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Pizarro


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Hot on the heels of his first opening,(just down the road), ultra busy and intimate tapas bar Jose. Senor Pizarro's more spacious and equally busy new offering is cramming them in.

We dined at this high turnover joint yesterday and managed to spend three hours perched atop an uncomfy bar stool just to provide you with a decent in depth review as to what is on offer, and what we actually thought of the place.

Full report with pics to follow, when I have a bit more time.

Anyone else been? What did you think?

"So many places, so little time"

http://londoncalling...blogspot.co.uk/

@d_goodfellow1

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I can't find a thread for José itself, but I was also in the area yesterday and got the chance to sample some of his food.

It didn't disappoint - The atmosphere felt pretty authentic and the food was superb. The iberico pork fillet - served rare - was a delight as were the prawns with chilli and garlic. I could probably have spent all day just eating the thinly sliced iberico ham (Maldonado, probably the finest I've eaten) but for the cost! A reasonably priced bottle of tempranillo washed it all down and there was room for a chocolate pot dessert too, and given it's reputation I thought it would be rude not to try a glass of sherry.

Great food, great wine and a nice relaxed atmosphere. You could eat here for £30-35/head but you might struggle given the temptations on the menu. The maldonado iberico is £9 for a small plate and dishes are roughly £6-9.50 - but for the quality you can't complain really.

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I can't find a thread for José itself, but I was also in the area yesterday and got the chance to sample some of his food.

It didn't disappoint - The atmosphere felt pretty authentic and the food was superb. The iberico pork fillet - served rare - was a delight as were the prawns with chilli and garlic. I could probably have spent all day just eating the thinly sliced iberico ham (Maldonado, probably the finest I've eaten) but for the cost! A reasonably priced bottle of tempranillo washed it all down and there was room for a chocolate pot dessert too, and given it's reputation I thought it would be rude not to try a glass of sherry.

Great food, great wine and a nice relaxed atmosphere. You could eat here for £30-35/head but you might struggle given the temptations on the menu. The maldonado iberico is £9 for a small plate and dishes are roughly £6-9.50 - but for the quality you can't complain really.

I was looking forward to eating the Iberica pork fillet but it was not on the menu. You mention rare but I bet it was not as rare as the one we ate at The Corner Room. I wanted to try it for that reason, to see how it was served, and to make a comparison taste wise.

We enjoyed the prawns too, and I had to restrain my wife from ordering another portion as I wanted to try as many dishes as we could manage.

The Jamon Iberico Manuel Manldonado at Pizarro is an eye watering £20, which put me off ordering it.

Shame really.

I will pop into Jose next time to give it a try at £9.

Its here, being carved by the Scottish sous chef (nice guy) from Islay, who knows a thing or two about Spanish cooking, and of course Islay single malt whiskies, of which I used to consume more than my fair share.

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"So many places, so little time"

http://londoncalling...blogspot.co.uk/

@d_goodfellow1

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I was looking forward to eating the Iberica pork fillet but it was not on the menu. You mention rare but I bet it was not as rare as the one we ate at The Corner Room. I wanted to try it for that reason, to see how it was served, and to make a comparison taste wise.

We enjoyed the prawns too, and I had to restrain my wife from ordering another portion as I wanted to try as many dishes as we could manage.

The Jamon Iberico Manuel Manldonado at Pizarro is an eye watering £20, which put me off ordering it.

Shame really.

I will pop into Jose next time to give it a try at £9.

Its here, being carved by the Scottish sous chef (nice guy) from Islay, who knows a thing or two about Spanish cooking, and of course Islay single malt whiskies, of which I used to consume more than my fair share.

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£20! Hope there's a good portion of it! It was a bit of a surprise given how much I remember getting in San Sebastian for about €5, although that was joselito which I think is a little bit less expensive, and obviously there's another level of service at José.

See for yourself about the fillet - possibly not that rare, it was bang on though :)

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Anyone else been? What did you think?

Oh funny. I finally got round to trying for lunch today.

Ham croquetas - best in class. Paper thin crispy balls and oozy inside. I've always been slightly underwhelmed by the croquetas as Jose (not as good as the ones served at El Faro back in the day), but these were excellent.

Quail with romanesco sauce - meaty and salty but a bit pale and under done on the outside.

Lamb tongue on toast - a bolshy meaty pile of lambs tongues on toast with onion gravy.

Lamb rump (I think) on lentils. A really excellent dish. Showed really great balance and control of flavour with a delicious of sweetness on the outside of the lamb (also the accompanying salad).

Overall I was favourably impressed, particularly with the last lamb dish. There is some smart stuff going on in the kithen. Not as good as El Faros (those rose tinted spectacles eh) but better than Jose.

J

More Cookbooks than Sense - my new Cookbook blog!
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Anyone else been? What did you think?

Oh funny. I finally got round to trying for lunch today.

Ham croquetas - best in class. Paper thin crispy balls and oozy inside. I've always been slightly underwhelmed by the croquetas as Jose (not as good as the ones served at El Faro back in the day), but these were excellent.

Quail with romanesco sauce - meaty and salty but a bit pale and under done on the outside.

Lamb tongue on toast - a bolshy meaty pile of lambs tongues on toast with onion gravy.

Lamb rump (I think) on lentils. A really excellent dish. Showed really great balance and control of flavour with a delicious of sweetness on the outside of the lamb (also the accompanying salad).

Overall I was favourably impressed, particularly with the last lamb dish. There is some smart stuff going on in the kithen. Not as good as El Faros (those rose tinted spectacles eh) but better than Jose.

J

Spot on Jon.

We also had those dishes except for the croquetas, which on the day were blue cheese.

I agree on the quail, I thought they looked a bit insipid and the sauce sadly overpowered them somewhat.

Enjoyed the lambs tongue, but the star was the other dish, lamb with lentils. Was yours served with a dish of romaine lettuce? Ever so simple but added another dimension. Very nicely dressed with vermouth, honey, and olive oil, and seasoned, great.

Incidently, our waitress told me it was shoulder, and when it appeared on the plate it was clearly not. Chef explained it was one of the leg muscles which have to be cooked slightly shorter or longer depending on which muscle they were cooking. A meat thermometer was used every time.

Lamb, lentils, radicchio.

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BTW this is a tasting portion. Its on the menu as a main only. We were fairly stuffed by the time we had worked our way through nearly every tasting plate. I pleaded with Herve, Jose's business partner and he asked chef, and bingo we were in business :smile:

"So many places, so little time"

http://londoncalling...blogspot.co.uk/

@d_goodfellow1

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To add to the praise above, we had an excellent lunch a couple of weeks ago.

I really like the drinks list. A good range of sherries and importanly covering txacoli and paxaran. It turned into a 5 hour lunch as the food was followed by many cortados and paxarans.

We were in a group of 7 so ordered the entire menu. We enjoyed pretty much everything but the stand-out was the ham. £20 may seem a lot for a plate of ham but this is the very best Iberico. Massive flavours, very long - turkish delight, tar, tobacco - beautiful. A similar raciones of the best Iberico will cost you €18+ in San Sebastian so its not that punitive a mark-up.

Great room also, feels like its been there for a long time already. I'll go back there before any of the Brindisas/Barrafina/Moro (all of which I like).

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Enjoyed the lambs tongue, but the star was the other dish, lamb with lentils. Was yours served with a dish of romaine lettuce? Ever so simple but added another dimension. Very nicely dressed with vermouth, honey, and olive oil, and seasoned, great.

Yes I had it with the dish of lettuce too. Noticed there was a yummy slightly sweet dressing. Did make a lot of difference (nicest bowl of rabbit food I've had for a while).

The ham at José's half a portion to make it more accessible and more inline with the rest of the menu prices

Hullo Scott!

More Cookbooks than Sense - my new Cookbook blog!
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  • 1 month later...

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Just remembered that with all of the comments on this popular thread, that I did not do any kind of review. That would be a real shame as to sit for two to three hours on the uncomfortable bar stools and not do a report, well it would be a bit of a waste.

Everyone is compted these crunchy morsels just to get your jaws ready for the main event.

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Fifteen items on the days menu, broken down by ten tapas and five larger main course dishes. Can't remember if there were any more "specials", but this was enough choice for us in any event.

Right in front of us the young lady was prepping and plating an appealling looking Artichoke, cauliflower and soft cheese salad.So we ordered that to start with. This was tasty enough, perhaps (to me) looking a bit better than it actually ate. Also on the plate were some crunchy walnuts which added extra texture.

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Prawns, Cecina,(cured or smoked meat) chilli, garlic., was a good eat. So good in fact the Mrs wanted another portion. So did I, but wanted to try as many dishes as we could manage first.

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Gathering pace now, we could not resist the Boquerones which were plated up with, sweet roasted red peppers, olives, a well dressed mixed salad, and perfectly cooked runny golden egg.

This was one of the best dishes and its contents disappeared rather sharpishly out of sight.

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I'm always amazed to see what chefs can transform pulses into. So the soup on the menu had to be tested out. Spicey chickpea soup, chorizo or manchego. The sausage was more appealing than the cheese and guessed the spicey, smoked fatty meat would just advance the dish farther than cheese would. I was right.

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I can't resist Quail if its on a menu its on my plate. This version although perfectly cooked lacked colour which was slightly off putting and it would also have gained a bit more flavour by searing it more.

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The romesco sauce was ok, I just feel the plate could have been elevated a bit more, Not by far the best quail we have eaten.

We ate duck at home last night and ate the ducks liver by flashing it in the pan with butter. The Duck livers, capers, Fino here were at their distinctive best, quite strong flavoured, not everyone's cup of tea, a bit of an aquired taste I guess. The little flavour bomb capers took our minds off the offally overload.

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I have described the Lamb, lentils, and radiccio above so I will not dwell on it too much, suffice to say it smelled and tasted wonderfull.

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We ate nearly every "starter" plus the tasting portion of lamb, and we were well and trully stuffed.

The last dish was not something that you often see on menus, if at all. Lamb's tongues, red onions and gherkins. Again, strong flavour, pleasant enough, good to have the gherkins to cut through. Not a memorable dish but one we would try again if we returned.

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Well, as you can see we ate for England, but it was over about a three hour period so it was not too bad. Truth be told we had to do something to take our minds off the poorly designed stools which we kept slipping off. Portion size is far from mean, quite generous in fact, so not really tapas as such from that point of view.

We very much like this format for a change from Michelin, and general fine dining. The honesty of the cooking shines through and I am not wracking my brains trying to guess components in a dish, its all there in front of you so I just get on with eating it.

Apart from the tasting portion of lamb (£10) and the prawns (£8) all of the other tapas dishes were from £5.50 to £6.50 so it is not at all expensive and ideal for an anytime visit without breaking the bank. Our lunch bill including a bottle of house wine and tip was about £80, but that was for an awful lot of food, suffice to say we did not eat anything more, until the next day

If we lived local we would be trying each new dish as it came on to the menu, but we don't. More's the shame.

"So many places, so little time"

http://londoncalling...blogspot.co.uk/

@d_goodfellow1

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