Brindisa

"Gourmet tapas, a very special treat"

Added Tue 05 Aug 2008 by Leila Hawkins

Situated fittingly next to Borough market, this gourmet restaurant offers some of the best (and most expensive) tapas in London. Your wallet may suffer but there is nowhere better for a special treat, as Brindisa offers so much more than the usual fare of meatballs and calamari.

Always packed like a can of Spanish sardines, you can’t book in advance just like at a true tapas bar, however you can have a drink at the standing bar and sample the delights of the bar menu, which include a fine selection of cheeses and charcuterie, morcilla pate (black pudding cooked with cinnamon and orange), and vegetable pisto, a slightly sweet-tasting stew with peppers and tomatoes. The huge bar caters to all manner of aperitifs, and I’ve always had excellent service, if a rather long wait.

The main menu changes regularly, but features wonders such as the surprisingly delicious air cured tuna steak with pear, and tangy Enebro cheese deep fried with orange blossom honey. The flavours are certainly not for the bland, but for those with a love of food and a hatred of the nouveau cuisine habit of a lot of a fuss on a plate about nothing.

Whatever you do save some room for desert, the pears in red wine and rice pudding are out of this world. The wine list is extensive and will please any connoisseur, the Roda II 200 Rioja is possibly the most perfect wine I have ever tasted, and certainly merits its £48 price tag.

A wonderful eaterie with gorgeous food that has managed to retain the charm and substance of any back street tapas bar in Spain.