Last night I was invited to Westfield in Shepherds Bush for a seasonal Spanish dinner at Tapas Revolution. I am such a fan of Tapas so I jumped at the chance to try it out!
Tapas Revolution is owned and created by talented Spanish chef Omar Allibhoy, winner of the Acorn ‘Young Star of the Future’ award 2012 and has been described by Gordon Ramsey as the “Antonio Banderas of cooking”. He started Tapas Revolution in 2010 at Westfield, then due to the success opened another at Bluewater shopping centre in 2011. Since then he has been serving customers traditional and authentic Spanish Tapas at both bars.
The bar at Westfield is situated on the balcony level overlooking the ground floor. I liked the layout of the bar with its high stools, open kitchen so you can see the food being prepared and also surrounded by dried peppers, olives and kitchen bits and pieces to really give you a nice welcome and friendly feeling.
I started off my dinner with some fizz, a glass of Segura Viudas, which is Cava Rose to the non Spanish amongst us. It had a great taste and I was ready to start eating!
The first dish to try was some Iberico Ham (Jamon Iberico de bellota de Guijuelo) and also some Toasted Bread with Tomato, Garlic and Olive Oil (Pan Con Tomate). The ham was delicious and the bread was a great combination of flavours. We then had a small drink/shot of Watermelon Gazpacho (Gazpacho de sandia). I have never had this before, it was a small soup drink, sort of looked like a smoothie and turns out it was a really refreshing way to cleanse the palette!
One of my favourite dishes I had was a special of the day, which were Prawn, Squid Ink and Scallop Croquetas (Croquetas de gambas, vieira y tinta de calamar ), different from the usual ham I decided to give them a go. Cutting open the Croqueta, the strange black goo that pours out can be slightly off-putting but trust me you must try it! They were really nice and not too fishy as you would expect.
The fried Calamari (Calamares Fritos) and Octopus and Potato with Paprika (Pulpo a la Gallega) were also on my favourites. I haven’t really had octopus before as the tentacles always put me off, but I decided to venture in and try it as it was all cut up. It was really amazing and will definitely be trying it more from now on. Omar revealed that octopus is one of the favourites and is very expensive to buy in, 4kg makes 1kg of meat and you have to make sure you buy the best octopus!
Other dishes we tried were Ham Croquetas (Croquetas de Jamon), Anchovies (Boquerones), Beef Skewers (Pinchos Muronos con mojo picon), Asparagus with a roasted Tomatoes and nuts sauce ( Espárragos con romesco) plus Paella made with pasta (Fideua) and Anchovies (Boquerones). I could go on about how great each one was, but they actually were so I won’t bore you with my ramblings, go sample for yourself!
I couldn’t leave without of course trying the Sangria. It had a fruity but rose taste to it, was really lovely and very easily drinkable- how very dangerous.
We ended the evening off with some Churros and Chocolate, I’m not really sure how anyone couldn’t like these? They are a sweet little taste of heaven!
Here I am with the owner and chef Omar, thanks for a fantastic evening!
