I’m quite a fan of the Spanish chef José Pizzaro and have eaten in both his tapas restaurants in Bermondsey (“Jose Tapas Bar”:https://josepizarro.com/venues/jose-tapas-bar-bermondsey/ and “Pizzaro Restaurant”:https://josepizarro.com/venues/pizarro-restaurant-bermondsey/) and, more recently, visited his newly opened restaurant in the Royal Academy (“Jose Pizzaro at the RA”:https://www.silvertraveladvisor.com/review?id=209538).
So, after a trip to see Anything Goes at the Barbican, we decided to eat at José Pizzaro Broadgate Circle, which was conveniently situated for our trips home by train from London Liverpool Street station. Fortunately José’s cooking is more imaginative than the names of his restaurants!
On arrival at 6pm, the girl was taking so long to find our reservation on the system, my friend was reaching for her phone to get the confirmation. However, it was eventually tracked down.
Compared to the Royal Academy, the restaurant is small as opposed to large, and industrial as opposed to glamorous. However, the “menu”:https://josepizarro.com/media/documents/8.11._Broadgate_A4_Food_.pdf was virtually identical with a list of both cold and hot tapas.
We began with a bottle of cava (£39) from the reasonably priced “wine list”:https://josepizarro.com/media/documents/05.10.Jose_Pizarro_BROADGATE_WINE_HMNsw4H.pdf whilst nibbling on olives and padron peppers which we both love, although my friend was disappointed that in the Russian roulette that comes with padron peppers, I got the only hot one.
We then chose a selection of dishes: pan de masa madre (sourdough bread) with Pizzaro olive oil (delicious), croquetas del día (mushroom and garlic), patatas bravas and chorizo al vino (small spicy chorizo sausages cooked in red wine, scrummy).
Dishes came out at reasonable intervals but we both found the service a little irritating with forced smiles and a waitress who kept sneaking up on us and making us jump.
Afterwards, we asked for the drinks menu and were surprised at not finding under sherries, our favourite Pedro Ximénez. However, on asking, we were given another menu with a better selection of after dinner drinks including the PX. We enjoyed this with a selection of three cheeses from the cold tapas section of the menu, which came with tiny crisp biscuits, quince jelly and pear compote. A great way to finish off our meal.
I have now visited nearly all of Jose’s restaurants apart from one out of London, called Jose Pizzaro The Swan Esher.
Whilst the food was good, this is a bit of a trendy place and popular with the young office workers on their way home so it was a little noisy. The interior is relatively small but there is plenty of outside seating.
