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Rebato's closed in mid February 2013.
Rebato’s is strictly old school. At the front is a bar area, all dark wood and red-upholstered seating, good for drinks and tapas; behind is a formal restaurant with white tablecloths. Both spaces enjoy service from professional older waiters of a type now rare in London.
The timeless theme continues with the food. All the tapas standards are here, along with mains like sauté of kidneys with sherry, and spicy pork meatballs. We sat in the quiet restaurant to enjoy some herby charcoal-grilled rabbit pieces, garlicky oyster mushrooms, big fat prawns with garlic dip, a generous mixed salad, well-flavoured batatas bravas and croquettas with spinach and pine. Portions were generous for tapas, there was a profusion of olive oil and garlic: nothing anaemic here, all great tastes and satisfying, if not especially filling.
We decided to finish our meal with something sweet. And yes, Rebato’s has a sweet trolley, from which we chose traditional flan (crème caramel). We only had one gripe. Rebato’s may old-fashioned, but we weren’t happy to be presented with an indecipherable bill scrawled on various bits of paper stapled together. With drinks and pudding, our bill wasn’t negligible – it would have been good to have seen what we were paying for.