The Best Tapas Restaurants in Covent Garden
Tapas in London has come a long way over the past few years, with high-end tapas restaurants joining the ranks along with more relaxed bars. Covent Garden is has turned into a hub for great Spanish food, with dedicated jamón shops, pintxos bars and restaurants serving up Basque, Catalan and Balearic dishes.
1. The Port House
Restaurant, Spanish, Tapas
After establishing three successful restaurants in the Dublin area, the owners of the Port House set up shop on the Strand with a cosy and atmospheric restaurant. The tapas menu is impressively extensive but the drinks are the real hit here, with a dedicated rotating gin and tonic menu and a Spanish and Portuguese-heavy port and wine list.
2. PIX PINTXOS
Bar, Cocktail Bar, Restaurant, Spanish, Tapas
3. Jamon Jamon Soho
Restaurant, Spanish, Tapas
The Covent Garden branch of Jamon Jamon (so named because if one of something – especially jamón – is good, then two must be superb) joins Camden, Islington and Belsize Park sites in a mini-chain. As well as classic tapas plates like albondigas, calamares, tortilla and their namesake ham, Jamon Jamon serves five kinds of paella and traditional Spanish desserts.
4. Barrafina Adelaide Street
Restaurant, Spanish, Tapas
5. Barrafina Drury Lane
Bar, Restaurant, Spanish, Tapas
As well as the Adelaide Street site, there’s also a Barrafina on Drury Lane – very handy as there are no reservations and seemingly permanent queues at both locations. This site has a similar layout with a central bar but a totally different menu, with more inventive plates like crab buns and cuttlefish empanadas, and selection of tortillas and eggs.
6. Eneko at One Aldwych
Hotel Restaurant, Restaurant, Bar, Bistro, Spanish
Eneko Axta, of the three-Michelin-starred Arzumendi in Bilbao, opened his London restaurant in 2016 in the One Aldwych Hotel. It’s less formal (and less expensive) than Arzumendi but the quality of the food is still extremely high. The focus is on Basque ingredients and flavours handled in a playful way, like the ibérico ham, mushroom duxelle and Basque muffin ‘Hot Hog’. The all-Spanish wine list also features some bottles from Eneko and his uncle Gorka’s own winery.
7. Condesa
Restaurant, Bar, Spanish, Tapas, Mexican
8. Casa Manolo
Restaurant, Spanish, Tapas
9. Enrique Tomas
Deli, Spanish
10. Salvador & Amanda Covent Garden
Restaurant, Spanish, Tapas
There’s always a party atmosphere at Salvador & Amanda thanks to their weekday happy hour, live flamenco shows and late night dancing. All your favourite tapas dishes are present and correct but if you’re in a celebratory mood, they offer a sucking pig and tapas party menu – a whole roasted Spanish suckling pig served with Seville oranges and caramelised shallots plus a mixture of tapas plates.
11. The Opera Tavern
Restaurant, Bar, Pub, Spanish, Italian, Tapas
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