Review
Pimento Tapas Carlow is fun, lively and serves great tasting food. Located on the riverside at Carlow’s Kennedy Avenue, this smart casual venue with its outdoor deck, tiled floors, low wooden beams, fairy lighting and Spanish music transport you to sunnier climes.
Myself and my daughter went early on a Saturday evening and the place was buzzing and in full swing. Given the Irish weather we sat inside, however on a sunny summers evening the outdoor tables overlooking the river would be a lovely option.
Bart was our waiter for the evening, and an exceptionally friendly, informative and professional chap he was too. He introduced us to the drinks menu initially, a great selection of wines, beers, spirits and cocktails. As Keisha is only 14 he suggested some fabulous non-alcoholic cocktails, and she was delighted to have a strawberry daiquiri.
I went with his suggestion of a pink gin & a cherry blossom tonic, and I have to say it is up there among one of the nicest G&T’s I have ever had. He also brought some crostini with dips to enjoy whilst we were working our way through the menu.
The menu is long, with over 30 dishes to tempt you, and with everything under the €7.95 point you can dine all evening. We chose more than we could possibly eat in the name of research and had the sticky seafood paella, excellent patatas bravas with smoked paprika sauce, juicy Thai king prawns with chorizo and succulent, perfectly pan-seared scallops with black pudding and pea puree.
We also enjoyed fabulously soft meatballs; pork & beef blended in a rich tomato sauce, which were generous in portion, succulent and packed a flavour punch. Bart suggested crispy chickpea fritters with homemade tzatziki, the contrast of spicy fritter with the coolness of the tzatziki really worked and as a vegetarian option was fab.
As you can probably tell this is a tapas style of eating, rather than a strict interpretation of Spanish dishes, but they all looked great and the presentation on a series of quirky bought to suit plates showed some effort has gone in here and not just with the food, but the whole presentation.,
Deep fried Nutella (brave!) sandwich is a popular way to round off a meal here but if the churros with dipping chocolate don’t appeal you’ll definitely enjoy the apricot & raspberry pannacotta. As it was we enjoyed both, thank you very much!
The latter, with such bold fruity flavour sums up the Pimento approach, with big flavours and a bit of daring, and on a sunny day with the river running alongside, its a little taste of somewhere warmer, more fun and tastier.
The staff too were warm, friendly and impressively au fait with the nuances of the menu and I’m looking forward to returning with friends very shortly.
