Marylebone, Spanish Restaurant Guide

“Decent tapas for the price” – with “all the usual suspects (patatas bravas, padron peppers, tortilla, croquettas)” – win praise for this Hispanic quartet, now well into their second decade. These days the cooking is reckoned “competent”, if “not up to the earlier standards” – perhaps a reflection of improved competition. Top Menu Tip – “it’s worth checking out the vegetable dishes” (“with some left-field options for the adventurous; the beetroot with coffee was great!”)

“Luke Ahearne is cooking up a storm” at this modern Mediterranean yearling in Marylebone, whose name is a contraction of ‘abuelita’ (meaning grandmother in Spanish) and where cooking over a dramatic open grill is a feature. But even if no reports fundamentally dispute its top quality, “the price can be eye-watering” – leaving a couple of diners feeling that “in spite of enjoying what we ate I would not return because of the feeling of being taken for a ride”.

“It serves croquettes… It does what it says and it does it well!”. So say fans of this small chain – a “simple concept well-executed” with the main dish containing “a wide variety of fillings: think of any Spanish tapas ingredient and it’ll be in there”. “The cocktails are good as well”. In April 2025 they added a 50-cover site in Broadgate Circle to their existing locations in Soho and St Christopher’s Place.