Rickmansworth, Spanish Restaurant Guide

With its airy dining room and cute garden, this popular old boozer – a spacious Victorian tavern overlooking Acton Green Common – might look an unlikely-seeming destination for “a lovely tapas lunch”. The idea of a Spanish-inflected menu has worked well for years, though, supplemented by some larger, more typical pub dishes, including Sunday roasts. The quality of the cooking can be variable, with the occasional complaint (“terrible paella!”) interspersed in reports of “very good Spanish food”.

“So much more than just a tapas bar” – this basement hideaway at the foot of a handsome Georgian terrace, near picturesquely located St John-in-Hampstead church, boasts a serious and eclectic wine list and a focused menu of Spanish and Italian small and sharing plates.

Run by husband-and-wife team Charlie (who worked at Heston Blumenthal‘s Hinds Head pub in Bray) & Arantxa, this upscale high street tapas spot is “still the buzziest place hereabouts”. There are some quibbles in reports (“the food has lost its edge a little”) but also praise for some “super” dishes, ranging from their signature acorn-fed 100% Iberian pork, to the rather ingenious ‘Patatas Invisibles’ (“invisible chips”), which have zero calories and are essentially a £4.50 charitable donation to Hospitality Action.

“A beacon of originality in a slightly characterless property development in Ealing Broadway” – this Hispanic venture with South American influences from a Colombian chef is, say fans, “a perfect blend of neighbourhood restaurant and Spanish fine dining”. It was already a hot ticket locally before a rave January 2024 review from Giles Coren in The Times brought it to wider attention and perhaps inevitably one or two sceptics fear hype: “it is enjoyable but I feel that its reputation now creates excessive expectations”.

“Despite now being part of a rolled-out chain, they have managed to maintain good quality” at these tapas-haunts, whose original branch off Goodge Street was an early pioneer of the capital’s trend to small plates. A minor gripe is of “packed” seating, but most feedback focuses on their “delicious food and well-thought-out wine list”.

This quintet of tapas bars from the well-known Iberian food importer attracts most attention for its locations – in particular its “lively and popular” original bar at the entrance to Borough Market; and most recent addition: a “lovely riverside spot overlooking the Thames at Richmond”. Despite its renown – and some praise for its “small plates but big flavours” – ratings are held down by prices many reporters consider “high” for what’s widely seen as “pretty standard tapas fare”.

This imposing black-and-white pub in central Highgate offers enjoyable tapas, as well as “the usual pub menu”, and a “great selection of beers”. It’s one of those places where the sum is greater than the parts, helped by the area – and it also houses upstairs one of the capital’s leading off-West End theatres.