Right at home at Encasa

After a long stint away, you want to come home to what you know and love. New adventures and relationships can always be found, but for the lucky ones that have it, home is where the heart and soul are.

After a long absence from Encasa, it's amazing how easy it is just to slip comfortably back in to order a jug of sangria and the usuals on an as-always packed Friday night.

Ensalada con queso - salad with cheese from Encasa, Pitt Street, Haymarket

The salad with goat's cheese is the only way to go for a salad fix here. Sweet roasted red capsicum, black olives and mixed lettuce leaves provide a little early respite from what is always a protein- and carb-heavy meal at Encasa.

Patatas bravas - Fried potato with garlic mayonnaise and spicy tomato sauce

I remember in earlier days, the patatas bravas used to be served in the small, round terracotta tapas dishes. It's now grown to a small oval dish and no-one is complaining. It just means more crunchy, golden chunks of potato smothered in aioli and spicy tomato sauce for everyone.

Chorizo a la sidra - Spanish sausage poached in cider

This version of the spicy Spanish sausage is a little more subdued than the normal grilled version as it is cooked in cider, with some of the sweetness penetrating the big, salty slices of chorizo.

Mejillones a la Marinera - Black mussels in fresh tomato sauce with chilli and basil

The prettily arranged dish of mussels is not how I remember the dish from prior visits, but I guess it's been a while. The perfectly cooked molluscs are a silky, soft delight to eat, and are given a bit of a kick with the spicy tomato sauce that's made for mopping up with white bread rolls.

Gambas Sevillanas - King prawns in spicy tomato salsa

Bread rolls also come in very handy for the even spicier king prawns in a chilli spiked tomato sauce - sometimes painful but one of my favourite tapas at Encasa. The large, whole prawns are always cooked to perfection, and on this occasion, burningly hot in temperature too.

Champiñones al ajillo - Garlic mushrooms

There is no shortage of garlic or oil with the mushrooms - whole and chopped button mushrooms that are cooked ever so slightly so as to retain a fresh firmness.

To be honest, I've never even seen the dessert menu at Encasa - we generally stuff ourselves with the tapas. And as always, we were closer to rolling out of Encasa than walking out, but when it's something you know and love rather well, it's easy to feel right at home doing so.

Things you'll miss from home

I've been coming to Encasa for years and have only now realised that there's a deluxe version of the sangria that's significantly heftier on the alcohol component. I can actually taste the liqueur in addition to red wine and fruit - I've been missing out for so long.

I love the mish-mash, jumbled feel of Encasa sometimes. Not so when I don't have a bookiing, but there's just a feel of slight chaos brewing beneath the floorboards of the hectically busy restaurant, especially this particular Friday night.

We have a fair sized table of good eaters, and we order generously but sensibly. Which is why I'm a little perplexed that the waiter was bug-eyed and head-shaking at the amount of food we ordered. We showed him - mostly.

Special salad of rocket, artichoke, tomato and manchego
cheese from Encasa, Pitt Street, Haymarket

I'm so comfortable with the menu at Encasa that I often forget there are specials. This special salad is a first for me and a pleasant alternative to the goat cheese and roasted capsicum salad - which we also order. It's a simple assembly of rocket, artichokes, cherry tomatoes and shavings of a divine manchego cheese that just works effortlessly.

Champinones al ajillo - sizzling garlic mushrooms

Before long, a procession of tapas start heading towards us - mostly in multiples for sharing among our group. The garlic mushrooms are vegies made fun - not that they're norrmally not - but these just pop with a firm juiciness in a celebration of garlic.

Patatas bravas - fried potato with aioli and spicy tomato salsa

As much as a sad stereotype as it may be, it's not really a tapas experience for me without patatas bravas and Encasa's version rivals that I had in a Barcelona laneway. With lashings of a spicy tomato salsa and creamy garlic mayonnaise, it's comfort food that behaves well with the sangria.

Chorizo a la plancha - grilled Spanish sausage

From my sangria-soaked memory, the chorizo isn't the best I've tried, although that accolade is still waiting to be awarded, I think. This sausage tends a little dry and salty, and lacking on the spice kick just a little.

Mejillones a la Marinera

The huge bowl of tender-as mussels also comes topped with a spicy tomato salsa, of which none goes to waste with our handy bread roll mops. The mussel meat is superbly tender and not at all fishy - it looks so easy, yet not always so in the home kitchen.

Gambas Sevillanas - king prawns in spicy tomato salsa

Undoubtedly a crowd favourite, the prawns in spicy tomato salsa are extremely crunchily firm. A lot of restaurants could learn from this. One would think that the 'spicy tomato salsa' is getting a bit repetitive at this point - but it's not. There are varying degrees of spiciness and consistency that just keep everyone dipping and sopping up all that tomato-ey goodness.

Pinchos Morunos - prime lamb fillet skewers in Morrocan spices

The lamb skewers are mostly tender and less flavour-intensive than most the other tapas dishes. They're sort of cooked to a well-done point, which is acceptable but makes for a bit more chewing and a bit less juiciness.

Supreme pizza

At this point, I start to think that maybe we should have heeded the waiter's apprehension. Just after I have that thought, I find myself reaching for one of the last slices of the freshly cooked pizza. Elected from the traditional rather than gourmet menu, this has a bit of everything going for it - vegies, meat and just enough cheese on a crusty woodfired base.

Paella Valenciana

A collective "Oooh..!" greets the paella - a serving for four that looks more like a serving for ten. The huge king prawns have their meeting of minds amid roast capsicum and pipis, surrounded by an audience of mussels and lemon wedges. After a light shower of lemon juice, the meeting is broken up into servings of the fluffy saffron rice and crunchy browned bottom crust. Full as we are, we appreciate the super fresh seafood so much that we take half of it home to appreciate even more the next day.

Dessert doesn't rate a moment's thought although we're easily convinced that we need more of that deluxe sangria. By this point, the restaurant is seriously hopping with no sign of slowing. It's a bit chaotic, it's very festive, and it's just the sort of almost homely atmosphere that one would miss being away from.

Safe for a rainy day

From my rather poor memory of anything academically inclined, the feeling of safety is one of human's basic needs. It sits somewhere after your very basic need to breathe, eat, drink, sleep and the sort. So there is a deep-seeded psychological explanation for the damsel in distress act, for example, that's not just environmental or circumstantial. Everyone wants to feel safe - away from scary things, painful things, things they don't understand, embarrassment, cockroaches. The means to the ultimate ends is where an aspect of individuality comes into play. We don't all feel safe through the same way. That seems a bit of a no-brainer because it's obvious that we all don't achieve happiness through the same means. But I'm not sure that happiness is a basic human need.

Doesn't matter just now because our favourite Spanish tapas restaurant makes us feel both safe and happy. The world needs more distractions that make us feel safe and happy. Encasa is one of those restaurants that seem eternally busy - well, in the later days of the week anyway. There's seldom an occasion that I've been there and they're not turning customers away, although it is a backpacker/passer-by heavy location. We always know to book in advance now for a good value, sumptious tapas fix.

The feeling of being hurried out of there is one of the downsides of this uber popular, friendly little restaurant but suits rather well when you're in a hurry too. We order quickly and sensibly, meaning that there will be no stuffing of stomachs tonight.

Encasa do a delightful range of reasonably priced salads and we always go for the ensalada con queso, a simple combination of mixed leaves, roast capsicum, olives and a mild goat's cheese drizzled in balsamic vinegar. It is effortlessly tantilising - if only getting dressed and looking good could be this easy. I'm reaching some new low here - I'm envious of a salad.

Our selection of tapas arrive shortly after the salad, with our serve of bread to follow after a calm wait and then friendly reminder.

Grilled baby octopus from Encasa, Sydney

First to emerge is the relatively huge plate of char grilled octopus, golden and blackened in a good way. As soon as it hits the gingham tablecloth (that's new...?) it gets the tastebuds salivating and the eyes sending messages to the brain to dig in. Now. A quick spritz of lemon juice and we obey the brain. The tentacles are tender yet chewy with the tips grilled to a satisfying savoury crunch. The octopus is fiercely independent; its taste and texture needing no sauce nor side. It goes divinely with my glass of a bashful Marlborough sauv blanc, probably even better than with sangria.

Yes, I had tapas without sangria. I find it improper and edging Rudd's binge drinking policy to have a jug all to myself. It's available by the glass but where's the fun in that? Moving along, the poultry and crustaceans turn up to the table together.

Chicken skewers with capsicum, olive oil, cumin and vinegar

The chicken breast skewers are piping hot and filling, if not a little bland. Whatever flavours the chicken is a little too muted making the accompanying sauce - capsicum based yet creamy almost like mayonnaise - essential.

King prawns in spicy tomato salsa

The prawns are a favourite tapas dish here with the tomato salsa making it a sin to not order bread rolls for dipping. A steamy and splattering arrival in a terracotta dish, the prawns taste fresh and are succulently crisp swimming in a tomato sauce loaded with onions and garlic, and this time huge chunks of whole peeled tomatoes. And this time the chef seems to have been a little heavy-handed on the spice factor - there is definitely much more heat packed into the sauce than ever before. Thank goodness for the soft bread roll.

It's nice when you can walk out of a restaurant (a) not having overeaten, and (b) when it's still bright outdoors and it seems like there's still more to be made of an evening. I leave the safety of Encasa to head into the wallet-endangering safety of a nearby bookshop where I indulge in a little more happiness.