As a lover of Spanish food, having visiting Mallorca every summer and spent three months in Spain on my Gap Year, I was thrilled to hear that there was a new tapas restaurant opening up in Exeter.
Last week my parents came down to visit and I could think of no better place to take them! We therefore descended ‘en masse’ to Forn, which is situated, on Mary Arches Street, or for those of you who don’t know where that is, next door to Mosaic!
Having visited Mallorca every year since she was 11, my Mum fancies herself as a bit of a tapas expert and is always slightly sceptical about English tapas restaurants. We therefore set Forn a big challenge. However, it can be confirmed that they more than delivered!
The menu was extremely diverse and, not ones to miss out, we sampled almost everything! There were interesting takes on Spanish classics such as Gorgonzola and Pinenut Croquettes which were mouth-wateringly delicious, and squid stuffed with Spanish sausage, which, although I was slightly wary of, was absolutely amazing.
We did, of course, also sample a bottle of the restaurant’s wine which was from Cataluña and was a lovely compliment to the food. Like the food menu, the wine list was extensive, boasting a number of interesting Spanish wines with a few Portuguese ones thrown in for good measure!
Food just continued to come to the table and we were brought an interesting array of dishes. Perhaps my favourite, although we were slightly doubtful of it’s Spanish origin, was a Tuna Tataki with avocado salsa. This was truly amazing and my only complaint would be that there wasn’t enough of it!
My boyfriend has a great love for Patatas Bravas. However, a tapas restaurant we frequent does them just so and we have never found a place that is quite the same. However, as they came to the table I could see his face light up as these potatoes were the exact replicas of their Majorquin counterparts and, I have to admit, tasted even slightly better! However, the handsdown winner was the chips with egg and foie gras which was ‘smashed’ for us at the table! This was absolutely delicious and great fun to have it prepared in front of our eyes!
Although absolutely stuffed, we felt it would be rude not to sample the desserts! This menu offered a slightly smaller selection so we sampled one of everything, just to be sure I could do a comprehensive review. Whilst the Crema Catalana and Flan were good, the absolute winner was the Apple Tart, which had a buttery crumble topping and was served with creamy vanilla ice cream!
The staff were absolutely charming throguhout and, although they were clearly busy, couldn’t do enough for us, attending on us hand and foot and very keen to give recommendations. We felt that overall Forn was a wonderful experience as well as unbelivable value for money– perfect for a date night on a student budget! We also heard that they are starting a Spanish Sunday Brunch which we will certainly be back to try! Ultimately we cannot recommend Forn enough and feel that it would provide a perfect alternative to the typical Exeter night out– a great place to relax with friends, a bottle of wine, and quite frankly, incredible food!