A familiar sense of continental warmth and style envelops me when I step inside La Bodega.

Owner Juan Jil Rios came out of retirement to take over the prominent Flackwell Heath site, previously home to an Indian restaurant, and has transformed it into a cosy but elegant Spanish venue, specialising in tapas.

The Spaniard has a good pedigree in the area having previously opened restaurants in Ascot, Henley and Denham and the burnt red, ivory and terracotta decor of La Bodega has pleasing echoes of his Farnham Common eaterie La Cantina Del Vino and you can expect the same friendly service.

As we enjoyed some complementary warm bread and avocado dip and the waiter came over to tell us the specials which were numerous and mainly fish and seafood based and should perhaps be displayed on a board for those whose memory is not up to scratch.

We started with some tapas (£2.50-10) choosing delicious deepfried cheese balls served with a sweet tomato sauce; panfried asparagus served with garlic mayonnaise, although I would have preferred it simply brushed with butter; a generous portion of deep fried squid served with homemade tartar sauce; and the highlight, a special dish of scallops, mussels, calamari and prawns served in a wonderfully fragrant sauce with a hint of chilli.

Tapas can vary drastically in size and Bodega’s servings were all extremely generous - two or three would be enough for a light lunch or dinner.

With this in mind, and in our stomachs, we opted to share a dish from the main menu (£8-22) which offers a pleasing choice of fish, meat and vegetarian dishes such as grilled fillet of salmon with fennel, crispy ham and chorizo; sirloin steak with mustard, cream and mushrooms and vegetable tortilla with spinach and mushrooms.

We picked the crispy half duck which was cooked through and came with a lovely orange sauce. Side dishes have to be ordered separately and cost extra and we had creamy mashed potato and zucchini, which was lightly battered and extremely salty and I confess most of which was left in the bowl.

Perhaps a good thing as we had to find a small space to squeeze in dessert- a chocolate mousse which was light, fluffy and not too rich, the perfect sweet treat to end on.

We were not drinking alcohol but the menu offers a wide selection of wine, mainly Spanish, so I would return to sample these alone.

Some dishes, the vegetable ones in particular could do with some changes but on the whole the food is good value for money, with nice presentation and good flavour and I look forward to seeing what specials they will be serving up in the future.

La Bodega, Straight Bit, Flackwell Heath, HP10 9LS, 01628 530629, 01628 530614, labodegaflackwellheath