The iconic steelworks suburb of Port Kembla – a coastal NSW township enriched by post-World War Two European immigration – is deliciously deceiving.
An Illawarra resident, born in Spain, recently revealed dining advice about the local secret ‘Café La Playa’ during a passionate tapas discussion. “You just have to check it out. And get the garlic prawns!”
Now I’ve eaten a lot of prawn-based tapas dishes in my time, so there was no way I was trekking down to a suburb more famous for commercial shipping than Spanish cuisine to taste a garlicky prawn morsel unless the marinade was skullable and the atmosphere guaranteed quirk.
But then, she delivered. Apparently this Port Kembla tapas joint was like no other, for it was a cement-rendered house turned into a restaurant, cast in the midst of beachside suburbia. Sold!
So off we went, in the thick of a winter chill to discover Café La Playa’s homely offerings. Had we not been driving slowly in search of a very descript corner block house with a sign bearing a Spanish bull, there’s no way we would’ve recognised the venue as a commercial business: there’s a school on one side, a sports field on the other and a small residence out the back of the property where the landlord lives.
People who come here are still going out for a meal and great cooking but you can come as you are. There are no pretences. Come, relax and eat!
“It does feel like a home,” says Annie Ruiz, who been running Café La Playa for almost a decade, “a home-style restaurant”.
She’s right: if you told me I was in northern Spain and this was your house which you had decorated to throw a Saturday night tapas party, I’d believe you. The building’s dining-lounge space was filled tables, masked with bright red cloths to match the red and white walls, embellished with Spanish memorabilia – souvenir plates from the motherland, fairy lights and a large wrought iron flamenco fan.
“People who come here are still going out for a meal and great cooking but you can come as you are. There are no pretences. Come, relax and eat!”
Nostalgia a-plenty: Spanish memorabilia don the walls of Cafe La Playa to give it a homely European feel. Source: SBS Food
Of course, Ruiz means relax ‘Spanish style’, which involves a lot of talking, gesturing and merriment. It is usually at capacity on Saturday nights with about 50 diners of mixed ages, eating and drinking their BYO alcohol (beer and white wines are kept in diner’s personal eskies alongside their table or in the restaurant’s ‘help yourself’ fridge).
“I’ve never advertised except for on Facebook,” she says. “There are no pamphlets and no ads about us. I think we are still here because of word of mouth.
“But we are always busy on Saturday nights. A lot of the time, we are turning people away. We turned people away tonight.”
Ruiz puts the popularity of the restaurant down to the fact it serves no-frills Spanish ‘comfort’ food. I can attest to that. The gambas al ajillio were addictive – for a while after the succulent prawns were consumed, I bowed my head towards the terracotta bowl and drunk the garlic broth, one spoonful at a time.
“Here, the food is just authentic, home cooking,” she explains. “And home cooking is going to satisfy you more. It might not have the flare and art and plate decoration compared to fine dining food but its good and hearty and substantial food.”
Everything that we can make here, we ‘make’ ourselves.
Source: SBS Food
“It’s fresh and it’s consistent. Everything that we can make here, we ‘make’ ourselves. Of course, we don’t make chorizo but we make salt cod croquettes, meatballs, everything. Even the Spanish flan, we make from scratch.”
She later shows me an ice cream bucket filed with tortilla mix to prove her words. “Instead of making a big bucket of tortilla mix, I make a little batch at a time. I do it this way rather than prepping for the whole weekend, instead of making things in bulk, so the food is not so commercial.”
Ruiz explains that when she took over the restaurant in 2008, she ran it as a burger, chips and pizza joint that sold newspapers and lollies at the front. Three months later, its offering was totally tapas and around two or so years on, the venue started operating Friday to Sunday, dinners-only.
Not much has changed since. Yet somehow, the restaurant has survived, kept thriving by local thoroughfare and a strong reputation among the Illawarra’s Spanish population.
“Spanish food to me, well it’s my family. It’s a part of me as it’s what I grew up with.” Ruiz tells SBS her parents migrated to the Illawarra from northern Spain in 1963, during the reign of General Franco. The first generation Spanish-Australian child developed a fascination for cooking from a young age and, later pursued that passion for food and culture with a career in the kitchen.
Home turned tapas restaurant that is all heart and comfort. Source: SBS Food
“I learnt from my mum how to make paella, tortilla, salt cod croquettes, flan and special occasion dishes like baked fish and stuffed potatoes with pork…So [cooking this way] is something I want to continue.
“This is a place where my siblings can come and eat traditional Spanish food. It’s important because food like this keeps you connected to your heritage. I will now be able to pass on that heritage onto my kids.”
, 190 Military Road, Port Kembla, NSW, (02) 4276 1818. Open evenings only Friday–Sunday, 6-10pm.
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