Dining Out

Restaurant review: Tapa offers a sublime taste of Spain in a cosy corner of Stepaside

Chef Manuel Alfaro coaxes complex flavours out of old favourites and unusual dishes alike

Tapa, a new-ish Spanish restaurant in the south Co Dublin village of Stepaside, is a roomy space, but manages not to feel cavernous thanks to a mix of comfy-looking counter seats, booths and tables. Picture: Fergal Phillips

If you’re reading this while looking out the window at the rain, I fear you may have me to blame. Having moaned, groaned and sweated through the early September heatwave, I was praying for a change in the weather.

I wasn’t exactly aiming for the deluge that’s unfolding as I write, but we are where we are, and I’m now planning to embrace it. I’ve long said that autumn food is the best food – ...