REGINA: She’s a brickhouse

It’s been eight years or so since I last stepped foot in sleepy Regina, and I’m happy to report things are buzzing in the Queen City. New condos, new stores, new restaurants and now a new government.

On an unseasonably chilly election night, we settled on dinner at La Bodega before a long night of work. The restaurant is located in a gorgeous old house with a big patio built around the huge elm tree out front.

It seemed right up my alley with soothing mustard yellow walls and old church pew benches. Until I heard the background music clearly.

“Baw chicka bow wow…. Chicka chicka waw waw.”

Um, did anyone else hear that?

“The lady’s stacked and that’s a fact, ain’t holding nothing back. OW! She’s a brick… house!”

I started giggling as the server explained the day’s specials. I’m sorry, but it was hard for me to reconcile tapas, a classy house and somebody’s “Best of the ’70s” hit parade which continued on through our meal and even came back around to repeat the Commodores.

I was quite excited to try La Bodega, but the long menu was scattered and a tad confusing. Gary asked if there was a tapas appetizer plate and was directed to a page where you pick five items to create your own. We later discovered there is indeed a small tapas starter listed that the server didn’t point out.

The simplest items on our tapas plate, big bowls of feta ($7) and marinated olives ($5), were my favourite. Just easy and concentrated with flavour. The crab and seafood cake ($5), tempura prawns ($11) and beef tenderloin skewer ($5) were meh.

The main plates were slow in arriving, so that two of us happily munched on tapas while the other two sat there starving. My pulled pork quesadilla with pineapple salsa and sour cream ($9) was quite good and filling.

Gary was disappointed with his lamb enchilada ($12) as the promised ancho-spiced lamb was unrecognizable buried under three cheeses, guacamole and salsa.

And Kevin, well, he was so hungry that his plate disappeared before I could note what he was having.

I think La Bodega is one of those places that just needs Gordon Ramsay or those Restaurant Makeover shows to come in and polish it off a bit to give the food some edge. There’s nothing wrong with the foundation, it just needs a little more oomph to become a stunner of a brick house. (Sorry, I couldn’t help it.)

Anyway, if I were back in the summer, this would be on my list for drinks as the patio looks like a perfect place to unwind.

La Bodega, 2228 Albert St., Regina, Saskatchewan, (306) 546-3660. More info here.