An impromptu family date night, brought on by picking my car up from being serviced, found us looking for a restaurant in Dee Why. I don’t think we’ve visited Dee Why since having Olivia, so it’s fair to say that we aren’t regulars. But Jah Bar might just change that.

We started off our meal with one of my favourites; croquetas. These croquetas were really pimped up my alley; stuffed with field mushrooms, truffled pecorino and truffle aioli. The crispy outer and pasty center were perfect, so much so that I may have fought my toddler for them. The little lady who hasn’t been interested in eating anything other than chips, honey toast or milk for the past week asked the waiter for ‘more YUMMY chips please’. I may have just taken that as a perfectly good excuse to order a second helping. She went so far as to boost herself out of the high chair to get closer to the hand that was feeding her.

Retaurant Tapas

The next tapas to quickly follow were meat balls. These weren’t just any old meatballs, they were albondigas ; pan roasted pork and chicken with pine nuts, bravas sauce (spicy tomato) and manchego. Seriously, this restaurant was made for me!

Mushrooms, truffle, manchego.

I was in heaven. Mark and I had smiles from ear to ear as we enjoyed the meatballs and watched Lara nibble away on the “spicy meat, mummy”. We are so glad that she is showing the same obsession with food and flavours that we have. Hopefully Olivia will too.

Fish tacos were served on a crispy shell, with kingfish cured in tequila, lime onion jam and avocado salsa. We squeezed the lime over the top and thoroughly enjoyed the light, fresh seasonal flavours and great texture combination. Mark thinks he would have preferred this dish without the caramelised onion. But it worked well with my sweet tooth, although I do agree with him that it took away from the kingfish.

Pulled pork tacos; chickory smoked pork, onion jam, avocado salsa, soft taco shell, chipotle and quindilla (Spanish for chili) were perfect to wrap up the end of the meal.

Total Restaurant Experience

Needless to say our little family enjoyed our impromptu date night at Jah Bar Spanish restaurant. The flavours have inspired a few home meals already. Avocado salsa has been featuring in dinners and breakfasts, and spicy eggs were a total winner this morning.

There are so many dishes on Jah Bar’s menu that I want to try, and we will definitely be going back on a Monday night to take advantage of the $10 tapas. We may have already told a few friends and family members that they should join us there. It also helps that the staff are super friendly and attentive. This could be our new favourite.

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