Marco’s Tapas Bar, a Spanish restaurant and wine bar on Eastwood Road, has been unable to welcome diners for extensive periods of time over the course of the last ten months because of various restrictions put in place to combat against the deadly virus.

But that has resulted in the family-run restaurant focusing on pleasing fans of Spanish delicacies such as paella by turning their attentions towards fulfilling takeaway orders.

Bradley Worship, who is a Marco’s director alongside his parents Mark and Pam, feels Covid-19 forcing the business to rethink their plans has been a blessing in disguise.

He said: “We have owned the business for 18 years and, before the pandemic, we had not really focused on takeaways at all.

“We always focused on pleasing our diners and they also used to enjoy live music thanks to singers and DJs.

“But closing our doors for extensive periods has forced us to offer a takeaway service and change our way of thinking.

Restaurant - Marco's Tapas Bar has been unable to welcome customers for extensive periods of time due to government restrictions

“People used to rave about the atmosphere and live music, but now people are raving about the food instead and what we offer now has a better reputation, I think.

“When we reopened, we decided to stop live music and people didn’t miss it, so being shut has allowed us to bring in changes which will benefit us in the long run.”

Marco’s is rated among the top 10 per cent of restaurants worldwide on TripAdvisor and was also among our readers’ list of favourite takeaway restaurants during lockdown.

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Bradley, 26, admits he has been surprised by how well Marco’s takeaway food has been received in these challenging times.

He added: “We had never done deliveries before but, after changing that at the start of the first national lockdown, we were so busy and running around like headless chickens.

“I guess there are fewer Spanish takeaway restaurants locally, so we are a bit different to other options in that respect.

Spanish favourites - countless members of the community have enjoyed takeaway food from Marco's Tapas Bar during the pandemic

“We’ve kept our name out there and it’s been fantastic receiving so much positive feedback.”

While various businesses are on the brink, Bradley is confident Marco’s will thrive when they can reopen their doors.

He admitted: “We feared for the future at the start of the first lockdown because we didn’t know how things would go. But now we are doing well.”

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