Situated in the heart of Manchester, and considered by many to be one of the best Spanish restaurants in the city, the award winning La Bandera symbolises a new era of Spanish culinary excellence.
The restaurant serves a selection of tasty tapas for you to indulge in, from Secreto Iberico, which is grilled Iberian pork tenderloin with mango chutney finished with red wine salt, Bacalao al Pil Pil, fresh cod fillets cooked in extra virgin olive oil, garlic and chillies and, of course, their award-winning Croquetas!
Back in May 2021, Restaurant Guru awarded La Bandera for the quality of their croquettes. The dish was not just “recommended” by the reviewing site, they also received the coveted prize of “Best Croquettes in Manchester” – which we’re not too surprised about – they really are THAT good.
The recipe and cooking processes are extremely strict to ensure that all of the deep fried balls of potatoey goodness make it from kitchen to plate in prime condition.
La Bandera get the best results for their Croquetas by firstly refrigerating the batter for a minimum of three hours. If you’re planning on giving these a go at home, then it’d be wise to leave them in the fridge overnight, BUT for premium croqueta goodness, you’ll want to leave them for a full 2 days.
Another secret to making the ideal croquetas is time and patience. It may be tempting to pop them in the fryer or oven right away (depending on if you’re frying or baking them), but you must make sure to let them chill as long as the bechamel takes to hold its shape. If you try to bake or fry them before that, the croquetas will fall apart.
And there you have it, La Bandera’s not so top secret croqueta cooking process! If you’re not a particularly good chef though, and can think of nothing worse than covering yourself and your cat in croqueta batter, make sure you get yourself down to La Bandera ASAP.
The restaurant is also offering a cheeky 50% off all tapas until the end of January. Simply quote “LB22” when booking your table to use the discount!
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