On Tuesday 4th April, I paid my second visit to San Miguel for another colleague's leaving do. It is very sad to see her go, and so this review is dedicated to Chanel- I will miss thee, the only other person in the dept near my age, with all you lovely shoes and handbags! Moving on…
***Location*** San Miguel is based on GreenwichChurch Road, in Greenwich, London. The nearest tube station is the Cutty Sark (DLR) and if you're lucky you may be able to park right outside.
***Restaurant Type*** Chanel chose San Miguel for her send-off meal because we are sick to death with Italian food. Another colleague, who is Italian, is always dragging us to Italian restaurants, and while I love the food, it does get repetitive.
San Miguel is a Spanish restaurant, specialising in Tapas and Spanish Cuisine.
N.B. Tapas definition - "Spanish appetizers that can also form an entire meal when many are ordered together. Tapas dishes are generally quite small and can be
either simple (fresh olives served with cubes of ham) or elaborate (snails in a spicy sauce). When ordering tapas, it is best to combine a number of dishes together and allow everyone in your party to sample each dish."
***Décor and Atmosphere*** The restaurant is well laid out and decorated in dark wood, with leaves hanging down form the ceiling to create a kind of 'grotto' effect. The place is fairly dimly lit, to create just the right ambience, as well as allowing you to see just where you're sticking that calamari. There are small booth seats at the front near the bar for smaller parties, and a couple of steps up to another level, where we were seated on our extra long table- just in front of the open kitchen, mouth-wateringly good.
The diners tend to be couples and families with grown-uppish kids- I am not sure if the place is very family friendly, as the variety of food available isn't exactly of the chicken nuggets and chips variety. And of course the clientele involves raucous groups of NHS staff.
The toilets are just downstairs. They are clean and there are two cubicles in the ladies, and presumably, the same in the gents, so not particularly wheelchair or pushchair friendly.
***The Menu (What we Had)*** There were 15 members of our party altogether, and the staff were very accommodating to our needs. Some people, as stated in the Tapas definition, had all Tapas, and some of us had a dish each to start and then a main meal. I was sat in a foursome at one end of our table- we'll call it 'smokers corner'. Between us we chose Jalapeño poppers (deep fried Jalapeño peppers stuffed with cream cheese), deep friend squid, Spanish omelette, and chorizo (Spanish sausage). The choice was hard because quite frankly, everything on the menu sounds and is delicious. There is something for everyone, be you vegetarian, or carnivorous like moi. The dishes are also numbered to prevent embarrassing pronunciation attempts (although my manager did keep trying to speak French to the Spanish waiters- in true Del-Boy fashion). The Tapas dishes are priced at £2-6, depending on size and type. There are also appetisers, such as olives and garlic bread, but we bypassed these and went straight for the kill.
Main meals are split into Paellas, which come as a shared dish for two, at £19-22. Then the meat (chicken or steak, mainly) dishes are listed, followed by seafood, and vegetarian. Veggie dishes are about £10.00 while the meat and fish dishes are about £15. I opted for the seafood medley, as did 3 others on my part of the table (Very Victoria Beckham, dahling). This was amazing, consisting of big ole prawns, shrimps, squid and monkfish, along with a few scallops for good measure. This dish, like most others, unless specified (some come with rice) was served with potatoes and vegetables- which is my one gripe. To me, broccoli, cauliflower and carrots just aren't very Spanish- surely the dish would be better off served with Mediterranean roasted veggies? Ah well, that aside, the seafood itself was amazingly fresh and tasty, if a little hard to dissect (I had never done the whole shrimp thing before).
Desserts were also available- I opted for apple pie which was fabulous (though not so Victoria Beckham), but tried my friend's crème Catalana, which was a little bland for my taste. It was like a plate of clotted cream, but off. The rest of the table more or less opted for an Irish coffee- and so we alls pent about £3-4 on desserts.
As usual we bought a few bottles of wine for the table- I think it must have been 5 overall, plus a JD and coke, and a couple of Orange Juices.
***The Grand Total*** The bill came to a whopping £462.02- split between 14 (as we all shared the cost of Chanel's). Service charge was included, and so we all put in £34.00 each. This sounds like a lot but bear in mind it includes part of somebody else's meal too, and in my mind, it was well worth it, for the food, the service and the general atmosphere.
***Service*** Our waiter was a little grumpy, especially with the Chief's Del-boy act, but everything arrived as and when it should have done. After the meal was over and people started departing to far-off lands (like Kent) to get home, we stayed and continued to drink Brandy-, which was deliciously smooth and served lovely and warm- just as it should be. Although we were the last in the place, they made no attempts to kick us out or make us feel unwelcome, although they were very very obliging when we asked them to call us a taxi. The owner was also very nice, and extremely good looking, and in our pissed state we managed to get his name and a photo behind the bar (attached to this review for your pleasure).
One final tip- this place does great Sangria- it is AMAZING! I didn't have any this time (ok, well, a few sips of Chan's, not my fault she's a slow drinker and I am the human booze-hoover). But if you ever find yourselves at San Miguel's- try it, you'll love it, and it will complete the whole Spanish experience.
***At-A-Glance Details*** San Miguel, 18 Greenwich Church Road, Greenwich, London, SE10 9BJ Nearest Station: Cutty Sark
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Apr 7th, 2006
exceptional by (5%):
very helpful by (95%):
