Fino

Fino is the grown up restaurant cousin of tapas restaurant Barrafina, one of the London Yelp's highest rated restaurants. Located in the foodie area of Charlotte Street, its discreet entrance on Rathbone Street may be just off the main drag but worth the detour

The only issue I had with Fino is that its underground location means no mobile phone signal (I'm with Vodafone), which made it a little hard to keep in touch with my late-running friend

The menu is subdivided into the different genres of tapas and it's definitely a good idea to come in a group to try more dishes. Tapas is the original small plates restaurant. I recognised quite a few dishes which crossover with Barrafina

My favourite dish of the night was seared cuttlefish wrapped with pancetta, which had rightly been recommended by our waitress. The cuttlefish had the perfect chewy texture, which was offset by the smoky salty pancetta and all brought together by a black squid ink sauce

There was also a nice pork belly with crispy skin and their signature Fino sandwich, comprising wind dried beef and tetilla cheese sandwiched between Swiss chard and crispy fried

Reminders of Barrafina included good ham croquetas and stuffed deep fried courgette flower

Somehow, we found space for dessert. Creme catalana was a well made Spanish version of creme brulee but we liked the mil hojas more. It was a almond heavy millefeuille with caramel sauce

Barrafina is fun, especially watching the chefs cook but if you can't be bothered to queue, come to Fino instead

It is consistently the best tapas place that I've been to in London or New York City. After about ten meals here over the past three years, I still crave it every time I am in town. Brought to you by the crew that is behind Barrafina and Quo Vadis, it should be no surprise that it's good.

The problem here is that you don't know where to start or when to start. The meats are amazing, the melt-in-your-mouth pork belly being my favorite. The croquetas rival anything you'd find in Spain. I dream of sopping up the sauce from the clams, sherry and ham. The tortillas are just perfect.

My number one tip: You must book. I have probably tried to get into this restaurant 5 times on random nights of the week without a booking and have failed every time.

A sister restaurant of Barafina and serves great tapas as well. I went there a couple of time and every single time I was filled up with very delicious food.

Pimientos de padrón is usually a good tester dish for a tapas restaurant, and Fino does it really well. Another dish that you see in almost all tapas restaurants is tortilla Espanola and I can tell you not all tortilla Espanola is created equally. Fino probably has the best version I have tasted. Some restaurants give you a slice of tortilla, but here you get a whole one that shaped like a small wheel of cheese. As soon as you cut into it, you know why you get a whole one, because it is cooked just right and the middle is gooey and runny with egg, cheese and potato goodness. It is so delicious and enjoyable, nothing like the reheated, rubbery version from some restaurants. Octopus and Capers is a must try if you are into octopus. It is so tender and tasty. We suspect they have someone who's job is to massage the meat to tenderize it for hours.

Honestly, I haven't tried anything I don't like yet, so just go and order away. You won't be disappointed.

Came on a Thursday with reservations. Service was great - which is a deal breaker for a restaurant in this price range. Ordered a bottle of bubbly that was kept chilled through out our meal. We ordered a few things, however the standout dishes were the pork belly and jamon croquettes. I also appreciated the fennel salad. In fact we ordered a second plate of croquettes because it was that good. No dessert was ordered since we stuffed ourselves with tapas. Small portions and surprisingly decently priced, but not necessarily on the low side.

The only negative was that the food can out too quickly and would have preferred a slightly slower pace.

The restaurant is in the lower level, so no natural light or views of outside. Despite this, the restaurant feels bright enough and not claustrophobic.

I would return, but for a special dinner. Total came to about £125 for about 7 plates and a bottle of bubbly for two of us. Applying our lousy dollar conversion rate, it's about 200 bucks. Not bad considering we ordered whatever we wanted and walked away feeling very satisfied.

A special call out for the host who was very kind and welcoming upon our entry and departure.

I completely agree with razia and Bell as this is one of the best Spanish restaurants I have ever been in. Comfortable, well-spaced tables and good lighting enhance the exceptional food and wine. We had practically the whole tapas menu between six and it was absolutely delicious, washed down with a fantastic Urbina Riserva 1997 (£39) and some tasty Manzanilla La Pasada (£29) to start off with


The full menu included:-


Pan Con Tomate
Pimentos de Padron
Manchego
Jamon Joselito (£18.50)
Cold Meat Platter (£12.50)
Wild Sea bass (£16.50)
Squid plancha (£11.50)
Lamb cutlets
Tuna Tatare
Mussels
Grilled quail
Crab coqueta
Chorizo and tomato
Tortilla
Green beans
Baby beetroot
Savoy cabbage
Jerusalem artichoke


Take a band of friends and a full wallet (this meal's about £60 a head) and have a brilliant time!


PS the entrance is in Rathbone St, not Goodge St, and at night one can park outside as it's a single yellow line

Dinner here last night with parents. I'd been once before a couple of years ago with clients.


I wasn't sure how it was going to go down, as its quite young and modern inside, and my dad has previously had problems with young restaurants - Gaucho, for example, was too dark, Hawksmoor was too noisy - but Finos luckily seemed to pass this test.


We had cocktails in the bar area to start, we chose from the Fino list as these seemed to be more Spanish, rather than the classic list. These were nice, but as noted by some other reviewers they do seem to take ages to come.


For food, we started with one each of the ham croqueta, prawn croqueta and red pepper croqueta. These normally come in threes but they were happy to do them in dishes of five so that we got one each. These were amazing. We also had tuna tartar with guacamole, which again was amazing. My dad doesn't do fish so we also ordered a meat platter and some bread.


For the main course my dad had pre-ordered half a suckling pig. With this we had a chorizo tortilla, the Finos chips, mashed potatoes and cabbage with pancetta. I never really used to like pork until a few years ago, probably because I remember it from school and over-cooked roasts as a kid. But since trying pork the way Chinese and Spanish people do it, it can now be one of my favourites. The tortilla was excellent, so were the chips (particularly the sauce) but I was mostly concentrating on the pig, which properly fell of the bone and melted in the mouth.


We had dessert, sherry and coffee afterwards but I was mainly still remembering the pork. I think my parents are planning to come back here independently

My old friend Mr Armstrong had secured a fine table at Fino on a Friday night and that seemed like great way to kick the weekend off, soften the blow of a badly-judged wager and spend some time with his lovely girlfriend the positively blooming Sarah.


The champagne cocktail in the bar was a beautiful mix and hit the spot, accompanied by Fino's divine olives- some of the tastiest I've had, although the 20 minute wait for drinks would have been a nightmare if you were in desperate need of a cold refreshment of any sort. I have been here a few times and the lack of staff on the bar to deal with the aperitif-buying punters has always been a feature.


However, we were here for the food and we had one of the lovely banquettes by the bar - plenty of room for four and you can get all the plates on the table without a balancing act. If you are booking I would recommend asking for one of these tables as opposed to the more crowded "main" floor - you get a touch of privacy while having a good view of action for those brief moments when you feel the need to check the progress of the next plate; also good as it's by the run to the pass so you can catch the eye of your waitress if your guests are claiming dehydration!!


B sensibly cut through the chatter over the menu and suggested we chunk it up. Our first run at it included bread, croquettes , the best chicken wings you've ever tasted, perfect clams, and a lovely chorizo & tomato salad washed down with the house white. The plates come pretty much as they are cooked and it's ideal if you want to drink, eat and chat - my advice would be to make it a leisurely evening and order in phases as the mood takes you. The waiting staff will impose a bit of sense on any erratic sequencing of dishes in your order to try and keep it at least vaguely Hispanic.


Another run at the menu and we were deep into luscious crispy pork belly, little rare-ish lamb cutlets to die for, tortilla, tomato salad and chips. A fine bottle of Gotim Bru was pretty reasonable and cut through all the rich flavours.


We had a lovely waitress who was attentive and knowledgable without being overbearing. Can't really comment much on the punters as I was too engrossed in the food, the conversation and a valiant but unsuccessful defence of Qyping on my part.


I think this is a really great restaurant, producing consistently excellent food. Fitzrovia is one of my favourite parts of central London - if you have a bit of money to spend on a special meal or a gambling debt to honour it doesn't get much better.


Be sure to book ahead!!

In the heart of Fitzrovia, in Soho, there is Fino, a recommended tapas restaurant.
The place is elegant but not posh, the staff is fast and polite and the food will make you happy with your choice!
Head chef Nieves's mouth-watering bites include milk fed lamb and Iberica pork.
But, as its name would suggest, this top-notch tapas restaurant doesn't limit itself to seasonal sharing plates. Sample one of 25 sherries available by the glass.

How could it be short of excellent food being that this is the same owners as Barrafina. Food was fabulous--unbelievable bread, love the lamb chops, great cured meats, and the foie gras with sweet chili was TO DIE FOR.
So why 4. I have to agree with Annie H. that the atmosphere was a little boring. There is a bar with cocktail tables upstairs where I was escorted waiting for our table and it was very generic and old looking. It just feels a bit generic.
The service was just okay too.
For the food, I'd much rather be at Barrrafina.

With memories of an excellent meal at the raucous Barrafina in mind, the bf and I dined at mother restaurant Fino tonight following a ballet at the Royal Opera House. We had a 10pm reservation and were politely informed that last orders must be in by 10:30. We quickly settled on a carafe of Espelt red wine and the following dishes:

+ Little Gem Lettuce with Pancetta and Anchovy - A dish that made it onto TimeOut's Top 100 Dishes in 2012, this salad was enjoyable but ultimately was our least favourite order of the night. The pancetta, anchovy, diced shallot, and herbs worked well together as a topping, but this could be recreated at home too easily.

+ Beetroot Salad with Picos Cheese - Beetroot and blue cheese is one of those classic combinations that I usually gravitate to on a menu. Fino offers an excellent rendition made with plenty of herbs and a strong Asturian blue cheese. With a grind of black pepper, this dish will satisfy any beetroot cravings.

+ Cuttlefish with Pancetta and Ink from the Plancha - The unanimous favourite of the evening, the cuttlefish wrapped in pancetta had an excellent charred flavour and extra kick from some finely diced garlic sprinkled on top. The ink sauce provided a flavourful coating for the tender cuttlefish and had a nice consistency.

+ Braised Lamb with Green Kale - Another enjoyable dish, the lamb fell apart at the touch of a fork. The kale tasted predominantly of garlic, but since I regularly double the amount of garlic a recipe calls for when cooking at home, I welcome Fino's (and Barrafina's) heavy-handedness with garlic. (Protip: Bring a pack of gum to share afterwards with your dining companions.)

We finished with:

+ Dates Poached in Coffee and Cardamom - As a sucker for anything with cardamom (I'm part Finnish, what can I say?), this dish immediately called out to me on the dessert menu. Unsure of what to expect presentation-wise, we actually received a pretty conventional looking plate of three juicy dates over a mild whipped cream, surrounded by a moat of coffee-cardamom syrup. While the syrup was a touch too sweet, I adored this dish. It was a refreshing alternative to the rest of the rich, custard-based desserts on the menu. (Full disclosure: I am not a fan of most desserts except for my mother's, and particularly not of Spanish or Portuguese desserts.)

By 11:30, only a handful of diners, lubricated by wine and sherry, were left lingering over desserts. Despite arriving at the end of the night, we never felt rushed. My only minor gripes about the otherwise enjoyable experience: when we asked the waitress for a description of the Bobal and Carignan wines (two grapes we had never heard of before), she just proclaimed that the Carignan was better without offering any description (the wine was good though); the decor leaves a lot to be desired; our water glasses were never refilled.

While Fino resembles the basement dining room of a mid-priced hotel chain, the food clearly comes from the kitchen of talented chefs using quality ingredients to prepare well-executed Spanish classics, and that is reason enough to come here.

(Visited November 2013)