Tapas Brindisa

Reviews

• Tasty tapas

  I like the fact you can't book a table here...I went for lunch today (friday) and we got a table outside, which was lucky.Great choice of dishes - I LOVE the whole deep fried goats' cheese smothered in orange blossom honey!

  Brenna
  Review Date: 05/08/2009 Report review
• Tapas Brindisa

  Having to queue for an hour to get a seat at this bustling tapas bar is annoying, but it’s well worth the wait. They don’t take bookings and you just have keep grinning at the waiter and reminding him you’re still there while you enjoy a sherry at the bar. Dishes change regularly but my favourite delights include a whole deep fried Monte Enebro goats' cheese smothered in orange blossom honey and meltingly tender rare fillet steak with caramelised onions and Torta de Barros cheese on toast. It's rich, but can easily be washed down with carafes of tart red wine...

  Foodrambler
  Review Date: 11/11/2008 Report review
• Tasty tapas

  After coming back from my holiday in Barcelona this year, I started craving tapas after about a week so me and Sam decided to give Brindisa a visit. We ventured there on a Thursday lunchtime so the market was also in full flow. Our names were added to the waiting list and 15 minutes later we were seated.It was quite difficult deciding on what to get as so many things sounded delicious on the menu. We eventually went for some charcuterie (salchichon de Vic); potato, chorizo and pepper omelette; pan fried cuttle-fish with romesco sauce; sauteed chicken livers with capers and fino sherry; deep fried monte enebro goat cheese with orange blossom honey; patatas bravas; country toast with tomato.The omelette was packed full of flavour and really moist. The charcuterie was velvety smooth on your tongue. I think those two dishes were my favourite out of everything. The cuttle-fish, chicken livers and goats cheese had really interesting flavours but weren't amazing. The potatoes were a bit of a let-down, nowhere near as good as the ones I had in Barcelona. The meal was £40 for 7 tapas and 2 beers.

  Lenalouise
  Review Date: 12/08/2008 Report review
• Delicious!

  Brindisa tapas are simply delicious. This place is fabulous - I've been there numerous times and will gladly continue to go back. They don't take reservations so you can have a fair wait, but order some of the great big green olives and a bottle of rose, and the wait is a pleasure. The menu is quite extensive but I've loved everthing I've tried.

  Oriana
  Review Date: 11/08/2008 Report review
• Would be great if you could book a table!

  I wasn't going to make the same mistake twice. Half five on the dot last night I raced out of the office door, got straight into the Northern Line and made it into Brindisa Tapas by 6pm. Incredibly, most tables were already taken. This frantic activity is of course thanks to Brindisa's no reservations policy; perhaps it's easier for them to manage the tables this way, or they get a higher turnover. All I know is that personally I am less inclined to make the journey halfway across town if I think there's a good chance I'll be forced to wait for a table for two hours or made to look for somewhere else altogether. It doesn't make for a relaxing evening if you have that hanging over you, I don't think. That said, I suppose the fact I did, in fact, make the journey halfway across town last night sort of weakens my argument a bit. Anyway, what about the food.Nibbles of spicy toasted broad beans were gorgeous with the house Manzanilla. Gran Reserva Joeslito loin was a satisfyingly rich and earthy cut of cured pork which thankfully tasted as expensive as it actually was (£10). We also tried some razor clams which were teeny but came with fantastic rich white wine and garlic butter dotted with crispy bacon bits. Patatas Bravas were well-cooked and the sauce was much spicier (and therefore better) than any I'd tried before, and four Iberian ham croquettas were fluffy and light with a crispy coating and were as good as any I've had outside Spain. So, no problems with the food then. And provided you do strike it lucky and get a table at Brindisa, service is nothing short of faultless - not surprising considering there are almost as many staff as customers in the tiny room, but even so worth a special mention. During the course of the evening I hardly needed to glance up from the table before I caught our waitress' eye, probably contributing to the fact I spent so much on sherry.So there is nothing wrong with Brindisa once you're inside, nothing at all - they serve great fresh tapas, sympathetically cooked according to Spanish traditions (apart from the preponderence of Catalan ingredients and dishes, tapas not really being a Catalan thing) and the service is worth every inch of the 12.5%, and then some. But the reason I don't think I'll be visiting Brindisa too often in the short-term is nothing to do with the food or service, it's because I can't guarantee that the effort of getting there will come good. People tend to linger a while over tapas, and there are so few tables in this tiny corner of Borough Market that they are constantly hugely oversubscribed. My only hope is that it won't be long before Brindisa can afford to move to bigger premises and have a proper reservation process. Then I'll be back - again and again.

  Chrisp
  Review Date: 11/08/2008 Report review
• Borough Tapas

  Brindisa is a tapas bar located on the edge of Borough Market. They don't take reservations and every time I have walked past they have always been very busy. That said, we did manage to walk in at around 12.30pm on a Saturday and nab a table, well it was more a bench type windowsill than table, but perfect for two.It was another busy lunch time for them, but our lovely waitress still took the time to check on us throughout our meal which was much appreciated. Speaking of our meal, it was tasty. We ordered: Gran Reserva Joselito loin (a type of Spanish ham)Country toast with tomatoGrilled SardinesIberian ham croquettesDeep fried Monte Enebro goats cheese with orange blossom honeyOur favourite was the goats cheese with honey - delicious. In fact it was all pretty good, though not as keen on sardines when they are as this big. Only real complaint about Brindisa would be that wine is expensive, with only one bottle of white wine for under £20. We just stuck to a glass each - I chose an intriguing white rioja which I would be happy to become better acquainted with in the future.

  Sue
  Review Date: 03/08/2008 Report review
• Top Tapas

  I'd heard this place was good, so decided to check it out as a Birthday treat to myself and I was not dissapointed.Yes it was busy, but I think this is how a good Tapas place should be! The food was amazing and quite reasonably priced. We had 5 dishes, 2 beers and Water and it came in at under £30. In particular, I'd definitely recommend the Olives stuffed with Orange and The Sauteed Squid.If you love Tapas, you'll Love Brindisa

  Elvez
  Review Date: 08/09/2007 Report review