Fifty Four St Annes restaurant review - Scandi inspired tapas will tempt your taste buds

Overshadowed in recent times by neighbouring Lytham, the town has always had a good choice of restaurants but lacked anywhere with the kind of relaxed atmosphere many people seek for post or pre-dinner drinks.

But now St Annes boasts a number of cosy micro-pubs while the latest addition is Tempo wine and cocktail bar above The Square.

However our destination was Fifty Four in Wood Street which combines European tapas with a Norwegian-style interior.

There is a glazed outer dining space, but with the cooler autumn evenings coming in, we were happy to be ensconced in the main eating area inside.

You need a little time to peruse the menu, plus options from the specials board, with dishes ranging from Swedish meatballs to Spanish chicken and ham hock croquettes.

We love tapas-style dining as it provides the chance to dip into several plates and make choices based on contrasting and complementary flavours.

While there are plenty of places now offering Spanish tapas, what I like about Fifty Four is it does not restrict its cuisine to the traditional Mediterranean fare.

So our selection included Hungarian goulash and Scottish smoked salmon fishcakes, as well as our favourite patatas bravas and a must-have bowl of olives.

Along with the croquettes, plus tomato bruschetta, we had six dishes in total.

For two of us, we usually choose five and find that plentiful, but olives usually arrive first, as they did here, and help get the juices flowing.

Meanwhile a bottle of Merlot kept us occupied while we waited for our food, and of course a large jug of water.

Many tapas restaurants bring food out as and when it is ready, but on this occasion our five main choices arrived together.

Our table for two seemed destined to be too small for everything, but as it happened only the water jug had to be displaced to the empty table adjoining.

Each dish tasted freshly made, and the goulash was particularly succulent as we both hungrily dived into that.

The delicious fishcakes came with a sour cream dip and marinated tomatoes, and for lovers of seafood there are plenty of choices on the menu.

On a previous visit, a fellow diner has ordered the Fifty Four fish platter which was shared among the table and was fabulous.

Tapas is made for companionable dining, and once we had chatted, drank and cleared all the dishes, we were too full for dessert (although there was a delectable sounding cheesecake on the specials board).

Service started off a little bit slow but we were there at peak time on a Saturday, but overall was very good.

There was no rush to leave our table, but heading out into the night we were then delighted to come across the Tempo Bar where local singer Paul Dobie was performing.

It was the perfect end to a lovely evening in a flourishing St Annes.

Our bill came to £62 including drinks.