By Joan Stephens

Don’t expect Flamenco dancers, castanets, a donkey or gleeful shouts of olé – but at Toro Latino they have tried hard to create a Hispanic atmosphere with a few sombrero hats, colourful, striped Mexican blankets and a couple of fierce-looking papier mache black bulls gazing down on diners.

Marble-topped tables, red candles in bottles add to the ambiance, and staff are both welcoming and helpful.

Here the house wines come in at a reasonable £9.95 a bottle, other wines are between £12.50 and £14.50.

Beers include a Mexican Negra Modello, Desperados tequila beer and San Miguel. Margaritas and other cocktails sounded tempting, as did shooters with names like Slippery Nipple and Chilled After Shock.

We started with a pitcher of Sangria at £11.95, which was so good we stuck with it. The jug gave us a couple of glasses each.

The tapas menu divides into meat, fish and vegetables. We weren’t sure about the quantities and were advised that 10 between four of us, plus one main dish of paella would give us satisfactory amounts – and it did.

Meat dishes included meat balls, chicken wings, chorizo and beans, and pork fillet, Chile style.

Fish choices included squid, bucorones (breaded fish), a ceviche, king prawns, scallops and mussels, all at between £3.95 and £4.50. Veggie options included jalapenos, courgette fritters, Spanish omelette, patatas a la brava and aubergines.

We chose the paella Valenciana with shellfish and chicken, rather than a meat or vegetable version.

With the exception of the Spanish omelette – which was rather stodgy – all the tapas were delicious. The spare ribs came in a succulent dark sauce – finger-licking good indeed. The prawns were huge, and those coated in breadcrumbs and coconut were particularly tasty. We loved the fried courgettes and the baby fish, slightly reminiscent of whitebait, came with a sharp mayonnaise-style sauce which also made a satisfying dip for the olive bread.

We finished every last morsel before attacking the paella, which was tasty, despite the rice being on the sticky side.

The range of desserts is not huge, but reasonably priced at £3.50 to £3.75. There is a Dime Bar tart, a rich chocolate dish and a lemon cheesecake with toffee sauce, which was light and proved a tasty combination of flavours. I chose the lemon brule dessert, comprising lemon mousse, ice cream and a crisp brule topping.

Not a home-made pud, but delicious for all that.

Our total bill came to £88.45 for four, and at £22 per person, was good value for a satisfying meal.

We unanimously decided we would go back to try some of the tapas we hadn’t sampled first time round, along with those we’d found particularly good – those spare ribs will be top of my list.

Whether you go for a drink and a tapas appetiser as they do in Spain, or make your visit a full-blown meal to while away a whole evening, Tapas Latino is a fun environment.

Rating 4/5