I’ve been
to Legends Spanish Restaurant in Manuka a few times since I moved to Canberra
in 2008 and it has never let me down. The first time I went was a romantic
evening for two. He ordered the garlic and
chilli prawn tapas to share and they were unforgettable. I had never had prawns
that amazing in my life before and I don’t think I have since.
The restaurant
has evolved over the years. It used to be upstairs, above a nightclub called
Minque. Legends has now taken over and renovated the space that Minque used to
occupy. I didn’t take any photos of the restaurant, but it now has a modern and
vibrant interior.
Legends has
always been a “special occasion” kind of restaurant for me. When my parents
came down to Canberra, I took them to Legends. When Taiwanese visitors came to
Canberra and they asked me where they should go for dinner, I suggested they go
to Legends. Everyone I know, who has been, is always impressed by the quantity and quality of their
banquets. A friend, C, who has heard me speak highly of this restaurant was
keen to try it out and organized an outing, the subject of this review. It had
been over a year since I had last visited, so I wondered if the quality of the
food was as good as it used to be. I hoped so.
Naturally,
we ordered a banquet. We chose the $40 banquet, which came with a selection of
tapas to share and a paella for the main. Lucky for me, the garlic and chilli
prawn tapas were on this banquet menu and I was keen to see if they were still
as delicious as I remembered them to be. Unfortunately, the prawns lacked the intense flavour I remembered, but I’m not sure if that was because I had since built up the
memory of them as better than they actually were…
