Delishus Tapas Bar and Restaurant

LOCATION
In the Hawkesbury town of Richmond, five minute’s walk from Richmond Station.

PROFILED BY DE GROOTS MEDIA
In the quiet town of Richmond where the butcher, baker and candlestick maker are all at the centre of the action, Spanish flavour has infused an old house that was formerly entrenched in bad luck. Once a home to a few families, and a series of unsuccessful restaurants, it has now been enlivened as Delishus Tapas Bar and Restaurant with refreshed personality.

A courtyard overshadowed by leafy trees meets interiors lined with vintage posters depicting the virtues of Spain. Different rooms of the house host intimate dinners, whilst at the bar, tequila-driven cocktails later inspire salsa moves.

Local waitresses dress up with red lipstick and flowers in their hair and bustle between tables serving plump olives, Spanish wine and chorizo sausage. The meat and vegetables that make up the dishes of Delishus come from friends’ farms and local gardens of the Hawkesbury, with many of the producers dining regularly at the restaurant.

Richmond’s local butcher is here with his wife sharing chuletas de cordero – locally grown lamb cutlets, cooked pink and served with crunchy potato galette slivers, while the florist nibbles on large, quartered vine-ripened tomatoes piled with caper-enriched breadcrumbs, and baked until the stuffing is a crispy fluff.

Our table is a jumble of colourful plates. Fat, crumb-crusted croquetas of gooey, creamy cheese are sewn with serrano ham, while wedges of golden tortilla omelette are lined with potato and asparagus. Button mushrooms from the nearby mushroom farm are cooked al dente and flecked with crushed garlic - possibly deterring sweet nothings, but worth the loss. Empanadillas de pato are puffy pastry pockets stuffed with duck, ready to be dipped in sweet and citrusy Cointreau sauce and enjoyed with a shaved fennel and orange salad.

Little, plump balls of sweet and creamy fried milk known as leche frita are piping hot, glittering with cinnamon and sugar, and soon covered in velvety lemon curd.

Delishus Tapas Bar and Restaurant has enlivened this old house to become the flavoursome centre of the community.

Edwina Storie