Ortega

I went out with a friend to a new restaurant called Ortega last night, a new Spanish restaurant in Central Milton Keynes that I have never been to before.
The last restaurant I went to in the city was also a Thursday night, and it was jam packed with people everywhere. Ortega was empty! We were the only customers in the restaurant!! The decor didn't really remind me of Spain (as their website boasts it does), and just looked really like any other modern city center restaurant. Our waiter though was fantastic! I actually asked if I could take him home, he was so sweet! He was English, but spoke to us in Spanish when he first came over, and then repeated himself in English. We ordered from the cocktail menu and both had Sex on the Beach - which arrived within a matter of minutes.
We were then given time to browse the menu. The left hand side of the menu consisted of all of the different Tapas dishes, split into categories of meat/poultry, fish and vegetarian. The right hand side of the menu consisted of main courses. We went for the Tapas and ordered a selection of 7 dishes - Calamari, Croquettes, Mushrooms, Pork Meatballs, Spanish Omlette, Paella, and 1 other thing that I can't remember! We also ordered bread with garlic mayonnaise dip and some green olives for whilst we were waiting. We also ordered more drinks - 2 Long Island Ice Teas. The bread and olives arrived within seconds, and the bread was lovely, so soft and fresh. The olives hadn't been pitted, and so I did almost break my tooth when I first took one. Quite surprising really as I would have thought serving pitted olives rather than ones with the stones still in would be commonplace. Our drinks took quite a while to arrive, and we did have to ask the waiter to chase them up for us - surprising, as we were still the only customers in the restaurant!
When the Tapas dishes arrived, I must say, I wasn't that impressed. I think that's why I can't remember everything we ordered. The Calamari was chewy, the mushrooms were bland and the Pork Meatballs were gristly. Unimpressed, we didn't finish the course, but looked straight at the dessert menu - which only had about 4 options. I chose the cheesecake with blackcurrant compote, and as cheesecake is one of my favourite desserts, I was really looking forward to it. Again, when it arrived, I was rather disappointed - it was still frozen in the middle!
I wouldn't go here again, and I don’t think I would recommend this restaurant as one of the better ones in Milton Keynes. I’ll have to keep looking… :-)