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Dehesa
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RUNNER-UP - BEST NEW RESTAURANT
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The second restaurant for Sanja Morris and Simon Mullins, who also own the highly regarded Salt Yard, is a bijou place serving top-rank Spanish-Italian tapas. Expect bicultural bites such as jamón iberico, hand-sliced from a leg on display and intensely flavoured wild boar salami, plus a range of cheeses from the bar snacks and charcuterie. After a 20-minute wait for a table (once near-inevitable here; now reservations are taken), we pulled up a stool and were served a series of small plates. A sweet-and-savoury Italianate tapas of duck breast was served with mustard fruits, while whole baby courgettes, flowers intact, were stuffed with cheese before being deep-fried and drizzled with honey. Salt cod croquetas were the best we’ve found in London – hot and crisp, with plenty of firm-textured cod flecked with green herbs, but the accompanying romesco sauce was disappointingly thin. Caramelised yellow peaches with peach and basil ice-cream sounded gloriously summery, but the under-ripe fruit reminded us that we were dining in London, not Madrid. Eight sherries are served by the glass and the wines are an eclectic selection from lesser-known regions of Italy and Spain, including a brooding old-vine red from Spain’s Toro and a gorgeous Mallorcan rosé. Service is keen and well-informed, helping to make Dehesa is a deservedly busy spot.
Time Out Eating & Drinking Guide 2009
Time Out reviews restaurants anonymously and pays for meals. Of course, we cannot guarantee the accuracy or independence of user reviews.
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Dehesa professes to be authentic high end tapas bar and charcuterie yet at 5 o'clock in the evening whilst looking to enjoy a glass of wine and a tapa we are rejected and advised that you must eat a 'full dinner'. The purpose of tapas are to provide a snack or appetiser between meals; what Dehesa provides is an ignorant British interpretation, truly dissappointing and embaressing should we have any Spanish visitors wishing to visit the 'bar'.
I have to disagree with the reviewer in that the Cod Croquettes were really rather poor. The texture was that of very cheap fish cakes, very little fish.
On the other hand I had the best Squid I've ever had and the pigeon was really wonderful. I also shared a platter of 3 different Manchegos that were different enough to justify the selection and one in particular was fantastic. All round a great experience.
Service was pretty good, though we had to wait for quite a while (45 mins) for a table where 3 of us were squashed into a table for 2. We tried almost everyhting on the menu, fromt he stuffed corguette flowers to the pork belly, to the iberico ham. I have to say that whilst the menu was interesting, the food just wasn't as good as I thought it would be. The portions were tiny, the food luke-warm and the 'fusion' of flavours not strong enough. I think that Barrafina is much better for the same price, better food and larger portions!