Authentic Spanish Tapas at Juan Luis

Juan Luis is a tapas place located in Hasselt, very close to the old city hall. Personally, I never heard of Juan Luis before I visited it in January, but I am very glad I know about its existence now, as I loved every minute of my visit.

We booked a table for 4 and ordered loads of tapas, because everything on the menu looked amazingly delicious. We went for:

- Calamares a la plancha (€14) - suggestion board

- Padron pepers (€10) - suggestion board

- Croquetas mix (€8) - suggestion board

- Spicy edamame with salt (€5) - Suggestion board

- Pan Catalan (€5) - with fresh tomatoes, oregano and garlic

- Pan Tapenada (€5) - with tapenade and garlic-mayonnaise

- Champinones con ajo (€8) - mushrooms with garlic

- Ensalade mixta (€10) - Roman salad with tomatoes, red union, peppers, olive oil and Spanish wine vinegar.

- Albondigas (€8) - meatballs

- Patatas Brava (€5)

Every tapa was equally as good as the next one, there wasn't one dish that I didn't like. My personal favourite, as most of the time, were the patatas brava. I really like the combination of the crunchy potatoes with the aioli and tomato sauce, it is just so good and heavenly. The squid ink rice that was served together with the calamari was also surprisingly delicious and we all loved the mixed salad too, especially the wine vinegar on it.

To and of we all ordered some dessert even though our stomachs were already pretty satisfied. We ordered one Moelleux au chocolat (€6,50) to share, one creme catalana (€6,50) and some Spanish orange (€4). Again the desserts were very good, I did miss some vanilla ice cream with the moelleux but I know that, that is just the Belgian way of serving Moelleux au chocolat.

I think I can say for all four of us, that we all enjoyed our visit to Juan Luis very much and I would love to go back some time to try even more dishes from their extensive menu. As a vegetarian I was also very glad to see how many dishes were vegetarian on the menu as it would have otherwise taken away a bit of the fun of eating tapas. The interior of the restaurant was also very pleasant and cosy, it had a typical Spanish vibe but was still very modern.

A bientôt!

Bisous