Casa Brindisa, South Kensington

Brindisa has many restaurants across London; London Bridge, Soho, Shoreditch and South Kensington, each slightly different, but all offering Tapas, as well as a retail outlet so you can try to recreate dishes at home.

I visited Casa Brindisa in South Kensington with D & M  for lunch.

From the picoteo; picking plates we had the marinated olives and vegetarian bomba. I'm not a fan of olives so I can't say how they tasted, however I told they were ok, nothing special to write home about. The vegetarian bomba had a deep smoky taste, the croquette was crisp on the outside. The sauce was very sharp and tangy. It tasted as though there was salad cream on the bottom.It was pleasant.

Of course an item from the charcuterie had to be chosen. As you walk through the door you're greeted with hanging legs of ham. We couldn't decide so opted for the Charcuteria selection, this gave a great selection; spiciness of the chorizo, pepperiness of the salchichon, the lomo and Teruel ham both were salty with a slight sweetness. These were all cut to a decent size, not wafer thin, which was great. My favourite was the Teruel ham as it had a intense depth of flavour and the chorizo due to its spice. This plate was served with bread and a fantastic fruity olive oil.

The table had to be cleared before we could proceed with; lamb cutlets, chorizo tortilla and a fish selection. 

The lamb cutlets were chargrilled, you could taste the grill marks, but it came with a sweet, fruity delicious sauce made from the reduction of Joven de Silos wine. The chorizo tortilla came with aioli, this was lukewarm and salty, it was ok. The fish selection was my least favourite dish here, I really disliked this dish. 

The fish selection's fish all tasted as though they were all preserved in some form. The texture and taste of the mackerel tasted as though the mackerel was slightly off, instead of being a firm texture it was soft. The mackerel looked and tasted as though this is what mackerel sashimi would have been like in the 16th century before fridges and fermenting was the technique used for sushi. The small sardines were babies, it seemed like such a waste to eat them as they were so small, it would have been better if they had been left to grow into actual small sardines, these came as though they had been preserved in oil. The mojama; air cured tuna loin was salty and had an incredible intense fishy taste, and the baby squid, my least favourite item on the dish, tasted as though they were off, incredibly fishy with a slightly crumbly texture instead of squid having a slight elastic texture as you chew. I would say I am a fish person. I enjoy eating most types of fish; cooked or raw, but perhaps I'm not a fishy person enough to eat this dish. 

After the fish selection I couldn't stomach anything else, which was a shame as I was still slightly hungry. I think we should of stopped at the charcuterie selection. Service was relaxed, some may call it slow, but it suits the restaurant.  

I think tapas works great if it was at a bar as a snack whilst drinking as it was designed for, or as a light lunch option I think it works, but as we were sitting there I thought if this was dinner I would be ravenous and would of had to order twice as much.