Alhambra

The first thing you hear as you walk towards the restaurant is clapping, stomping and shouting. Alhambra is the place to be on a Saturday evening - the music and the atmosphere and general good vibe all point to fun.

And while this is by no means a fine diner, they do serve up some great food. Eggs baked a little clay dish (they're called cazuelas - you see them in Spanish restaurants a fair bit) come nestled in a rich tomato sauce topped with chives - it's an incredibly comforting breakfast food you eat for dinner.

Alhambra offer a mix of Moroccan and Spanish cuisine so while you'll find lots of little Spanish dishes, you'll also find tagines, spiced carrots, yoghurt, cous cous and b'stilla rolls filled with chicken then garnished with preserved lemon.

For maximum bang for buck, get a crew together. The menu is mostly sharing dishes so four to six people is ideal. Start with toasted pita bread with baby broad bean dip - the slight dourness of the beans is aided by good olive oil and the rough hewn bread makes for nice textural variation. More diversity can be found in the squares of tortilla dotted with peas and crisp cubes of deep fried potato with garlic mayo and the moorish meatballs, with a spicy tomato sauce, as well as grills like spicy chorizo and superbly squeaky haloumi and grilled eggplant in olive oil.

You'll find plenty of Manly locals setting themselves down for the flamenco show and some casual tapas, but there are also plenty of bum bag-wearing happy snappers in the mix who invariably get pulled up onto the little stage at the front of the restaurant for a bit of stamping and clapping action. The room itself isn't  anything to write home about - big open turquoise painted spaces, tapestries and decorative plates as well as Moorish carved wooden screens.

Alhambra is a Manly institution with people gathering from everywhere to be part of the action. The experience isn't necessarily about the food, either. The fun, noise and dancing in the restaurant is what makes Alhambra what it is. And it's cheap, too, at around fifty bucks per person - if you don't go crazy on the cerveza - it's excellent value for money. Ole!¡