A lovely spot with authentic tapas and a diverse Spanish wine selection. The service is on point from the time you walk through the door. All the food here is delicious and cooked across the bar from you in a very clean and organized kitchen. For a quick snack, I highly recommend the ham croquetas - crispy perfection on the outside and a creamy cheese flavored filling sprinkled with savory ham chunks on the inside. read more

I have to say really disappointed. I have come here 3 times in the last month. Why you might ask? Well the first 2 times amazing. Here is why I give it 1 star. This is important... we get there at 20:45. 2 plus hours before they close. And at least 4 employees tell us you might not get to eat. What????? In the mean time they lose 15-20 people that might have eaten there. Now here is why I give this place a 1 star. The manager... the manager drops her towel which she was cleaning the bar with. She picks it up off the dirty floor and uses it to clean the table. What????? I ask for the manager and they point to the person who just cleaned the table. This is by far one of the worst things I have seen. She tried to have a excuse like I flipped it around. Really. I will never eat here again. Not to mention everyone that works in the front of the house had dirty shirts. This place needs a big change in the front of the house before I ever eat here again. Really bad!!! read more

Small place, bar sitting, amazing tapas (we ordered while waiting) - ham croquettes, lomo, and some tempura shrimp with a nice chilli like mayonaise. Then we got to the good part, I ordered the chicken thigh w/ romescuo (delicious, perfect portion, golden and crunchy, covered in almonds and hazelnuts) my husband got the pluma ibérica w/ confit potatoes, amazing too (I liked mine better though ‍) And for dessert the chocolate tart (loved it, simple, with kind of a mousse texture, dark more than milk chocolate, really good). Recommended, no doubt! read more

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New location in Coal Drop Yard. Pretty overpriced, but the Iberian Pork and Romesco made it worth it. Honestly, don't waste your time on the fish of the day or any other dishes. Just get the Iberian pork, which has a hickory, smokey taste and will show you flavours you won't soon forget. read more

This was a recommendation from a friend, and I am so happy I went! Love these kind of places - like a little pop-up in the Boqueria. Seafood was the focus, so I started with the grilled octopus. It was really excellent, but I decided to try steak as a main course. It was really tender, just perfectly done. Highly recommend this place. read more

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Beware of payment scams here! We came to the patio- Parrillan, with a large group. We put our name on the list and were told about an hour wait. An hour and a half passed before we went to the restaurant to check on our table, where they told us they couldn't seat us and offer us the whole menu due to the children in our group, and we came to find that our table had been ready for quite a while, but we had not been informed. This was an aggravating start to our meal. We only had appetizers, sides, and rice dishes available to us due to our seating arrangement. We paid, per usual, and left disappointed with the service. The next day, while my husband was routinely checking our bank records, he saw a double charge. One was the correct charge from our meal with Parillan, and there was another for Barrafina for £270! In all of our travels, we have absolutely NEVER had a false charge from a restaurant, let alone such a "high class" establishment. We have no idea how this happened, and are very suspicious of their financial activities that are causing such high cost false charges from a different branch of they restaurant. Use caution here if you value your financial security! read more

Service was not great but more importantly the food had no flavor to it. Disappointing for a place that is so highly rated. Sea bass was over cooked read more

Great place! We start with drinks and tapas, but usually end up staying for dinner anyway. I personally like the shishito peppers. The atmosphere is lovely. read more

We were very lucky to catch the last available table on a Wednesday evening. Immediately after us they were telling people the wait was an hour, so I suggest arriving at opening or shortly after. The food was great, authentic Spanish tapas including the best olives I've tasted. The Iberia ham was the reason we came and it did not disappoint, mouthwateringly delicious! If you've never been to Spain or lucky enough to have this ambrosia, you are missing out! We also had a half carafe of a nice temranillo and a plate of pimentos/grilled peppers. All together a great experience. read more

The wait time for a table was about an hour, so be prepared to wait! I got in line outside and waited for about 30 minutes before being led inside....to another line. I hadn't realized that would happen but I was still waiting for one more person to join me so it was ok. You wait inside along a bar so you are able to order drinks and some snacks. That was great! By the time we were seated (about an hour wait time total for 3 people on a Friday at 7pm) we had already enjoyed some wine. The food was really good. I love everything that we tried. Worth the wait for sure! read more

Just top class! Everything was great, from the service to the food. You cant book a table but you can order snacks and drinka while queing read more

I've been in this place since frith st. I live in Asia this is always been the first stop when I'm in London and this is definitely one of the best restaurant/Spanish restaurant I've been read more

We came to Barrafina for our first dinner in London, although unbeknownst to us, there are multiple locations...so we ended up at this location because it was closest to where we had been walking, as opposed to the location in Covent Garden. I imagine that all 3 locations are similar, though - no reservations, and you have to queue up to get a table at the bar. This location has one counter facing outwards at the corner of the restaurant, but I'd avoid that if possible. There are also some outside dining spots, but in late December, it wasn't something we wanted to endure (although those spots were fully occupied when we were there). We ended up waiting a little over an hour despite getting there shortly after open, and with nowhere to sit, make sure your feet are prepared to endure. You can order off an abbreviated snacks menu while waiting, as well as (thankfully) being able to order drinks as well. There's what I would call an okay selection of wines (compared to what we could order in Spain on the next leg of our trip, I thought it was limited), with my main issue being that our server, once we were seated, gave us an entire bottle of white instead of the glass I asked for...being in the U.K., I didn't think understanding English would be an issue, but something clearly got lost in translation. As for the bites while waiting - the croquettes were delicious, but my favorite (which was probably my favorite bite of the entire night) were the chorizo 'Slim Jims' that were lightly baked in something that had the texture of potato chips...truly an excellent bar snack. Once you are seated, you get access to the full menu, and there were a decent number of specials to order on top of that. Given our larger lunch earlier in the day, we kept it on the lighter side, but all of the food was still very good, although I would argue that compared to other Spanish tapas I have had in Spain and in the U.S., it wasn't so much better that it warrants a Michelin star. The bread with tomato was a great starter - liberally-drizzled olive oil on top of freshly-crushed tomato and served on crispy bread was a nice way to start the meal. We went with the grilled quail as our main meat dish - lightly gamy with a savory aioli paired with it. Given the presence of whole fish, we went with the John Dory, which was presented and served in a simple Mediterranean fashion. The fish was flaky and succulent, and even though it's a whole fish, working around the bones was pretty simple. The beetroot salad was alright, if a pretty straightforward presentation. We finished off the meal with an excellent lemon meringue pie; I really enjoyed the presentation, with the small individual meringues baked across the top of a perfectly tart slice. The tapas at Barrafina are quite good, and while I would come visit again, I'm not quite sure it merits the wait in line...simply put, I have had tapas of comparable (or better) quality elsewhere without burning time watching others enjoy their meal. I'd say this is a 3.5-star experience, but I'm rounding down because this didn't clear my the (perhaps too high?) bar of expectations that I had set. read more

A small tapas bar in SOHO. The presentation is top notch and the food is delicious. We had the octopus, quail, chicken, chips, prawns, and toast. Though the prices were mental (ie: 4 pounds for one tempura prawn), you can tell that all their dishes are done with great care. I wasn't a big fan of the octopus even though it is their logo but maybe that's just me. It was a bit bland and squishy to me. The place is small, and very loud. Do not expect to get immediate seating with parties more than 2. This place is not quiet. The seating is bar style around all the chefs, who are constantly shouting orders in Spanish. All in all, it is a wonderful tapas establishment in the middle of SOHO. read more

Came here on my solo weekend to London. It being my first time here, I did serious research on where I needed to eat in a short 48 hours. I decided on Barrafina on Friday night because it was close to my hotel in SoHo and I love a good tapas place. I waited outside for about 30-40 minutes and then had to queue inside for about the same. Once inside you are in a line but can order food and wine while you wait. I got seated earlier than most near me because it's a perk of being single. I had about 3 different servers while I was there and the ONLY reason I'm not giving it 5 stars is because of my main server. This place has a positive stigma attached to it and you gotta be on the same playing field. He was a little rude and finally an older server stepped up and asked me about my dishes. The food was the star of the show and didn't disappoint, I actually mainly went with the specials they had on the board and the Hart Bros Wine the owners make. read more

Barrafina - Tapas/Small Plates Near Me - London, XGL

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Long lines aren't worth the wait. We waited 30 minutes outside just to get to another queue inside that was 60 minutes long. We were willing to wait because of all the hype. In the end, I could make half those meals better at home myself. read more

Excellent food and service. Was dining on my own so was able to bypass the wait. Ordered the cuttlefish empanada, anchovie escalivada, and rabo de toro. Everything came out prompt and rabo de toro was the star. read more

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There was nothing in particular wrong with this place. All of the food was reasonably good. The service was excellent. I was just left feeling at the end that I spent too much money on B+ grade food. I wish I would have gone somewhere else. read more

Delicious spanish food!!! Must go early to get a seat right away but their waiting system is so easy and genius where you are able to drink a few and eat a quick bite while you wait effortlessly inside the restaurant parallel to the bar. Love that you can get to see the chefs prepare your meals so close by. The staffs are well trained and work so well together as a team. Would def go back the next time I'm visiting london. read more

We were at 2018 Christmas. A really good experience. A Piece of Spain at the City. All plates we ate were tasty and well cooked. Apprecited; we'll come qback. For enjoying the marvellous Spanish food!! read more

4.5 star. I don't know why people make bad review about this place. It is full of great and well made. Highly recomemnd to go if you are in Soho and want some spanish food. read more

highly recommended to me! my sister and i arrived knowing we had go wait. i think we waited about 40-50 minutes. you have to stay in cue which is the annoying part. we ordered some apps while Austin but it took a very long time to come. Beleive we ordered the monki fish or siemthing. we were ready to eat when we sat down, right in front of the chief too! we ordered, i believe 5 dishes - which is a lot considered it was just us two! we ordered as much as we could from the special menu, try as much as you can! we loved the artichokes, and calamari - different than your average! can't remember the names of dishes but i've attached some pictures! everything was excellent and we thoroughly enjoyed the dishes, nothing was too heavy or overpowering, just greatly seasoned and flavoured. we also had the tuna tartar which was really nice, served with guac! but not a must. the plus side of sitting right in front of the chiefs, was being able to watch them prepare it, made it taste that much better! read more

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