One of my first tasks as a reporter after moving to the unfamiliar town of Kendal in November 2021 was to interview Karl Tchumak, owner of Pedro's Casa, on Stricklandgate, which had just scooped the Best Tapas Restaurant in Cumbria gong at England's Business Awards.
Karl and his partner Edina struck me as friendly, passionate about their produce and service, and genuinely surprised to have been given the recognition, as Karl said: "We're not really a tapas restaurant, we do Mexican food, burgers, pizzas, but some of our dishes are tapas-style."
5 months later, I belatedly fulfilled my promise that I would try the restaurant after I had managed to import some friends from 50 miles away to "show them my new town".
Having a chequered past at selecting culinary destinations, I booked a table for 4 at Pedro's for 5.45pm on Saturday, based on a colleague telling me "it's been there a while, so it must be nice."
That done, we were welcomed warmly by Karl and shown to our table, which sat in an informal, colourful, and playful interior, with sombreros adorning the ceiling - a venue that would be party-friendly, with a beer, wine and good cocktail list to match.
Karl passed us a tick-box order form, explaining that some of the dishes were bigger than others, some tapas-style, but usually 2-3 dishes per person was about right, and that the dishes would come out at different times.
We plumped for 8, with the cheese-steak nachos arriving first - a big, definitely-for-sharing bowl of nachos, interspersing with strips of steak, cheese, and healthy dollops of sour cream and salsa - a good start, and no complaints from the group.
Next came the undisputed star of the show, the plainly-named 'chorizo bites'.
This was where the tapas element came to the fore, as a small dish of diced chorizo, with beans and coated in a wonderfully thick, dark sauce - it reminded me of a very experienced French cook I worked with in another life, who created the most incredible, rustic, intense flavours with the simplest of ingredients.
Impressive also was the also simply-named 'gambas', which were indeed prawns, served in a similarly flavoursome, creamy sauce.
We also had fish goujons, served with spicy mayonnaise, a dish of four juicy meatballs in a tomato sauce, and two sets of three mini-burgers, one set with pork tenderloin, another with minted lamb and a beetroot slaw - delicious, and very filling.
The fajitas dish was also ordered, but one of our group (let's call him Chris), insisted on eating that himself (there's always one) - not a scrap was left and he proclaimed it 'really nice', which the spiced, tender chicken 'surprisingly good'.
We were hugely impressed with Pedro's, and while its fusion-style menu might seem at first confusing, there is truly something for everyone, and at £117 for the whole bill, including drinks, we found it very good value too.
It may be the best tapas restaurant in Cumbria, but more importantly, it's now my favourite restaurant in Kendal.
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