Tapa Tapa O2

I have to admit, I had very low expectations when I decided to dine here before seeing Afrika Afrika, but I was surprised by the quality of the food. Oh, and Afrika was fabulous.

Food

There are several set menus to choose from, but we decided to create our own feast:

• Pan con Alioli (£1.75) - Fresh slices of bread served with our own recipe alioli was a good start. The bread was white but soft and fresh, and the aioli was tangy and eggy, although I used the bread really to mop up the sauces more than anything else.
• Patatas Bravas (£2.45) - Deep fried potatoes served with either our tangy (mild) tomato or piquante (hot) tomato sauce Not quite as crispy or nice as the ones from Spain, also bits of charred ones are included as well. We asked for the hot sauce but they must’ve got it wrong as it wasn’t remotely hot.
• Pinchito Moruno (£4.25) - Tender pieces of pork marinated with Arabian spices and cooked on the char grill - this came as a giant metal skewer, with huge pieces of pork between grilled onions and capsicum. The pork was tender, but the spices were more like salty…still, not bad.
• Champinones al Jerez (£3.45) -Pan fried mushrooms with sherry I love this dish, the mushrooms have soaked up the garlicky and buttery sauce, and there was a huge plate of it too!
• Chorizo Frito a la Sidra (£3.65) - Traditional Spanish sausage pan fried in cider - this tastes very similar to the ones we had in Spain, except the chorizo has slightly less bite and are fatter, but I like them like that

This is not really like tapas in Spain. True, you get your typical dishes, but the portions are huge in comparison to Spain, and they all arrive at once, making it very difficult to fit everything on the table.

Rating - 6.5

Atmosphere

There is actually a very long bar running down one side of the restaurant. Otherwise, they have dried to theme it like a Spanish pub. Red is the main décor, and we managed to sit at one of the booths. All the signs are in Spanish, which is kinda cute. The only gripe is the unisex toilet, not cool.

Rating - 2

Service

Luckily the wait staff are on the ball here. They take away your dishes so you have more room and make sure that you are ok. Our waiter, Jennifer, was actually polite and genuinely friendly, which believe me, is hard to find these days. They even added lemon slices to our tap water, a great touch.

Rating - 4

C-factor

For the portions that we got, this was a bargain! Tapas is usually expensive as the portions are so small, but here, no problems at all. We were very full and satisfied from our meal.

Rating - 1.5

Brownie Points - 14

Info

Entertainment Avenue
The O2
London
SE10 0DY
Phone+44 (0) 20 8858 6202
Website