This place is not really in the 'somewhere to stop while you are travelling' category, nor would you put it in the budget category, but it did meet a real need for us recently.

We had family staying over the Christmas break, and the women in the family decided that we had all spent enough time in the kitchen recently creating wonderful meals from a seemingly ever growing mound of left overs! So the answer was to go out for something to eat.

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We headed off to one place only to find it shut, so decided to go to the IS Tapas Bar in Noosaville. Peter and I have been there before but the other couple had not. It is not a big place, but it does have a really friendly atmosphere with a hint of Mediterranean to it, which is fair enough given that tapas started in Spain. According to my favourite cook book, tapa in Spanish means lid, and it comes from the days when drinks were served with lids on them to keep out the flies. Then cheese and sausage were put on the lid to encourage more business, and the art of tapas was born. The flies also had more things to have a go at!

But, back to our lunch. We each ordered one thing, they come in small sizes – really taste size serves. This place usually puts three of each one on a plate, but there were four of us so they simply increased the number. We had stuffed dates wrapped in prosciutto, Moroccan chicken, Spanish meatballs and duck in rice rolls. Each one was brilliant, and with a beer or wine each plus coffee the whole meal cost about $20 each.

As I say, not the sort of meal you would have on the road, but when you have stopped for a few days and want something a little different, this is one spot that will deliver. They also do a Yum Cha on some days, and I am sure that it would be as good as the tapas.

The IS Tapas Bar is over the road from the Noosa River, and there is a nice view if you are facing that way. There are conventional tables and chairs and a couple of benches with stools, if you choose the benches then you have no choice but to look out over the river and everyone walking the street in front of the restaurant. We used the benches once before, at night, and that was really lovely.

Tapas is one of my favourite ways of eating. You get to try lots of different things and flavours, but if you do not really like one you do not have a plate full of it. You simply leave it for everyone else to eat up and try something else. Tapas is a sharing meal and the IS Tapas Bar does it very well indeed.

IS Tapas Bar
249 Gympie Tce
Noosaville Qld 4566

Ph: 07 5447 1818
email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
www.isrestaurant.com
Review by Alison Huth posted January 2012
venue visited 6th January 2012
Photos by Alison Huth