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A passion for food
Dining Out at Mi Casa, Mexborough
with Sam McQueen
 When the place you come to resembles a Spanish hacienda, there is a pool table outside, and Humphrey Bogart greets you at the door, you know you have arrived somewhere different. And Mi Casa is definitely that. As owner Mark Dickson says, "I do want to create something in the middle of Yorkshire which is talked about now and even for years to come."
Mi Casa is a true tapas restaurant cooking genuine tapas food. The original tapas were slices of bread or meat, ham o??r chorizo, which sherry drinkers in Andalusian taverns used to cover their glasses between sips. This was a practical measure meant to prevent fruit flies from hovering over the sweet sherry. Tapas has grown from its humble origins to be best described as a meal to share. It is not a style of food, it's more a style of eating.
The menu contains not only Spanish dishes, but Mexican, Thai and French too. Dorothy and I were slightly overwhelmed by the choice But Mark was on hand to give us guidance as he does regularly for his customers because, "The greatest thing any business can have is personal referral, and our business is about service. What we are trying to create is not only a different dining experience, but a different service experience."
Dorothy chose Queso Manchego, Spanish cheese sliced with a side salad which had obviously been freshly prepared and was presented decoratively and was a treat. I chose the whitebait, it had been a long time since I had tasted this fish, but it did not disappoint. Fried in a light batter, it was tasty and crisp.
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The reason why there was a pool table outside in the middle of a taverna was that the weekend before when the sun had been shining, they had had a wedding. Children had been out playing pool while parents had sat about drinking jugs of sangria, like anywhere in Europe. Mi Casa caters for weddings quite heavily. They have a function room called the Marquee Suite because it has a marquee interior. The biggest advantage is that the colour of the seats, the swags round the corners of the room, even the carpet, can be changed. Mark commented, "We have had situations where we've had a wedding on Friday night that's red, and Saturday night's been a silver wedding. The room's changed colour, the dance floor's, the table configuration's changed. We don't charge a fortune for the room or for the change in colours; there are not any extras. We have bronze, silver, gold and platinum packages where we do everything. We dress the tables, the chairs, centrepieces, flowers, balloons, table arrangements and we can guarantee it all matches because it's all in-house wear."
Neither of us contemplating marriage, Dorothy and I turned back to the menu. Once again there was much to choose from; sea food, meat and chicken, and paellas. Mark and his chefs will even cook specially if a customer has a specific dish in mind. He says, "In the greatest essence of the words we are an 'a la carte' restaurant in that we cook food fresh, therefore you tell us in time what you want, and the ingredients and we'll make it. We have got a few regulars already who do that. If the ingredients are available, I'll buy them and we'll cook them. There are not many restaurants in South Yorkshire that I know of that you can phone up two days before and say this is what I fancy and have the owner and his chefs, Claire and Chris, say, 'Fine, we'll make it for you.' " You can even watch your meal being cooked. Mark has installed a glass wall in the kitchen so diners can see a chef cook their paella.
The restaurant was quite full, even on a Wednesday night, and people were obviously enjoying the warm, inviting and immediately friendly atmosphere. Mark's philosophy is that if somebody has booked a table, it's their table all night. He says, "Tapas is about enjoying food, it's not about eating. A meal should be savoured and enjoyed; you should take your time over it."
