Restaurants

Location is the main thing at this little neighbourhood restaurant, which brings a dash of Hispanic colour to the whitewashed austerity of Pimlico’s calm backstreets. The wide pavements and corner position allow for plenty of outdoor seating in clement weather – when, picking at olives and sipping manzanilla, you just about feel like you’re on holiday. Big windows mean it’s nice and bright inside too, but space is limited on the ground floor and you don’t really want to be shoved in the basement. The menu is a relatively unchallenging list of tapas classics, plus a handful of straightforward meat and fish mains. Still, freshness and careful cooking is all this food needs to succeed, and both requirements were met in our selection of Galician octopus, garlic prawns (bathed in a delicious piquant white wine gravy), and pan-fried chistorra sausage, followed by a whole grilled sea bass that we couldn’t fault. Service was jolly and the dishes arrived in just the right procession. Estrella beer accompanied our feast, but there’s also a range of reasonably priced Spanish wines in the £10-£40 bracket, plus sherries and cavas.

Time Out Eating & Drinking Guide 2008