Casa Brindisa, London

Casa Brindisa
7-9 Exhibition Road,
South Kensingtin,
London SW7 2HE
020 75900008

After a whole day of exploring the Victoria and Albert Museums, we just wanted a place where we could sit down and calmly reflect and discuss the many wonderful objects of art, that we had seen during the day.

A right and left turn from the museum entry, took us to this beautiful cul de sac filled with many eateries. While the pastries in the Lebanese  place were extremely enticing, we settled on Casa Brindisa, because we liked the look and feel of this place the best.

Part of a chain, Casa Brindisa is a small Spanish Tapas bar, just across the Natural History museum with a lovely range of Spanish cured meats, tapas and wines.

When we entered and asked for a table for 2, the lady in charge said something about an hour and a half. The place was full, so I said "I'm sorry, but we can't wait an hour and a half for a table" She then said "Sorry, if I wasn't clear, but I need the table back in one and a half hour as it is booked for someone else" Talk about organisation and being prepared!! But, I think this is also because most patrons here, seem to order a bottle of wine from their huge selection and take their time relaxing and catching up with friends.

For us, we just needed a quick pick me up of coffee, a bit of food for energy and a warm place to rest our tired legs for awhile.

They have a lot of original Spanish cured meats that were being sliced at the entry and in a bid to sample a few varieties, I ordered the Charcuteria Regional selection (12.50). It came with Teruel ham,  salchichon, lomo, and chorizo with fresh sourdough bread and olive oil. The platter was really huge and meant for 4 rather than 2 people. The same platter with iberico ham instead of Teruel ham was 21.50 pounds, but I wasn't in the mood to spend that much on a tea break - we shall try iberico ham when we visit Spain. :)

They have a lot of lovely touches around the place, the cutlery served in empty pimento cans, the menus as table mats, water served in wine bottles.

The latte that I ordered was 2.75 pounds and quite good.

They have quite a few mains and hot starters too. Definitely worth trying either for evening drinks or an early dinner.

Rating : 3.5 / 5