one in no doubt about what’s on offer.
This Galway restaurants tapas menu is available all day and there’s a separate lunch and dinner menu, both à la carte. The tapas menu takes one on a 50-dish tour of Spanish cuisine in miniature, from shellfish soup with sherry to squid with garlic and parsley, salted cod cakes, sweet peppers with goats cheese, braised tongue and kidneys in various guises.
Dinner menu items of more substance include starters of Spanish cheeses and cured meats, warm duck salad with pears and raspberry vinaigrette and mains like Moorish couscous and braised fennel with potato omelette and lemon mayonnaise.
Especially interesting sections of the evening menu offer suggested pairings for Tapas & Sherry (anything from olives and a glass of Fino to free-range pork liver terrine with Rare Cream) and Tapas & Wine (cured organic salmon with a glass of Verdejo, perhaps, or rack of lamb and confit of lamb belly with cauliflower & almond purée and a glass of Tempranillo).
Desserts are simple, and again very Spanish: deep-fried churros with chocolate ice cream, for example, and a Spanish crème brulée.
The cooking is innovative, displaying knowledge and expertise that raise it above the average Galway dining experience.
The wine list covers the Spanish spectrum, offering about 80 well chosen bottles: Cava, naturally, featuring strongly (by the glass from €7), rising to an expensive, aged Cava Mestres mas Via @ €150.
Table wines are organised by weight and an informative section devoted to sherry lists about 20 examples of this under-rated fortified white wine, arranging them by style, with notes on each. Other drinks including beers and organic Spanish cider, are also offered - and soft drinks get more than a cursory look in too, with elderflower bubbly, several fruit lemonades and lime crush, at €3.50-4.25.
The atmosphere is casual and bright: some exposed stone, high ceilings, aquamarine and caramel coloured walls, wooden floors and tables. And this deservedly popular restaurant is noisy - background music may well be impossible to decipher against the clamour of a full house of happy diners.
* In 2011 JP McMahon and Drigín Gaffey opened Aniar Restaurant – meaning 'from the west' – next door. The focus at this innovative restaurant is on seasonality, local suppliers, foraged foods from the wild, and sustainably caught fish. Another first for Galway.
: Seats 50. Open daily 12-10.30pm (to 11.30 Thurs, 12.30 Fri/Sat, 10 Sun); set L €10 12-5pm, value D €15 all night Mon & Tue; also à la carte menus; house wine from €18. SC 10% on groups 10+. Live Flamenco & DJ at weekends. Free broadband wi/fi; reservations recommended; children welcome (high chair, children's menu, baby changing facilities); toilets & public areas wheelchair accessible; air conditioning. Closed 25/26 Dec. Mastercard, Visa, Laser.
