Donostia - London

We think restaurants are all about the people they lead. good people create good restaurants. they take care of more high quality ingredients and they customers have a good time with good food and good wine, more than they care about pr, marketing, fantasy foam and beautiful decoration; they focus on hospitality. donostia is one of these restaurants. it is a casual restaurant that serves Spanish tapas and family-style Mains in a bright and modern restaurant where everyone seems welcome. the best places are at the bar, with a look at the carving of the Spanish ham from the bone and chatting with owners nemanja and his young team. they began to import wein so that the wee are great and good value. this is the type of restaurant where you could meet in the metzger, just the cuts for the daily specialties have delivered. in the night we were there, there was an amazing slowly baked lamb shelf that would look at home on the esstic of a Spanish family. it's just far enough of soho to escape the hype. We like it, and we'd be regulars if we live in london.

From Donostia Social Club food van at Kerb festival. Those seared scallops were incredible and anyone that's generous with cheese is a winner to me. A great selection of tapas and super generous portions.

So much Spanish food in London is greasy and bland Donostia on the other hand serves delicious food from the Basque Country using fresh and high quality ingredients. The aged jamón ibérico is to die for. Recently tried the monkfish on squid ink rice, which is excellent. Service is impeccable and our waiter had some great recommendations for sherry pairings in addition to being very knowledgeable about the sources of the dishes and drinks on the menu.

When we visited Donostia the first time we were impressed how well the owners and staff had settled into their new surroundings only weeks after opening its doors to the public. Donostia has moved on since then and received much critical acclaim from some high profile reviewers and we couldn’t agree more.

Ok I liked this place, good ambiente and good wein, however: eating is not like in donostia, I felt like it was an london adapted version. that it was still very good and had a good value for money. I have no favorite dish to recommend, I have only three or four dishes if it. between lurra and donostia (same owner, I think one before the other) I prefer lurra, especially for special nights. donostia is a lighter and easier version for a good dinner, perhaps during the week recommended to try!