Salsa Mexican and meditteranean restaurant southend on sea essex

We visited this restaurant late on a weekday night, so most diners were finishing their meals, but they were very welcoming and didn’t rush, which was great, as some restaurants tend to hurry you out when they want to clear up. The service was very friendly and attentive and the interior comfortable and jolly, with lots of pictures, a variation of light shades and bright colours portraying a vibrant Mediterranean feel, with a hint of Mexican, just like the menu.

We opted for fajitas, sticky chicken wings and salad, as it was late and we wanted a light meal, but I would go back to try some of the other main dishes on the menu. Everything was hot, tasty and fresh, and a cut above some of the chain restaurants of this kind. Originally, I did indeed think this was a chain, but it is a one off. However, if this one does well, they may well have an opportunity to open another one and 

good luck to them if they do.

They offer themed nights with entertainment such as salsa and acoustic bands, and judging by their website, they appear to get quite

busy on these nights so I hope we will get to attend one of those evenings soon.

Date of visit: September 2010

My marks out of 10: (10 being the highest)

Food – 7

Service – 8

Atmosphere – 8

Value for money – 7

Website: www.salsarestaurant.co.uk

34 London Road

Southend-on-Sea

Essex SS1 1NT

Phone: 01702213000

Fax: 01702826101

email: info@salsarestaurant.co.uk

The atmosphere was great as well as the food. To start I had the ‘Grilled wild tiger prawn piri piri, flat bread & salad’ It was all great, except that I got something more like a ciabatta rather than a flatbread, but it was all delicious and the prawns were large and mosit. Michael had the ‘Pressed pork belly & spanish foie gras terrine with pickled mushroom, apple compote &sour dough toast’ which he enoyed.

For mains, I chose the ‘Pan roasted lamb rump with kohlrabi turnip puree, puy lentil, baby spinach and red currant jus’ and I will be back to have that again. The lamb was cooked beautifully, just as I had asked, and the flavour fantastic. All the accompaniments were just right and the whole dish was lovely. Michael had the ‘Zabrano beef bourginogne, braised cabbage, pearl onions,butternut squash, candied pancetta & red wine’ which he enjoyed, but he said he preferred my dish. I did try his though, and the beef was tender and sauce very good and I would recommend it if you fancy that sort of dish.

I will be back again now, and I am so pleased that they have now sorted out the staffing issues as it is a great restaurant to dine in and the chefs have always been excellent, together with the use of fresh, quality ingredients. The prices do reflect this.

(I will add the photos from our meal soon…)

Restaurant name

Zabranos

Date of visit

March 2010

Website address

www.zabrano.co.uk

Restaurant telephone

01702 476999

Restaurant address

127, Leigh Rd, Leigh-On-Sea, Essex SS9 1JQ

Service Charge included?

No

Average price per person for 3 course meal, excluding drinks

moderate (£20-£30)

How many dined?

2

Value for money rating?

8/10

Atmosphere Quality rating?

8/10

Service Quality rating?

8/10

Food Quality rating

8/10

main meal and the restaurant zabranos leigh on sea essex

We went to Zabrano about three times, but the food and service got worse.The first meal was great – chicken Coq au vin I remember to be extremely good and their Sunday lunch was nice.Thereafter we tried two more times. The second meal we shared the 7 hours slow roasted shoulder of lamb. It was rich and tasty at the time, but for some reason we both got stomach upsets afterwards – although we did have prawns too. Undeterred, we went back again, as the dining area is actually very nice and the atmosphere is good.The falafel starter was inedible as it was so salty.The scallops were nice.The bouillabaisse had just too much cream in it and was very sickly, and my main and wine was spoilt due to the lingering salt in my mouth from the starter. We were polite about it but had a particularly rude waiter. It is first time I have been unable to leave a tip, due to the undeserving service.However, I would not put anyone off going to Zabrano, as the two meals we had previous were very nice, including the Sunday Lunch, and chefs/staff change a lot in restaurants sometimes.

Restaurant name

Zabrano

Restaurant address

127 Leigh Rd, Leigh-on-Sea, SS9 1JQ

Restaurant telephone

01702 476999

Website address

www.zabrano.co.uk

Date of visit

October 2008

How many dined?

2

Average price per person for 3 course meal, excluding drinks

moderate (£20-£30)

Service Charge included?

No

Food Quality rating

6/10

Service Quality rating?

4/10

Atmosphere Quality rating?

7/10

Value for money rating?

5/10