GILL HARRIS dines Moroccan style at Swindon’s newest tapas bar

Fez 7,

Wood Street, Swindon SN1 4AN Tel: 01793 770456

Fez will be opening in the evenings and daytime – exact hours to be confirmed

It’s a week night. Early January. It’s cold and wet and what would really cheer you up is a few drinks with friends and little gorgeous nibbly dishes to share. Preferably in a lovely, atmospheric setting – the kind where, if you don’t look out the window at the rain, you can almost kid yourself you’re abroad.

Along with half of Swindon, this usually leads to a trip to the ever popular Los Gatos.

But now there’s a new kid on the block in the form of Fez – so three of us decided to give it a go and see if there was room enough in Old Town for two tapas bars.

Situated in the old Red Planet Bikes shop in Wood Street, the Moroccan eaterie is instantly welcoming, and beautifully decorated, glowing red and orange with its sultry lighting.

It’s very informal – we were shown our seats and left to gawp hungrily at the blackboard which lists the delights on offer.

There’s a wide choice of tapas for sharing, and for diners who prefer to keep their meals to themselves, various tagines are available.

Fez also serves a selection of Moroccan wines and beers if you fancy a tipple with a difference.

We decided to order from the tapas menu and our selection included dates wrapped in Parma ham, goat’s cheese tostada with date jam, merguez with tzaziki, potatoes with onion, parsley and tomato sauce, Moroccan lamb with apricot and pine nuts, sardines in tomato sauce, Moroccan chicken with chorizo, chick peas and tomato and garlic, and spiced meat balls in paprika and sherry sauce.

Oh and some artisan breads in case we were still hungry... needless to say, we weren’t.

Each dish was packed with flavour and extremely moreish (especially the dates in Parma ham), although, stuffed to the gills, we didn’t quite manage to finish all of them.

The only criticism was the potatoes were slightly undercooked, but we were so busy devouring everything else in sight, we didn’t really mind, even though the staff kindly offered to replace them.

It was a Tuesday night when we dropped in and it was pretty quiet – but then, this is January and this is a new restaurant so perhaps it hasn’t registered on everyone’s radar yet.

Our bill came to £65, which included four glasses of wine and a couple of beers. The service is laidback and friendly, the decor is sumptuous and exotic, the dishes are divine... and so yes, I think there is definitely room for another tapas bar in Old Town.