I am always wary of restaurants saying they have authentic cuisine when often it is as authentic as Dick van Dyke's cockney accent, so when a native of a country praises a restaurant you know it is rather good.
San Miguel is not only a terrible Spanish lager but also a rather good tapas bar and Spanish restaurant specialising in fish and seafood on Greenwich Church Street right in the hear of maritime Greenwich very near the Cutty Sark DLR station and Greenwich Market.
I had been to San Miguel three times previously (once with a seafood loving fmember of the reviewing community) and have always had a good meal there. I went recently with a Mallorcan who had never dared to eat tapas in England as he felt he would be let down with the English idea of Tapas, so San Miguel really had to deliver and it did.
My visit like all bar one of my visits was at a weekend lunchtime. Like previous times we were promptly seated at a table with the menu in front of us (however this time they forgot the drinks menu
so we had to ask for it). Its quite a large restaurant and quite dark due to the darkish red walls. Fishing paraphernalia such as nets are strewn round the restaurant. If possible try and get one of the booths near the front of the restaurant as they are lighter and you can sit and people watch. I've been near the window twice and further back twice. I find the further in the restaurant you go the darker it is.
The food menu is divided into three, First up is appetisers (surprise surprise) which consists of a number of various types of bread plus olives all costing under £3. We avoided all the garlic breads and selected the basket of plain bread and butter which was nice and soft slices of crusty white bread. This arrived promptly just before our main course and made a delicious neutral accompaniment to our other food.
The main menu is divided into hot and cold tapas and main courses. The main courses look tempting with a selection of paellas to share (round about the £25 mark for two) fish, meat and even a couple of vegetarian dishes. These cost anything from £8.9 for Spanish style vegetable rice to £14.95 for steaks and £16.95 for a seafood platter. I have been tempted by some of the seafood dishes but during my visits I have skipped the main courses and opted for the tapas selections and thus can not comment on the quality of the main courses. They also do a £4.9 set lunch menu but i barely gave this a glance.I love the concept of communal eating and like mezze the eastern Mediterranean equivalent I always enjoy sharing little bits and pieces of different dishes rather than one main course. My fellow diner is also pesceterian so we set about the menu looking for all the fishy and seafood delights.
Usually it is customary for people to order two or three different tapas dishes as the portion sizes can vary. We ordered five different dishes plus the bread, which was ample for us. My fellow diner went straight for the grilled octopus whilst I selected a favourite of mine the deep friend aubergines with tomato sauce. We agreed on some piri piri king prawns and mussels in garlic and white wine sauce. We accompanied them wish a Greek style salad. The dishes may not look that much but we were nicely satisfied by the end of it. In the past I have also had sardines which are tasty but very messy to eat and an indulgence rock oysters ,which are £1.95 each and a bit of an acquired taste.
The aubergines as per usual were tasty with the crunchy batter and chunky tomato sauce to dip them into. The piri piri prawns were nice and fat but at £4.95 for four of them were quite expensive. Luckily the mussels were more plentiful. The octopus could have been disastrous and far too chewy but was not. My fellow diner was extremely impressed with it and that's high praise from a Spaniard. The Greek salad was nice but since when was there beetroot (my least favourite vegetable ) and radishes in a Greek salad??
The drinks menu at San Miguel is far more than San Miguel and sangria. There's a fairly wide choice for all tastes. I especially like their non alcoholic cocktails (£3.25) for lunchtime as you feel sophisticated but not decadent. They also do a range of alcoholic cocktails varying in price from about £4 to champagne cocktails at £6. They do a nicely priced cocktail of the week at £3.65. I have had it in the past but did not fancy the tequila, Tia Mario and cream concoction on offer that wee. Instead I pumped for a white sangria at £3.95 per glass. I've never had a white sangria (white wine, brandy, triple sec and lemonade and it was nice) however my companion told me it should really be made with champagne. My companion had a glass of Roija at the same price which was apparently very good.
The dessert menu is average size with most of your old familiar standbys such as apple pie. Chocolate fudge cake and profiteroles. The desserts are mostly over £4 which I found a bit expensive. I was looking at the sorbet but at £3.95 I thought that a bit extortionate. Instead we both ordered the traditional Catalan dessert of Creme Catalana. This was nice rich creme brulle. Companion said that it was served in the proper way and the only thing wrong with it was the icing sugar sprinkled on top. This was washed down by tiny cups of very strong espresso.
I have read other reviews about the service being pretty dire but I have never experienced this probably because I have tended to eat there at lunchtime. We found that the food was served reasonably quick and the Polish waitress was very attentive and friendly with finger bowls being brought out to cleanse our fishy fingers. My companion was quit happy having a laugh and a joke with the Portuguese waiter who latterly served us.
Greenwich is jam packed with eateries jostling for my custom. For me to go back to a place four times it must be fairly special. Its a place you can go for a quiet lunch or a bigger gathering such as birthday party, as better fun with more people. I can highly recommend San Miguel especially now it has a Spaniard's seal of approval.
18 Greenwich Church Street Greenwich London SE10 9BJ 020 8305 1720
http://www.sanmiguelgreenwich.co.uk/index.html
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May 19th, 2008
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