barrafina

barrafina in soho is one of those places i'd been to several times and then hadn't been for a good few years. it's still considered one of, if not the best places to go to in london for tapas. even today still has people queuing, sometimes for a good hour, from 12pm till late evening. as mr d isn't a lover of tapas, i jumped at the chance of seeing my cousin, mr h whom is a fan. barrafina was one of our top choices and he arrived around 11:50am on a friday, and was already third in line (they open at twelve). by thetimei arrived at 12pm a small snake was forming. tapas gets such a mixed reputation amongst my friends for varying reasons, many exclaiming being 'too selfish to share' - their words not mine! personally, i love it for the sharing aspect, the talking point the food gets around the table and also as i never know what i want. so, several mouthfuls of different dishes suits me perfectly. in this case, and also most other times i'm with mr h, i left it to my cuz to order for u

the hardens guide ranks this as the best spanish tapas place in london. i do agree and i love this place. the only problem with this place is that it can only seat around 20 people in a small room in soho, so unless you come at 5.30pm for dinner or some other obscuretimewhen people don't usually eat, you will wait for a table for at least 1.5 hours as you cant book. but still you can order some dishes whilst you wait and stand against the wall. food is excellent and is worth the wait, when i last went there i had - pan con tomate, my favourite pimientos de padron, jamon, little chorizo and potatoe chips (see in the 1st pic), cuttlefish, octopus, baby gem salad and more chorizo and potatoes (see in the 2nd pic). this is also my favourite tapas place in london, and the charm of the small room in soho, just adds to the whole cool vibe of the place.

a solo early dinner with light drizzle after a tiresome day was completely worth it at barrafina. grilled quail al - i - oil at 9.80 was nicely done and crema catalana at 6.50 was sheer bliss. adding service charge at 12.5%, the total of 18.34 at barrafina was completely worth the hype of being a michellin starred restaurant. the crowd and the waitingtimeclearly shows that!

visit this place for authentic and fabulous spanish food, in the heart of london!

the seating is quite thin and you must make it to the restaurant by 5:30/6pm to be able to grab the seats on the slim table across the live kitchen... and in case you are lucky, you may be dining with one of the celebrities (often found at this place).

mouthwatering and ultra delicious delicacies are served here ... the chef is quite helpful in guiding you through the menu and then cooking it live in front of the patrons ... they help you align the food with the best suited wines... we ended up gulping bottles of wine which was well paired with the ordered meats!

you will love the marinated olives, chicken thigh with romesco sauce, octopus with capers, green saladnd grilled quail...

lovely staff, friendly hospitality and the servingtimeis reasonable too... it gets very very busy here around the dinner time!

arrived at 6pm, queued for about 45 minutes for 2 seats. barrafina is a one star michelin in london - i've passed by this restaurant for the longesttimeand have finally decided to try. cold meat platter (£15.50). cold cuts to start off... favourite spanish delights!. ham croquetas (£5.50). i could have a few of this - crispy balls, inner batter that melts (no idea what it's made of, milk? butter? cheese? but there's definitely ham inside!). this is really very addictive.

i am not going to write anything bad about barrafina. there is nothing bad to say about barrafina. general consensus is that the food at barrafina is good and general consensus is right. but how good? well, for me, just pleasantly good, not knock-your-socks-off good. i enjoyed everything i ate and the meal itself was a very pleasurable experience. even the hour’s wait for a table passed by quite quickly as we started on a bottle of red and got some padron peppers and bread to keep us company. for the firsttimeever i think i actually found a spicy one!

barrafina almost reminded me of cerveceria catalana in barcelona. this restaurant takes no reservations and with it being so popular with very limited seating, you’re bound to wait for an averagetimeof 45 minutes. they don’t take your name and number so you can’t stroll around, you just wait there, so make sure you are with good company. you will be very bored otherwise because this isn’t a bar… awkward. luckily the wait is totally worth it!

although i prefer barrafina adelaide street, the original barrafina on frith street is still well worth queuing for. 

we got there around 6pm and waitingtimewas "just" an hour and 15 minutes. on any normal occasion i'd've thrown in the towel and rushed to the nearest alternative (unless it was maccas). but this was tapas night. no amount of hunger could have stopped us from queuing.

twenty minutes in i felt my batteries draining and my stomach screaming expletives so i ordered some jamon croquetas (£4.5) to recharge. i've never been so happy to see two massive balls. crispy breaded croquettes came to the rescue, filled with gooey cheese and chopped ham. it was slightly too salty for my liking but was good enough to keep me quiet for the rest of the wait.

40 minutes later we were shown our seats. hallelujah!

first of our tapas was the lomo iberico de bellota (£8). this had a mild salty flavour and the portion was pretty good. can you see how lean the cuts are? super sulit. we ordered some bread and olive oil (£2) to go with. i enjoyed the oil which tasted cold-pressed on the first instance but plaid boy wasn't too keen. 

g chose some chipirones (£7) and they were fantastic. you can rarely go wrong deep fried breaded baby squid, unless of course you don't use fresh ones. crunchy, chewy, salty, these bad boys would go down well in any beer match snacking.

plaid boy and g shared a serving of jamón and spinach tortilla (£7). i didn't exacty get involved with this because i don't eat egg. they both seemed to like it though they both agreed this little thing was quite heavy!

after much egging (har har) from my two dates i tried a bit of the potato. the caramelised sauce was nice, but it still had an eggy aftertaste so this one was really not for me.

i was looking forward to barrafina's courgette flowers but as they were unavailable at the time, we ordered baby artichokes (£6.5) from the specials board instead. i loved this. it was light and delicate yet flavourful at the same time. the aioli was decent enough - it didn't overpower the smokiness of the artichokes.

the octopus with capers (£9) was something i knew i definitely wanted to try even before we queued. this is how i like this mollusk grilled: perfectly charred on the outside with hints of undercooked bits in a few places (sans sliminess!). the smokiness of the octopus may have been heightened by a generous dusting of paprika but was also balanced by the tangy capers sporadically spread across the board.

i'm not big on pork shoulder as it's another one of those well marbled cuts of meat so i was surprised by how much i enjoyed the presa ibérico with confit potatoes (£10). admittedly, i'm not one to order pork in restaurants so i'm glad someone else ordered this. it was crispy in some parts and tender in most, deliciously sweet and cooked nicely (although some would possibly say this was a bit under). the confit potatoes were delicious too!

the grilled quail (£7.5) was another one of my choices and considering how difficult it is to cook quail, ours was perfect. served with a pot of aioli (which, quite frankly it didn't need), the bird was tender and moist.

our bill came down to around £70. we were quite chuffed at how cheap the bill was considering the quality and the amount of food we consumed and the service we got. service was attentive - our man kept refilling our water bottle and smiled all thetimewhilst clearing our space - and if you like the theatricals of open kitchens then this is definitely for you. 

that said, we didn't order wine for fear of falling asleep by the bar (we did queue up quite a while and by thetimewe were seated it was almost bed time). shame, as the wine list looks absolutely stunning. 

barrafina, you are worth the wait indeed. i'd prefer coming to you during lunchtime for quick service but sometimes, slow and surely hits the spot too.

hey there! i knows it's been the longesttimesince i last posted a review; i've been out of town for the past few months. anyway, what's important is that i'm back in london for a bit so what follows is a few restaurant reviews! be on the look out for two more reviews. before i left london for a few months, barrafina had long been on my list. i had heard amazing things about the top-quality tapas from other bloggers so i knew that when i was back in london, barrafina would be the first place to visit. after visiting the christmas markets in south bank with my equally quirky companion, i headed back to soho with great haste in order to get there early.  you may be thinking, "why would i want to get to a restaurant early?" one possibility is that i may be rushing to attend some event. the other possibility is the combination of a no-reservation policy and a small seating capacity. in this case, i would reason towards the latter possibility. after arriving in soho, it took a while for me to locate the restuarant due to the inconspicuous external design but google maps soon aided my direction *thanks google*.  upon entering the restaurant, the first thing i had in mind was to join the queue. luckily, we were allowed to queue inside which protected us from the harsh winter weather outside. however, if you're one of those strange people who enjoy eating in the cold, you can opt to do so. the waitingtimefor eating outside is basically non-existent so good for you! for the rest of us warm-blooded folk, it took about 2 hours to get a seat! one thing that kept me going was the amazing food being served to the seated customers. my theory is that the chefs work extra hard on presentation to incentivise customers to wait longer. on the other hand, this theory isn't without fault as i recall rejoicing when a party of 4 left the queue. it was like playing a game of last man standing. if you wish, you can have a glass of wine or a small appetiser while waiting in the long line t

this restaurant takes no reservations and with it being so popular with very limited seating, you’re bound to wait for an averagetimeof 45 minutes. they don’t take your name and number so you can’t stroll around, you just wait there, so make sure you are with good company. all seats face the kitchen which is nice, i always like to see what’s going on while i’m eating.

tapas is perfect for those days when you don’t know what you ‘re craving. here was our selection:
* pan con tomate – you shouldn’t go to a tapas place and not have this bread. it was as delicious as always.
* this king prawn speaks for itself. it tasted as nice and fresh as it looked. 
apparently you can eat the shell, i have never tried that.
* courgette flower with melted goats cheese tempura, glazed with honey. i’m all about my meat and fish but this was my favourite by far, it blew me away! i will convert to being vegetarian for this little baby.
* the lamb had too much fat, too little meat and was lacking in flavour. i wouldn’t recommend this dish.
* octopus, i would normally have lemon with octopus but the capers made up for it, still it was a little too salty in my opinion.
* delicious and cheesy ham croquetas – another traditional dish you can’t go wrong with.
* the crèma catalana wasn’t very creamy. it had an orange flavor which i wasn’t a fan of and was almost like a christmas version of the original crèma catalana (or maybe i have the wrong idea of how one is meant to taste).

overall it was great, i would know what to pick for next time. it seemed that the more simple dishes were the best ones. its a very good quality tapas place and is worth a visit.

the only downside of this place that offers brilliant food which is seemingly much enjoyed by mostly everyone at this place is the extremely long queue and delay in getting to the table. at times, it sets off the mood and makes the experience troublesome! however, the food does make up for the long queue! saw bill murray enjoying rioja and jamon here lasttimeas well! worth the wait!

having returned without eating all other times, before thistimei was determined to try it out. i had to wait for one and a half hours to even get a table here, however i still waited. having said that, the food is extremely sumptuous and makes you feel like it is worth the wait! the place has a good list of wines and one might get spoilt for choices.

if you want to have tapas, then i strongly recommend that this place that you should visit sometime. the queue, however, is always there and you may have to wait for a longtimeto sit at the bar but trust me, the wait is definitely worth the food served at this place.

everytimewe walk past barrafina on frith street in soho the queue seems to be out the door. with limited counter seating and a couple of tables there are constant waits of over an hour. we decided to brave the wait one saturday night and were pleasantly surprised when it whittled down quite quickly, from out of the door to seated in under half an hour. perhaps we were lucky to join the queue when a raft of diners were coming to the end of their meals. the patience of the staff needs to be commended as at least twenty people stormed in expecting to be seated oblivious to the waiting diners along the wall bar, each being batted down and told to join the end and wait. once seated the ever changing specials board was being updated in front of us. the whole lemon sole with dill vinaigrette caught our eye and it was a whopper. fresh fish cooked on the bone with not much else and it didn’t need it. gambas al ajíllo, big juicy prawns and no one batted an eyelid when i sucked the heads which

almost three years ago when we got married a friend of ours got us a barrafina cookbook as a wedding present. since we constantly discussed food together it was a highly appropriate & lovely gift. i did some online research and found that barrafina is a top tapas restaurant in london and dreamed of going ever since. once the london flights were booked it was top of the ‘must visit list’ and we did just that.

barrafina is one of these ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ places – understated and off the main thoroughfare. thank goodness for my trusty smartphone and google maps. arriving as their lunch session was finishing we had planned to go for dinner but both being hungry we chanced our hand and were welcomed in.

just in case you are planning to go i’ll tell you some things that i found out in my research. one is that they don’t accept bookings, two is that it is a teeny tiny place & three is that it’s likely to be packed to the rafters. i didn’t realise quite how small it was until we got there. seating is all along the bar and there are no tables out with this. i’d guess there’s about fifteen seats in total and i’ve heard that there is a queue most days when they open for lunch and dinner. a ledge goes along the other side of the room and is used to rest drinks on whilst you are waiting for a table. it’s not the kind of place you linger in so it works & i can imagine it’s bustling and ever so spanish at night.

there were some quick decisions made because we didn’t want to keep them back at the end of lunch (luckily another table came in after us too). we ordered bread with olive oil and then a cold meat platter, which was sliced in front of us when we ordered. salami, chorizo, jamon iberico… so simple yet so so good. quality trounces fancy ever time.

so far the only disappointing thing had been that they did not have balsamic vinegar. and i had over two years of expectations so it was almost a miracle.

ham croquetas had to be ordered because i’d never make them at home. fiddly, fried & overindulgent should be kept for restaurants. these little orange balls were crispy and moreish with a hefty amount of bechamel. the ham was strong in flavour so cut through the rich creaminess.

we decided to forgo the octopus with capers for the special fish of the day – seabream stuffed with herbs and lemon. all i have to say about this dish is that it was marvellous. when we returned home we realised that the recipe is in our book and we have made it at home twice now.

our last offering was a difficult decision. i narrowed the choices down to grilled quail, milk fed lamb and chorizo, potato and watercress. after choosing the former it occurred to me that we had also chosen the meat platter but i guess you can never have too much meat on your birthday. i’m confident that we would have raved about all of the above as much as we did with the chorizo.

nexttimei will leave space in my belly for the pears in red wine or santiago tart. i say nexttimebecause i don’t want to imagine never going back here. i’m in love.