
A trip to the beautiful city of Lincoln UK, was on the cards thanks to Andy and Sarah, who treated us to a meal at the authentic tapas bar on The Green. It is a little bit of sunny Spain under the austere medieval castle walls and is the brainchild of both Amador and Alison who bring their expertise and decades of experience to the restaurant.

Plenty of atmosphere here with a warm, friendly welcome. There was a ‘tapas’ learning curve to get over for me. For those who don’t know about the mysteries of it, you order small dishes of food that fill your table. We were warned by the waiting on staff that 3-4 dishes were ample. Not sure about that personally. I would say 4-5 (or maybe even 6) dishes.
Anyway, said dishes were delivered all at the same time, and every dish we tried was hot and delicious. It really is a case of dipping and tasting, all at your own relaxed pace. That’s what tapas is all about. Good wine, good conversation and good food.
We started with a basket of warm freshly baked bread accompanied by garlic mayonnaise. Be warned though; it’s easy to fill up on bread before your ‘proper’ food arrives.
If you want the traditional paella for two people, a major dish on its own, you have to order in advance but, like us, you can have a small portion of either vegetable or chicken and seafood paella, and it is very tasty.
There is plenty of choice of tapas; meat, fish, vegetarian and vegan. We chose mushrooms in creamy sauce, sizzling prawns in garlic, brandy and chilli flakes, and oven baked sea bass served with patatas panaderas. Everything was freshly cooked and traditionally Spanish.
For desert we had a home-made cream caramel, and a cold rice pudding with a burnt sugar and cinnamon top. Then the Spanish waiter brought us a complimentary glass of caramel vodka to sweeten the bill.

If you have any food left it is acceptable to ask to take the rest home. We overheard one customer telling another “It’s too good to waste”, which is very true. We really enjoyed our evening at Ole Ole and will definitely be paying another visit soon.
So, to sum up, it’s easy parking (which is a bonus nowadays!), the staff are excellent and very helpful, the food is a delight and the atmosphere happy, traditional and homely. This restaurant charges city prices for its food, yet is surprisingly reasonable. No bad points for Ole Ole from us.
However, the dining experience is certainly not calm and reflective. It is open plan dining in a large eating area, which, at times can also cater for lively groups. This is a university city after all, therefore, at times, the noise from big parties may be overwhelming to some (see previous post regarding restaurant ‘noise’!). That said, this is the Spanish tapas experience and I thoroughly recommend Ole Ole. Salud.