Pizarro in Southwark

11.04.24 update: Pizarro has been incredible again. Today we had the padron peppers, croqetas de jamon, tuna stew and mussels then chocolate tarte and Basque cheesecake - all fantastic. The highlight was Olivia our server who was lovely, informative and chatted with both of us. This is our favourite restaurant and we will be back again next time we're in the area. Original review: A great accidental find - really nice staff, wonderful food and a fairly good range of dishes on the menu. We'll be coming again.

Pizarro is a very good restaurant, we enjoyed our visit but be careful with the mussels, the sauce is to spicy and gave me an allergy, this is the first time I developed an allergy while eating. Having said this, I really recommend this restaurant . The staff are friendly, especially the young Spanish waiter Mr Melo.

Excellent food (the paella was 👌🏼) and fantastic atmosphere. Enjoyed watching the early Saturday night Bermondsey crowd walk past from our window bench table. We had really good service too from Orla and the team. Will be back!

Pizarro is my favorite restaurant during 2 weeks stay in London. I went for dinner once and before my flight back to Malaysia. My fav dish is the beetroot salad, not a fan of beetroot but this is so simple, juicy and refreshing, in fact I have it twice! Although they're full house but the service and the food quality is impeccable! Tried a few michelin stars restaurant during my stay and i can say pizarro is much better than the other two michelin star tapas restaurant i went to. The service (i forgot their name) is not pretensive unlike the 2 star michelin i visit...i feel welcome here. I will revisit whenever i have chance to go back to London. Keep up the good work.

One of the best authentic tapas restaurants in London. Great choice, lots of Sherry and good service

"A warm welcome and good service. We felt very comfortable and confident in our order choice thanks to our waiter explaining how the menu works. The Picas were delicious and the egg and chips with prawns a revelation! ¡Gracias!"

Real, authentic and amazing chef.

There are a lot of reasons that this restaurant has won awards, and they're all best experienced by taking the time to experience them.

The atmosphere is great, but aside from that we were incredibly disappointed. Food - average at best, portions felt small. The only notable dish was the croquets, which were well made and tasted great. Some dishes were incredibly greasy with oil pooling at the bottom. Service - the waiter was quite loud and pushy. I felt like I had to repeat myself a lot. It didn't feel like they were taking my order, but more I was being used on food with little concern what I wanted (especially when it came to alcohol). I was there with .g extended family and it felt extra chaotic because of the constant up selling. Pricing - are very high for the quality and quantity of food you are getting. Prices are especially unfair when it comes to alcohol. For £50 you get a bottle of very very average wine at best. (We were poured a second bottle without asking, we didn't like the wine, and we're struggling to finish it). Overall it felt like we were bing up sold on subpar food and drinks, some items were snuck into our table without explicitly ordering them. I ended up getting sick right after the meal because of how greasy some of the dishes were.

We had a waiter who would constantly press us on whether we wanted more drinks, but we had to constantly chase for attention when we wanted to order food. To the point where the whole table was surprised we ordered an extra bottle of rose that we didn't like. Food was very greasy and one member ended up vomiting outside the restaurant. Serving sizes are small, to the point where the plates of ham feel blatantly incorrect by weight. Restaurant is clean and well decorated, and was suitably warm. The restaurant is dog friendly and were accomodating for him.

Lovely food, lovely staff, lovely restaurant

Nice atmosphere and place, but somewhat overpriced

Food was absolutely delicious. Orla, our server, was also so good at talking us through the menu and help us with decision making!

We came with high hopes after a recommendation for the main course of mushroom rice from The Times.. Tbh it was all a little bland. We had three tapas choices. The sourdough was great, but the bean and cockle stew needed a lot more seasoning. The main rice course was also just a bit dull. Maybe we should have chosen more interesting dishes! We also had a dessert of chocolate and salted caramel tart - sounds amazing, but it really wasn’t. The chocolate part has a horrid sand-like texture - never thought I’d leave some of a dessert like that.. Finally the bill came with a whopping American style 13.5% service charge. The service was good, but on a bill for two for £150 that’s an extra £20. It’s literally taking the pizzaro ….

The food was very good. I expected a bit more but I really can’t complain about it! We had lots of vegetarian food options what we really enjoyed! The atmosphere was very loud and hard to have conversations with my family. But the service we had was very poor unfortunately. We didn’t felt welcome around them and it seemed like that we annoyed them with our different orders. A lot of room to improve.

Very nice food! The pork tartare in particular was very tasty and well seasoned. Would definitely recommend. The staff were very nice and the service was prompt. The food also arrived quickly. The only downside was that it was a bit loud but that is to be expected from a spanish restaurant on a Thursday night. Great spot!

Food was delicious. Staff is very friendly, with some language barriers but nothing major. Prices a bit exoensive but worth it. I recommend.

Firstly, they were really great with my assistance dog (Hearing Dogs for Deaf People). He was bought water and we were given the perfect table for keeping his safely out the way without risk of being trodden on. Our waitress was lovely - she helped us to avoid over-ordering and spent as much time as we needed going through the menu. She was warm without being over-friendly and had an eye for when she might be needed. She was very kind to my dog too. Drinks were great - some amazing sherries and perfectly put together cocktails which weren’t too sweet. Highlight of course was the food. Iberian pork -perfect. A sort of Spanish black pudding with cuttlefish. And the best raw prawn dish I’ve ever had. 3 small plates and one main was just right for a special celebratory meal for two people. What I would change - bread could be a bit less expensive. You need it to mop up the amazing sauces but it’s too pricey.

Food was really good in Bermondsey, we booked for 2 on Valentines day its also my Partners Birthday. I added to the booking is we could get a birthday dessert as a surprise. I also rang the restaurant to confirm and its didn't come after paying the bill. Of of course I couldnt ask the waiter infront of the table. A real letdown really.

I was blown away by my experience yesterday, Spanish food to his best and absolutely different than any other Spanish restaurant! The service is friendly, wam and professional! Jose the famous and celebrity chef owner is there to welcome you and bringing his passion and sharing his knowledge and positive warm Spanish Soul! Place to go anytime any day. Must do must worth a special trip ! Mucho Gracias senior Jose!

Food was terrible. If you are looking for authentic tapas this is not the place (also because all staff is Italian). We waited an hour for the paella which came in burnt.

Came here with my boyfriend for valentine’s day, we really enjoyed our experience. Loved the food! The atmosphere was lovely and the service was top! Definitely recommend

Very nice place for Spanish food

We had the pleasure of dining here on Valentine’s Day, we had a truly brilliant experience. Served by Geo, who made the meal a dream. Keep that man at all costs. Talked through the dishes and recommendations were on point. Delicious food, really unique flavours, beautifully executed. Hats off to the chefs and the rest of the team. Thank you and see you soon!

Lovely little spot, very chill, tried it after trying Jose down the road. Amazing amazing food. The rib eye was splendid. The staff kindly situated us in a spot with extra room for my dog. I would do 4.5 stars if a could rather than 4, lost half a point for the drinks! The cocktails definitely need a little look at.

We had the best experience at Pizzaro. We did the jamon masterclass and learned so much. It was followed by a delicious lunch. The croquettes were insanely good. The staff was so welcoming and friendly. We'll definitely be back!

We had a lovely evening at Pizarro.Excellent quality, delicious food and cocktails. Professional service provided by friendly staff. Thank you for amazing experience.

Professional and friendly service, a wide menu with enough vegetarian choices too. Everything was pretty good - perhaps the cannelloni was too rich in my view but the parson peppers and beet salad were spot on

The canelonis were amazing! And service was very good, they suggested different dishes and wines, very friendly and polite. Would love to come back soon!

Came here with high expectations according to some saying hands down the best Spanish in town. Jamon was a joke. Great croquettes(pork cheek) Food was just alright yet every seafood dish was not fresh, clams,tuna and red prawns. Seasoning and sauces were blend. Great ox cheek cannelloni, once again was blend. Waited for 35min for our main course to be served. Having only 3 chefs is clearly not capable of providing good quality food for busy lunch hour on Sun. Disappointed about the food quality when it costs £70+ pp Barrafina/Sabor does better job Won’t return

Great place, good vibe, excellent service and staff. Unfortunately food was on the cold side. Wouldn't stop me going again as over all great place, but tepid mussels and main wasn't good.

Let down by the food, which is the main thing. It's all just okay and quite salty. Main thing: we mostly booked for that incredible-looking suckling lamb and baked potato. If you're the same, don't bother – they don't do it anymore, apparently. Now, it's an oil-doused (not jus-covered) leg of lamb with overly sweet caramelised onion gratin to accompany. It wasn't a great flavour combo or good stand alone flavours, and we really just wanted the dish that we've been lusting over... I've no idea why they'd change it. When it was brought to the table, I asked why it was changed and the waitress said 'no, it's always served like this'; which is obviously not true, look at the photo reviews here. It probably has now changed on the menu but we didn't notice. Besides that, the daily croquettes (chilli and chicken) were crispy outside, flavourful and creamy inside; the jamon croquettes were not as good, overpowered with the saltiness of jamon. Raw Mediterranean prawns melted in your mouth but again, so salty. Flavours need balancing. There was no stand out dish overall, and we left just feeling like it was fine, but we wouldn't return or recommend over other restaurants. Especially as it's not cheap. Switch the lamb dish back... there's a reason it's posted everywhere, surely? Service and atmosphere are all generally good.

I came on a busy Friday evening. Getting into the restaurant, the entrance was crowded and even though I had a booking it took us a while to find who to talk to. When we did, the person was a bit short asking to wait because he was in the middle of making a booking for someone else. He later apologised for his tone. We were advised by the waiter to order a certain number of starters and mains to share, however they were delivered one after the other with a fair amount o f wait in between. Bringing 2 or 3 things together would have been more convivial, particularly since the portions were quite small. There were 4 of us and we felt like there wasn't enough food to share on the table.

We had padron peppers, croquetas, arroz de setas manzana y fino, presa iberica 5j, and chocolat de tarta. The croquetas of the day were chicken and cheese inside. Everything was amazing, especially the rice and the dessert at the end. Dessert had dark sugar crumbles and honey drizzled vanilla ice cream on the side, and fleur de set on top of the tart. Must try this restaurant!

This place is fantastic! The staff are very warm and attentive. They each express knowledge and skill. This is also obvious from the kitchen. Open plan, you can see much of the magic happening. Each dish delivered in everyway. I visited with 2 colleagues (Dutch and German). We were all of the same opinion. Will definitely be there the next time we're in London. The only gripe was the music. Possibly the speaker itself. It was just a bit annoying as you could only hear the highs and not the music overall. We sat on the middle table In front of the pass/rear corridor entrance.

Some of the best tapas in London, and one of the only spots on Bermondsey street that takes reservations. The waiter was helpful with our food ordering and everything was delicious. The wine selection is great too.

We had a wonderful evening. I had phoned ahead to say we would be about 10 minutes late for our booking and when we arrived (it WAS New Year's Eve!) the friendly waiter explained they had double booked and asked if we'd assist by allowing the family of 4 to dine at the table we had booked and we would be seated at the bar - and offered a glass of conplimentary bubbly each and free desserts. Sitting at the bar was not cramped as you might expect, but roomy and rather fun. We were at the heart of the restaurant, witnessing all the hustle and bustle, admiring the cocktails being prepared, chatting to par staff about the wines and the origins of the restaurant. We stayed longer than our allotted booking since we were not at an actual bookable table and had a fabulous evening. The food and wine were exquisite. 10 stars out of 5. I cannot praise this restaurant highly enough.

Excellent place in London to eat as if you were in Spain... Without a doubt a brilliant choice

Food is great BUT I think the price is a bit of a push for the price point. But always a solid eat.

We had a great lunch here yesterday. Reserved a place at the kitchen table and got talking to Maya, one of the chefs, who was super friendly and took us through the food provenance. Really great food all cooked and prepared in front of us. Great atmosphere and service and we will be back for sure… !

Just fabulous with moreish Sherry to boot - tapas lovers paradise 🤤

Everything about the meal was great; with wonderful food, thoughtful service and excellent drinks. We especially enjoyed the croquetas del dia (ox cheek!) and the pan con tomate. Will definitely go back to try more dishes

Wonderful food, great service and fantastic atmosphere in the semi private room. Thanks

Great place with amazing food. The staff was so nice and knowledgeable. I had amazing time there.

Amazing food and very friendly service. I can't remember his name but one of the Italian waiters couldn't do enough for us. We finished the meal and Mr Pizarro himself was there with his dogs !

Such a great experience when you have chefs in front of you preparing your food. The quality of the food and the service was fabulous. Highly recommend to anyone who like good quality Spanish food

Great atmosphere and food. Really recommend the Presa Iberica. Our waitor Giovanni was excellent. 10/10 recommend

Absolutely fab time - it always is! I’ve personally never been to this specific one, but my partner has and we took his parents this time around. We got 5 or 6 starters, 2 mains - one of which was the lamb - and three sides. Absolutely fab food, comes out at a great pace, incredible service (I think our waiter’s name was Andre?) and delicious wines. All in all really impressed, and definitely somewhere we will take visiting guests again!

Lunch today was such a treat. Giovanni - our lovely waiter - patiently & passionately talked us through the menu. Telling us stories about each dish & drink, including how to best enjoy them that made us fall in love with the food before we even ate it!! His knowledge of the dishes and drinks was spectacular. The squid ink & prawn tapa, iberico ham, and lamb main were 100 spot on. The drinks we paired with each course worked so well to bring it all together. The brandy at the end was the icing on the cake.,We thoroughly enjoyed the entire experience and look forward to dinning with you again

Really good food and service. Would certainly go back, so I recommend

An absolute must try in London. With delicious tapas, melt in your mouth ham and high quality wines. You will not regret it! But what really sets Pizarro above the rest is the staff, particularly Chelsea who recommended some great dishes and made our night with her humour and helpfulness. Can’t wait to be back!

Busy restaurant with a wide range of tapas and main dishes. Excellent wine list and sherry to go with the amazing food. For a more engaging experience I highly recommend that you sit at the chef's bench, see the team at work and what's involved in the preparation of the food.

Very nice food and also very nice people. Well done to everyone !

Food is a bit expensive and atmosphere quite

Came here for Valentine’s and had the set menu. Nice and cozy atmosphere, it was busy. We got a cute window seat. Food was authentic and portions were decent, service was good

Pizarro is the up market version of Jose Bar down the Bermondsey Street and like Jose did not disappoint. Very good quality tapa's and good friendly service at realistic prices.

Just incredible. Every single element was perfect, fresh, quality and well designed. The produce was out of this world. Service impeccable- attentive without being overbearing. So much care and depth in all the dishes - from starter to mains. I would recommend to come here again and again. (Sorry for the rustic photos but it was a beautiful mess of delicious food)

An all round great experience. A Wednesday night it was full, and a nice busy vibe without being over bearing. We sat in front of the service point, always great to see the prep presentation with a real attention to detail! We ordered tapa's and had 8 dishes, all very tasty the lettuce with cheese dressing and hazelnuts, an the mussels were the stand outs. Delicious Tempranillo bianca from an interesting wine list. Service was excellent and un hurried for it being as busy as it was. Bill was £130 inc a £45 wine. Excellent value in my opinion. Really don't understand all the negative comments about the price. We will return!

We went for lunch. Amazing food. Great service.

Lovely place to dine with incredible food. Sitting at the counter was a special experience as we got to see all the food prep and cooking. Nice waiting staff and chef.

Wow. The most amazing lobster, egg and chips. Hands down the best meal I have had this year. I can’t wait to go again. I absolutely loved it. Great ambience. Lovely waiter who advised us not to over order on the carbs. Wise words. We didn’t book but they managed to fit us in.

Very tasty meat, amazing croquettes and starters too! The service is very friendly and absolutely professional.

The food is very good but the ham was not, despite being 5J, a good brand, was too dry, probably not ham but "paleta", which is cheaper than the rear legs. It was too disappointing that after asking for a glass of a particular wine that costs over £15, they did not show the bottle before serving it, the taste was not alabariño, and I had no evidence that it was. Our main waiter, however, was super nice.

Authentic Spanish food, decent portions for all the plates especially the croquettes. It's a come back place!

Wonderful night out and thank you particularly for looking after my celiac requirements. It's difficult to find restaurants with knowledgeable staff and also cook(s) who know how to look after allergies safely and competently (and deliciously!), but I felt almost at home at Pizarro's. Thank you. We'll be back!

Beautiful wine, food and atmosphere. Loved it and will go back again soon.

Excellent food and service. Everything was well cooked, tasty, nicely presented and fresh. And the staff are very polite and happy to serve you. Highly recommended ✨️

Ended up here on the way to Flour and Grape, and enjoyed the experience. The food was tasty and the service was excellent. Ordered croquetas (Croquetas del día) and they were delicious. I shared them, but could've easily eaten the whole dish. For my main, I had the rice with aioli and artichoke (Arroz de alcachofas y pimientos con allioli rojo), which was good - although a source of protein would have been nice. That said, it is intended to be shared between two along with tapas plates, but my friend isn't a vegetarian; they greatly enjoyed the ox cheek (Canelón de carillera de vaca con setas y jamón). The cheese board (Tabla de quesos) was a great finish, and my friend enjoyed the Crema Catalana con melocotón. The only downside is the limited vegetarian main options. Overall, a good experience.

Very expensive, and very disappointing....bland food. Tasteless, suggest the Chef visits Flour and Grape just up the road to see the competition, half the price and streets ahead.

We came for lunch, and the food was quite delicious. The grilled cuttlefish dish was scrumptious and I wish we ordered a second one. We were sat outside, and I'm not sure if that was the reason for the delayed service, but we were only asked for a refill on our drinks once and were not checked in on at all. I wouldn't be fussed, but the tables around us were asked for more drinks, more water, and received their bills on a more consistent cadence than we were. I am not sure why we deserved this treatment comparatively to the other tables.

Amazing Bacalhau and Pork was incredibly good. Everything so tasteful.

Great location and excellent choices on menu. Staff very good and prices reasonable. Highly recommend.

Lovely food. We ate the lot- 10 dishes I think. Good service. Noisy as full. Perhaps some dishes a little bit steep on price eg suckling lamb at £60 but overall a pleasant evening.

Loved it, really friendly waiter and very good white wine. Was a bit disappointed by the visual aspect of the pan con tomato, looked cheap despite being delicious. Delicious croquetas de jamon. I recommend!

Food is average but prices sure weren’t. Not great value for money. Chefs were loud and shouting and we sat next door. Service was good though

Fuimos al restaurante por las recomendaciones de amigos que hace años vivieron en Londres. Actualmente, nos decepcionó muchísimo. En primer lugar, para ser un restaurante español no estuvimos bien asesorados por el servicio. Pedimos 3 platos de entrantes y un plato principal, que en la carta ponía de precio 100 gramos 17 libras. El camarero nos dice que son piezas de 330-400 gramos mínimo, cosa q no entendimos muy bien, hasta ver la cuenta. Lo que no entiendo es que si la pieza es mínimo d 300 gramos porque ponen en la carta el precio a 100 gramos, puesto que crea confusión. De entrantes pedimos unas quisquillas ( estaban comibles, sin más), unas croquetas de jamón (estaban buenas) y una sepia, en este plato nos sacaron una especie de sopa, con tiras de calamar, que para nada era sepia, y en la cuenta lo cobraron en la descripción como calamar cuando en la carta ponía sepia, de nuevo confusión en la carta, plato insulso, no nos gustó nada. Respecto al plato principal, presa ibérica venía acompañado con unas patatas y un plato de pimientos, escaso para 3 personas. A la vista de que no habíamos comido nada al ver el plato principal pedimos una ración de pan y ya no quisimos pedir nada más porque todo iba a ser del mismo estilo. Los comensales éramos 2 adultos y una niña de 12 años, y no somos grandes comedores y salimos de allí con la sensación de que no habíamos cenado, simplemente hecho un aperitivo. De bebida tomamos agua y una cerveza. Al cambio en euros la cuenta fue de 150 €. Carísimo para lo que comimos y bebimos. No lo recomiendo para nada.

Lovely evening with friends, great food and really attentive service with a lovely ambiance.

An hour long wait between starters and lunch. We eventually had to ask to pack it away

I returned to Jose's as I had a nice experience some years ago. However, things have change since and today's experience is not as worth it as it previously was. Food taste quite good (although the carrot garnish for the £50 tuna dish was literally a joke), but very overpriced. Portions are insufficient, but prices are excessive and, although food quality is good, not worth the value for money.

Comida súper española. Un poquito caro. Pero estábamos al lado de piccadilli. Gran extremeño que triunfa.

Lovely place, beautiful and cozy interior, good service. Great starters, okay main dish and lovely chocolate desert. I was with pram and little baby - people were supportive and nice to me and baby, they provide spacious place for us to seat, high chair and place for baby to crawl a bit. They read through my comments I left before booking - and everything was absolutely ready when I arrived.Thank you !

The food was delicious and the service was incredibly professional, although it was very expensive; it felt as though they were scraping our pockets for money with a 13.5% service charge and 4.5£ bottles of water

Staff were incredibly attentive as a large group, and food was amazing as always.

Not a really special restaurant/experience, but the food was nice :) the Jose restaurant is much better and just around the corner.

Excellent service and food. Staff were really friendly and gave great recommendations. A big plus was it being dog friendly and the option to sit in the window to keep him occupied. Would love to come again.

Kaksi kertaa käytiin 4 vrk:n aikana. Ruoka tuli molemmilla kerroilla nopeasti ruuhkasta huolimatta. Erinomainen hinta-laatusuhde ja palvelu 😊

We had a lovely time. Everything was perfect.. Thank you

Perfect food. Excellent choice of drinks. Superb, knowledgeable, attentive staff. Outstanding restaurant.

Located along the beautiful Bermondsey street, this place offers wonderful Spanish tapas. Our server was very helpful with selecting the right amount and variety of dishes to order for our group and the food was excellent.

Extraordinary!!!. Without doubt, the best restaurant in London. Exquisite and personalized spanish modern plates, the best cocina and the best wines. Ask for their Osborne sherry and Rioja wines, incredible!!!

Great food and wonderful cocktails!

Flawless food, fantastic service and dog friendly as well!

Came here for a work dinner (so no pics unfortunately) and did the pre-set menu. Food was delicious and the Presa Iberica is to die for! Still dreaming of that…

Bib Gourmand rarely disappoints, but can't in all honesty say that Jose Pizarro reaches that standard. Run of the mill tapas classics solidily prepared but uninspiredly presented or spiced. There must be 50 places in London that do as well, although certainly apart is the 100% expertly chosen Spanish wine list as well as the friendly and efficient service. Very noisy, but there's popularity for you. Pleasant enough, but not worth a detour for the food.

Decepcionante! La comida y el vino muy cara para la cantidad y la calidad de ambas. Sobretodo el vino. No lo recomiendo si eres de España.

The food was amazing, but I particularly loved the Catalan custard

Food was delicious and service was caring and attentive, specially our lovely Irish waitress!

Nice atmosphere and good service. The food was good but not amazing for the price. We would visit again but not become our go to spanish place

One of the best dining experiences of our lives! All the staff were so attentive and welcoming - Luca was incredibly thoughtful and knowledgable, and meeting Jose himself was a wonderful touch. We were exceptionally grateful to both of them for their efforts to help us celebrate my fiancées birthday. The food itself was a truly brilliant and delicious experience from start to finish. We were also very thankful for the restaurant being dog-friendly. Big thank you to all the staff for such a lovely afternoon here. Couldn’t have been more impressed with everything!!!!

Bardzo dobre jedzenie! Mała Hiszpania w sercu Londynu. Polecamy mule! Produkty świeże, menu ciekawe.