6 restaurants found
Tapas restaurant · Covent Garden / Strand, West End
Tapas restaurant · Stoke Newington
Tapas restaurant · Soho / West End
Tapas restaurant · Richmond
Tapas restaurant · Chiswick / Acton Green border
Tapas restaurant · Borough / London Bridge
Tapas is built around drink as much as food, small plates originally served alongside a glass of sherry or wine in Spanish bars, designed to be shared and to keep pace with drinking rather than to form a single fixed course. A tapas restaurant's wine or sherry list matters as much as the food menu itself, and the format naturally encourages ordering more, and more slowly, than a standard starter-and-main meal.
A tapas restaurant serves a menu of small, shareable dishes rather than individual starters and mains, letting a table order several plates to try a wider range of flavours at once. The format originated in Spain and typically covers a mix of cold dishes like cured meats and cheese, and hot dishes like patatas bravas, croquetas and grilled seafood.
Looking at the 6 tapas restaurant listings we track, the highest concentration is in Westminster (2), Southwark (1), Richmond upon Thames (1), Ealing (1), Hackney (1).
Expect a long menu of small plates meant to be ordered in numbers, roughly two to three per person, and shared across the table rather than eaten individually. Dishes usually arrive as they're ready rather than all at once, and a good sherry or Spanish wine list is common alongside the food.
Seafood tapas are a genuine staple of the format, gambas al ajillo (garlic prawns), pulpo (octopus) and boquerones (fresh anchovies) are all classic tapas dishes rather than unusual additions, and a good tapas restaurant will usually have several seafood options on the menu alongside meat and vegetable plates.
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A common guide is two to three small plates per person for a full meal, though it depends on the size of the dishes and how hungry the table is. Ordering a mix of meat, seafood and vegetable plates gives the best spread of flavours.
Traditionally they arrive as they're cooked rather than all together, so the table eats as dishes appear rather than waiting for a full course to be ready. This is part of the format rather than a service issue.
6 tapas restaurants are listed in our directory right now, most heavily concentrated in Westminster (2).
