I’ve never known a restaurant that serves such great food to be so empty.

When we turned up at Chatham’s dive-bar and live music venue Poco Loco for tapas night, it was so quiet that I wasn’t sure if it was even open.

The small Mexican-themed bar is known for putting on cabaret nights and local gigs, but in more recent years it’s started offering food too, although few people seem to know about it.

There’s a menu of Mexican favourites and Spanish small plates, including three tapas dishes for £12 on Mondays.

We were greeted by a friendly staff member who was pulling pints for the few punters propping up the bar and, when we hesitantly asked if the kitchen was open, she happily led us through to the dining room.

Both the bar and restaurant area were covered in quirky decor, including Día de Muertos (Mexican holiday Day of the Dead) skulls, bejewelled artwork and artificial greenery.

Thrown into the mix were also cobwebs, spiders and skeletons for Halloween, although I wouldn’t be surprised if some of it stuck around after the holidays as it seemed to fit in with the rest of the decor.

Despite being almost empty, the soft acoustic music and interesting interiors created a charming atmosphere.

Both the food and drink menus were fairly extensive, and we were excited to pick out our tapas dishes.

Myself and my fellow diner are vegetarians and were pleased to see enough meat-free options on the tapas list to pick out six separate dishes.

We selected patatas bravas (potatoes in tomato sauce), croquetas de queso (goats cheese croquettes), croquetas de fungi (mushroom croquettes), tortilla Espanola (Spanish omelette), halloumi fries and vegan no-meat balls.

Sadly, the mushrooms in white wine weren’t available, which I was gutted about, but we were otherwise very pleased with our choices and excited to see it all laid out in front of us.

Unfortunately, our server soon returned to tell us that the vegan no-meat balls and Spanish omelette were also off the menu for the night.

It was a shame that almost half of the veggie options weren’t available and we had to double up on the patatas bravas and halloumi fries, but having extra potatoes and cheese is hardly a complaint.

Our drinks - a zingy passionfruit punch mocktail and a pint of Neck Oil - came quickly and we enjoyed sipping them and soaking up the cool, alternative vibe.

Before the main meal arrived we were given complimentary warm bread, punchy garlic aioli and a bowl of olives, and the rest of the dishes arrived soon after.

Almost every inch of the table was covered in tapas and we were pleasantly surprised by the size of the portions.

We dipped, nibbled and tasted a little of everything and, I have to say, every single thing was delicious.

The halloumi fries were crispy with a sticky chilli dip and the potatoes were well-seasoned, fluffy on the inside, smothered with a rich tomato sauce and both were incredibly moreish.

The croquettes were also very tasty. The cheese ones were well-balanced and the goats' cheese flavour wasn’t too overpowering, while the mushroom ones had a rich, earthy pureed filling that I loved.

For most of our meal we had the entire restaurant to ourselves and it really felt like we’d stumbled upon a hidden gem.

The bar is in the Intra part of Chatham, which might be considered one of Medway’s more run-down areas, so perhaps that's why people don’t stumble across this place for dinner.

It also feels like the restaurant is easily overlooked in favour of the bar’s live music and, while I’ve had some great nights here watching bands and drag artists, I think Poco Loco’s restaurant deserves just as much credit.

I’ll definitely be back, and I hope that next time I get to try the vegan no-meat balls and creamy mushrooms too.

Out of five:

Food: We didn’t get to try everything we wanted, but the dishes we did have were all delicious, with the different flavoured croquettes being a real highlight ****

Drink: My mocktail was fruity and zesty and I’d be tempted to have one of the fun cocktails on offer if I wasn’t driving ***

Decor: It’s a proper alternative bar with Mexican sugar skulls and quirky artwork all over the place. I get the feeling it’s Halloween all year round here, and I’ve got no problem with that. ****

Staff: Our servers were very friendly and smiley, although the service wasn’t super speedy but we weren’t in a rush so it didn’t really matter ***

Price: The tapas was generally priced around a fiver a dish but, with the Monday night deal, it came to £12 for three dishes, plus a shared bowl of bread and olives, and with drinks our whole meal came to under £35 - not bad at all ****