Fitzrovia, Spanish Restaurant Guide

With its quality mix of Spanish and Italian tapas, this cosy bar/restaurant near Goodge Street was a foodie trailblazer when it opened in 2005. The buzz has moved on over the years, but it’s still a worthwhile, well-run venue with interesting food.

“A wonderful menu with a good choice of tapas to suit all tastes” again wins recommendations for this buzzy and good-value bar on Goodge Street.

“High quality, reasonably priced tapas” – “as traditionally Spanish as ever and properly prepared” – alongside an “interesting selection of Spanish wines (many from less usual wine areas)” is the hallmark of this group that originated in Great Portland Street 15 years ago; now joined by branches in Victoria, Canary Wharf, Marylebone, Farringdon and Leeds. “The paella had just the right degree of socarrat” (the caramelised crust on the bottom).

He has three Michelin stars back in Alicante, but Quique Dacosta’s two-floor two-year-old just north of Oxford Street is a more middle-market affair, with an extensive menu of meat, fish and vegetarian dishes whose most obvious Hispanic features are a large collection of paellas. Feedback was mixed this year, though. Some reporters had wonderful meals, but others found it “just too pricey for what it was… lovely interior, but the dishes fell a bit flat”.