Dehesa

Really creative tapas, with Italian, French, and English influences put to good use. Come here if you want some interesting alternatives to regular tapas. The prices are reasonable, the portions are decent. The only downside is that its such a tight squeeze inside, and the service didn't seem up to par for the 12.5% service charge.

Review by The London Insider

I read the earlier reviews of this place with interest - I have been to Dehesa many times in the past year and always enjoyed it.

So what have I been doing differently ? Well, for me this is a wine bar, so that means ordering some nice wine and having a light snack with it, rather than coming here for a full meal.

Things to enjoy here are: excellent wine list (including dry and sweet sherries) which is generally quite reasonably priced, superb sliced meats, cheeses and griddled bread with aioli for dipping and a relaxed, sophisticated vibe in a great corner location in Soho.

It's not that expensive (for London) given the high quality, but the portion sizes tend to be on the small side, so for me it's a great place to meet a friend (preferably a fellow oenophile), catch up over a bottle of wine and snack on some lovely salami and cheese. And maybe have a dessert wine to round the evening off, too.

See my full review here:

http://cambridgewineblogger.blogspot.com/2010/10/drinks-a...

For full review see www.grumblinggourmet.com

In the mould of other modern tapas joints such as Barrafina, Salt Yard and Brindesa, Dehesa strives for quality rather than authenticity. No sombreros or Spanish guitar here and it's so much the better for it. Cramped but comfortable, with hams hanging and a central bar dividing the two halves of the low lit bar. Three semi-circular banquettes underneath the large windows are ideal if there are 3 or (skinny types only) 4 of you, if there are more I'd recommend booking the cozy private room in the basement, if there are 1 or 2 of you then you're encouraged to share the communal table or take a seat at the bar. It's a bright and loud well heeled Soho crowd and the room chatters with conversation.

It's a regularly changing seasonal menu, that usually consists of 15 or so items, split equally between meat, fish and vegetables plus a healthy selection of charcuterie and cheeses. Despite the lumps of air dried meat hanging in the window, you wouldn't have a problem bringing vegetarians here. There are more than enough decent dishes, including lightly fried courgette flowers stuffed with Monte Enebro goat's cheese and drizzled with honey. I had these in their sister restaurant Salt Yard a few years ago and they're exceptional. The two filthy carnivores were also tempted by a silken squash ravioli, parcels of al dente sun yellow pasta served in a borlotti bean, speck and marjoram sauce.

We'd had our appetites whet with a chewy toasted sourdough bread that came with a Spanish charcuterie selection including a so-so paprika edged lomo and an excellent nutty Salchichon salami. You can, and probably should, spend at least one meal sat near their meat bar, taking wooden platter after wooden platter of the ham on the bone.

We also went for an chunky hunk of grilled sea bream set off perfectly with its salty stew of mushrooms and samphire and finished with a confit of (slightly dry, the only missed note) rabbit wrapped in parma ham served with a salsa verde.

Dehesa works on so many levels, but principally because they care about their ingredients and cook them, in the main, very well. Service and atmosphere are laidback and friendly and the pricing almost no different to La Tasca. You've got no excuse for ever going to an 'authentic' tapas bar again...

Had walked past this place so many times but never been in, so recently on a rare occasion when my wife and I were in town together we decided to pop in for lunch.

Took the last 2 seats (at the bar) and settled into a delicious meal. Ok, this isn't the tapas of some grungy-but-authentic-little-place in the backstreets of Madrid. It's very much London tapas. But it's great.

A note on the service. In theory good service is about flawlessness. In practice I find good service is actually about how you recover from the mistakes that will inevitably be made. And there were a few.

A dish that was delivered but not ordered. Another dish that was ordered but not delivered. But the recovery was great - the unordered dish stayed, free. The late dish was rustled up, free. A 20% discount was applied to the lot, and some sherry appeared from nowhere just before coffee.

I'm sure the business manager of this place might have winced at all this, but it sure made a good impression on us. We'll be back.

Being there for a sort of pre dinner aperitif with a friend.
Lovely atmosphere, 6:30 pm wasn't so busy or noisy, very nice ambience, friendly staff. Around 8 pm started to get busy but we were about to live at that time.
Liked the chargrilled bread with olive oil (£2.50), enjoyed the charcuterie plate and some fried cod to go with 2 glasses of wine.
A bit pricy (£ 30.00 in total) but I think I'll go back for a quick snack or an aperitif.

I ate in the private room downstairs with a group of friends to celebrate a birthday. We were a party of 10 and the room is lovely. It felt really private. Ample room. A great space.
The service was very efficient and pleasant. Alos because it’s tapas they call by the room often.
Now we did have four or five bottles of wine and the wine was very good. However, the meal was an awesome £75 per head and, to be honest, this left a bit of a nasty taste in the mouth. The charges for coffees, teas are very steep. And to me this was not a £75 meal. it was ok. It was tapas. But not £75.
Enjoy the quaint building. Sit upstairs and watch the world go by. Order a few dishes.
But if you’re in the party room do a deal beforehand on the whole bill … or you’ll be stung!

Steer clear of this place - it looks lovely, but the quality of the ingredients were not great (our fish & beef dishes were just of poor quality & consistency, and to be honest, didn;t taste great). On the expensive side, and nowhere near as good as Barrafina.

Even the desserts were not great.

Dehesa is a quaint little restaurant perched on the corner of Ganton street and Kingly street not far from world famous Liberty's store. This Spanish style restaurant is a more up market version of the Salt Yard in Goodge street and offers an excellent combination Spanish- Italian wines, cured meats, cheeses and small dishes which are more elaborate than the conventional tapas in some Spanish restaurants. I was dining there with a few friends a few weeks ago and it was quite busy. Although they don’t take bookings we managed to find ourselves a nice out of the way table near a bay window. The seating in the main restaurant consists of rows of high bar stools, but if you get in early then a some proper tables are available. The menu is quite extensive with a huge choice from the meat, fish and vegetable tapas. I have eaten here a few times and on this occasion I decided to start with salt cod croquette accompanied with deep fried courgette flowers stuffed with Monte Enebro cheese with a drizzle of honey. For the main course I went for the lamb chops served with a pleasing hot mint sauce and the meat was I admit served at just the right temperature. The main dish was accompanied with polenta cakes with gorgonzola,braised Swiss Chard done in a tomato sauce garnished with a perfect poached egg. I finished off with an unusual dessert consisting of fresh figs roasted in sherry served with wafer thin biscuits and burnt lemon ice cream which had a pleasing texture brought out by the tangy citrus juices which had been caramelized in a subtle fashion without showing any traces of being burnt. All the sherries,wines ports were chosen well to accompany the main meal. A meal for two with wine would be around 75 pounds and well worth for a special occasion.