The best restaurants serving Spanish food in England

I went to collect a Too Good To Go (TGTG) surprise bag worth £5 that I had reserved on the app. The staff was polite, invited me to take a seat, and handed my bag to me about 5 minutes later. However, the portions were tiny!! Barely 2 scoops of plain white rice, one small chicken drumstick with a meagre splash of curry, and literally just 10 chips (yes, I counted). Everything was thrown carelessly into a paper box which was perfunctorily wrapped in clingfilm and placed in a plastic bag, and the paper box was soggy by the time I reached home. While it tasted alright, it was most definitely not worth £5.

 I mainly use the TGTG app to sample restaurants and cuisines that I’m unfamiliar with and may want to try for a full meal. While the taste of what little this restaurant provided was alright, I’m now reluctant to support a business (listed as family-run on their profile!) that seems to exploit customers under the pretence of the noble cause of preventing food waste. Given the meagre portions and the carelessness of the packaging, I wonder why they even signed up for the TGTG app in the first place, really. I took a chance on this restaurant despite the negative reviews and now regret it, as this seems to be a recurring issue with this restaurant for several years now. I would strongly discourage anyone from reserving TGTG surprise bags from this establishment. Such a blatant and unconscionable rip-off.

Celebrated a 50th birthday and we couldn’t haven’t been looked after any better by Sarah. We were a group of 13 and she kept us all fed and watered, and the restaurant provided a nice cake at the end. Cocktails were lovely, Tapas was very good, I especially enjoyed the meatballs and ham croquettes but others had their own favourites. A memorable night!

Booked for a surprise 50th birthday on 7th September at 19:30. Got there and it's closed! No email from anyone to say they were cancelling the table. Utter disbelief. Will not book here ever again.

Great evening atmosphere and friendly service. Staff were very accommodating and reasonable prices for how nice it is inside.

I’ve had some memorable banter with waiters in restaurants over the years, but “…AND DON’T EVER COME BACK, YOU RACISTS!” is unlikely to be superseded. Service was slow last night, and gradually disintegrated into full on dreadful (menus being taken away, no order being taken). Me and my husband finally placed an order, and the waitress returned five minutes later, barking with weird aggression: "no chicken, just beef or vegan." I asked for the menus again, and she walked away with a stage whisper of "JESUS CHRIST!" and rolled her eyes. So we said actually, we'll just pay for our drinks and leave, because… rude. The waitress then LOST IT: “Well, I don’t like YOUR attitude! YOU are the ones who have been rude – you’ve been REALLY CONDESCENDING.” We were taken aback, and asked politely and precisely how we had been condescending. "Hey, I GAVE you a menu!" she offered, then really went off on one. She was clearly having… a moment/meltdown. So we stood up and said that after that spectacular verbal assault, we were going immediately and weren't going to pay for the drinks either. As we headed for the door she shouted “…AND DON’T EVER COME BACK… YOU RACISTS!” So I turned back and said "WOAH!! WHAT!!?? WHAT DID YOU SAY!!?" She wouldn't say it again, and when I asked for the manager, she shouted “YOU WANT ME TO GET MY PHONE OUT AND GIVE YOU MY MANAGER’S NUMBER!? YOU REALLY THINK I’M THAT STUPID!!? GET OUT.” I have never left a restaurant actually SHAKEN. (And certainly never been called, totally randomly, racist, which was ringing in my ears for hours). I've been going to Viva Dalston for years and used to really like it. But now it will always just be The Place With THAT Waitress where THE THING HAPPENED

We were disappointed. We waited until our 'foodie' friends stayed to enjoy this 'new kind on the block' especially as it is Spanish as we both have children living in Spain. The service was bizarre. It was like we had to wait for appointed times for our menu etc. We arrived at 720 for a 730 table and no-one came to our table until 730 and then asked us if we wanted water. We then had to wait for a wine list and when we said we couldn't order the wine until we knew what we were eating there was no offer of a menu which it seems we could not get until we had ordered wine. The starters then took a long time to arrive as did the main and when we then had a wait for the dessert menu but which time it was 1015 and we had to leave for our booked taxi so we missed dessert. Maybe it is better if you go later as we noticed that later diners 'caught us up.' There was no main vegetarian course and only one starter. We had croquetas which were bland as was the Spanish omelet and the anchovy dish consisted of 8 small anchovies with no accompaniment. The main course of monkfish was overcooked and sitting on a watery bed of spinach with chewy bacon pieces and our guest's beef dish was two pieces of beef with a small dish of parmentier 'sauce'. There was no potato dish not even as a side which is strange as Spain is known for its many patatas dishes. It was expensive - £135 for two for two courses and there are many restaurants in the area which are much better value. Sadly we won't be returning. It wasn't awful enough to complain but it certainly wasn't what we thought it would be - sad that it wasn't.

Disgusting overpriced and overfried croquettes, very bad and rude service ,tortilla has no salt - drinks were good though

Lovely lunchtime takeaway today. Gorgeous paella, meatballs and the best croquettes I’ve ever tasted. The people running it were lovely too!

Personal amable y comida de alta calidad! La comida era auténtica y se sentía como si estuvieras en San Sebastián. ¡Las mejores tapas en mucho tiempo!

Happened upon the restaurant by accident and glad we did. Excellent service and fantastic food! We tried several of the dishes and each one was faultless.

Probabimente è il bocadillo più buono di Londra, con il prosciutto crudo tagliato spesso e senza formaggio, ovviamente con una birra. Personale simpatico, locale pulito. A South Kensington Viandas è accanto alla stazione della metro, un posto perfetto per una sosta dopo la visita dei Musei.Salumi buonissimi, prodotti alimentari di qualità.

Una vez más, la comida y la hospitalidad más increíbles ❤️este negocio es propiedad y está dirigido por una familia encantadora y nunca decepciona x

A fascinating evening in the coolest place around. Live music, people having fun...it's been too long.

What a fantastic find on the mezzanine of the newly renovated market hall on a damp March afternoon in Scarborough!! A little taste of Spanish cuisine and wine in a fab venue at incredible prices with a very lovely proprietor. Whilst we didn’t have the time to do so, we loved that you can also buy excellent looking wines from the shop and enjoy in situ for only £4 corkage if you want to enjoy something different to the delicious house Rioja. If we lived in Scarborough, it would become a favourite haunt. Hope to be back again soon.

I just passed the cafe and decided to pick up a coffee, a pasteis de nata and a pain au chocolat. All seriously lovely, and as I moved to the area recently, I hope to start visiting regularly!