Pinchito Tapas

Fine for drinking, but don't expect much from the food. Swimming in grease, the tapas is standard fare at best. The service on a Saturday night was extremely poor: confusion over booking, then asked for our order within a minute of being sat down, twice - by two different waitresses. Food literally chucked on the table, plates cleared before being finished. You'd be much better off at Dehesa, Brindisa, Barrafina, Salt Yard or Moro.
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LN_E17 - View all reviews by this user
2 Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 2
Monday, December 05, 2011

Disappointing experience.

We made a reservation and turned up ten minutes early for our 9pm booking, we informed four different people that we had a reservation and gave our name. As we stood in the walk way, we looked at the drinks menu as we were happy to have a drink at the bar before we sat down at our table. One of the staff a Manager I guess dealt with our drinks order and was well aware that we were waiting to be seated.

We decided to have a cigarette outside, and even told the bar-back/waitress that we were going outside. As we were stood outside, three different tables of four rocked up and I even joked to my friends that I bet due to the disorganisation that they would give our table away. Low and behold this is what they did, not only once but three more times. The only table left was in the walk-way by the door, there were no chairs left, so the barman went next door to the Music and Arts project to borrow some of their school-like chairs.

The Manager gave the excuse that he thought that one of the other tables was us and that's why he gave the table away. We explicitly told 4 different staff members including the Manager that we had a reservation, and we were the only table of 4 who turned up early for their table, so how does something like this transpire?

Nearly forty minutes later we are seated on the lowest sofa imaginable, but we decided to take this over the table in the middle of the walk-way as we were now starving.

The food is not the best, the standards are akin to a large tapas chain in the UK.We ordered quite a lot of dishes, but I had to laugh when I saw the pa amb tomaquet, not sure what happened here but the bread was non-existent, they had basically cut the dog ends off a dying baguette and left a bowl full of crumbs.

The waitress who served us can not be faulted, she was very good – and they did comp a Sangria (pink, actually very tasty) and a bottle of wine. We removed the service as it was non-existent in the first instance, but did leave a little cash for the waitress. The music was good, but you really can’t dine on music alone, so it was a disappointment. We were looking forward to an evening of good food and atmosphere with time to catch up, what we were given resulted in a downer for the rest of the evening as the seating was uncomfortable, the food wasn’t mediocre and we started off on the wrong foot.

If you want decent tapas then pop to Iberica on Great Portland Street or just make your own, you’ll save a wasted evening.

Pinchito: Hire more staff, and anticipate how busy you will be on a Saturday since you know it is the busiest evening of the week.
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B
3 Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 2
Monday, October 18, 2010

I find tapas bars that try to replicate 'Olde Worlde' Spanish bars, with dark wood and the odd cart wheel, rather tacky so how refreshing to go to Pinchito Tapas, which realises that Spain is also a very modern & hip country. Thank goodness that it does this without dropping on quality.

We took out a couple of Canadian friends here last night and had a great time in this buzzy local bar/restaurant. From the very courteous call confirming out last minute online booking to our shade under £30 per head bill, it was all good.

No Spanish guitars or castanets here folks, just lovely food, very friendly but professional staff (they were working hard but were enjoying themselves too), good wine. It's got a cool but unpretentious atmosphere (amazing for Shoreditch).

We will certainly return. Thank you.
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Telboyofpeckham - View all reviews by this user
10 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Sunday, October 10, 2010