Spanish restaurants in London
18 places
ALTA
£££Basque live-fire cooking in Soho - everything routed through the grill, including the vegetables.
Bar Kroketa
££Built around the croqueta and not much else - a single-dish bar, done properly.
Barrafina Dean Street
£££Counter only and a Michelin star - no tables, you sit where you are put, and the plancha is a foot away. Bookable, despite the reputation for queues.
Walk-in only. The queue is shortest at opening and after 2pm.
Copita
£££A narrow Soho bar built for standing, small plates and sherry by the copita it is named after.
Dehesa
£££A corner site off Carnaby Street running Spanish and Italian small plates side by side, which is rarer than it sounds.
Ember Yard
£££Charcoal and smoke run through the whole menu, from the meat to the ice cream.
Escocesa
£££Scottish seafood cooked the Spanish way in Stoke Newington - the name is the whole idea.
Ibai
££££Fire-led Basque cooking and some of the best beef in the country, from the team behind Donostia - a tribute to the original Ibai in San Sebastián.
José
£££José Pizarro's standing-room sherry bar on Bermondsey Street - a handful of stools, a lot of jamón, and no way to book.
Legado
££££Nieves Barragán Mohacho's second restaurant after Sabor, cooking regional Spanish food rarely seen this side of the Pyrenees - and it took a Michelin star within two years.
Lurra
££££Aged Galician beef and whole turbot over coals, from the Donostia team - the Basque asador format done properly.
Maresco
£££Spanish technique applied to Scottish seafood, on a daily specials board that changes with what lands.
Morito
££The small, loud offshoot of Moro next door - a dozen seats at the counter and a menu that changes constantly.
Parrillan
£££You get your own small charcoal grill at the table and cook the skewers yourself - a format nothing else in London offers.
Pizarro
£££The sit-down sibling to José a few doors up - same chef, tables instead of stools, and you can book.
Sabor
££££Nieves Barragán Mohacho cooks her mother's Basque and Galician repertoire downstairs and roasts suckling pig in a wood oven upstairs.
Sagardi
£££The third proper asador in London and the easiest to get into - txuleton from old free-range cows over a charcoal grill in the middle of the room.
Salt Yard
£££One of the rooms that started London's small-plates habit, still doing courgette flowers stuffed with goat's cheese and honey.