Barrafina - Tapas Restaurant in London

My favorite meal of the trip thus far has been at Barrafina.  This is a highly regarded Spanish tapas restaurant located in the SoHo neighborhood of London.

Seating is around an open kitchen with a few additional tables outside.  You queue up along the back wall of the restaurant while waiting your turn at the counter.  Looking at all the great dishes coming out of the kitchen was making me extra hungry and impatient.  One of the servers was taking great care of all the people in the queue - taking drink orders or food orders.  I started with a bottle of Spanish white while I waited.  The queue stretched out to the front door so I was happy that I arrived early on a spectacular Saturday night.

After about 35 minutes, my seat opened up on the corner of the bar.  Soon after sitting I put in several orders.  Everything was very good and there were even a few 'wow' dishes that stood out above the rest.  My favorite plates were the: octopus with capers, ham croquetas, fresh clams in garlic, and oil and chickpeas with spinach and bacon.

Service was attentive throughout the meal and the limitation of my stomach capacity was the only thing keeping me from ordering more.  Dining here reminded me of my fantastic trip to Spain.

Barrafina lives up to its billing as the top tapas bar in London.  It was even better than I expected.