IN BRIEF:
A great Spanish restaurant with a South American twist.
Food: 8.5/10
Service: 9/10
Atmosphere: 8/10
Overall: 8.5/10
IN DETAIL:
The British love affair with Spain started in the 1970s with travel to the Costa del Sol and we remain the biggest visitor to the country with over 17 million British arrivals to the country in 2023.
Spanish loving Brits try to recreate these holidays at home with the beloved Rioja wine, cooking with Spanish Brandy and swigging sangria when the sun shines in blighty. Spanish restaurants, which are an intrinsic part of their culture haven’t taken off in the same way in the UK in the same way that the mighty red wine did. Italian pizza, Greek Souvlaki, the Turkish kebab and the French bistro/brasserie all became staples in our restaurant offering.
The familiarity of ingredients that Spain’s food offers to us, means I’ve always struggled to find a reason that Spanish food has never dominated in the way it should.
Thank goodness for the likes of Jose Pizarro with his eponymous restaurants, along with the always brilliant Barrafina, Sabor, El Pirata and Arros for bringing their delicious delights to the London restaurant scene.
The recent demise of Iberica (thankfully bought out of administration by Camino) not only reflects the difficulty and operating restaurants, but also highlights that we must get in tune with the cuisine of the country that we love to visit
I went to see what new take that Rayuela would have that could make it a neighbourhood and London staple.
Located in Dicken’s yard, Ealing Broadway from the husband-and-wife team Miguel Morales and Anastasiia, along with their business partner and supplier Pedro Cubino. Inspired by the ritual daily feasts of his childhood in Salamanca, Miguel wanted to curate a one stop shop for healthy, organic Spanish produce in London.
In 2019 he left his Restaurant Manager position at the award winning Cambio de Tercio and launched Reineta, a deli and small casual dining spot. In 2022, their formal restaurant Rayuela which means ‘hopscotch’ was born.
How would an ex-restaurant manager of one of London’s favourite venues do as a business owner? Would ‘hopscotching around a menu work? I went to Rayuela to find out.
The menu is broken up into 6 easy to digest sections of bites, raw/fresh, starters, charcoal grill mains, mains rice and sharing side.
Excited to get to the food I ordered with gusto.
First up, I chose a selection of small bites. The Padrón peppers with lime & paprika were fine, the lime and paprika gave a nice zing which one is always looking for with the elusive spicy padrón. The Jamón Iberico which is carved for you a-la-minute and at the table, it’s always a joy to see the skill of the waiter carving up the ham from the leg and this did not disappoint, and the ham was deep in nutty acorn goodness.
The selection of starters is where the head chef Andres Quevedo, who is from Columbia started to really have his imprint on the menu. The Chef’s Tacos with suckling pig and baby lamb were juicy melt in your mouth mini delights of slow cooked meaty goodness. The crab and caviar arepas-which are small fluffy corn cakes had a great mix of white crab meat a good amount of caviar which gave the dish a great depth.
Onto the rice section, where the undoubted star of the show was the red prawn rice. Soft, sensationally cooked red prawns in a slightly wet spiced tomato rice. The look that my guest and I gave each other was one of pure delight. Despite this being January, it is going to be hard to beat for my dish of the year.
We then had the octopus with chontoduro sauce (which is from the palm peach a speciality of Cali in Columbia) and red mojo sauce. The sauces were really great and had a nice depth of flavour, unfortunately the octopus was a bit too charred on the outside and overly chewy on the inside. The pluma Iberica (pork steak) with guava was cooked pink, juicy and well-seasoned, exactly as it should be, the guava was a great companion for the steak as well.
Lastly, we had dessert the coffee infused crema catalana missed the spot, the coffee overwhelmed everything else in the dish. The Basque cheesecake with blue cheese was a revelation, as long as you love blue cheese.
The wines selection is very authentic, with a great cross section of Spanish wine offering, the one and only Vichy Catalan water is served, which for me is a must in a Spanish venue, and there are a decent selection of Spanish spirits and beers.
The service is some of the very best I have ever had. Peter who looked after me, was welcoming, incredibly knowledgeable and very professional all in one. He is the personification of the type of front of house person you need in a great neighbourhood restaurant.
I suggest you hopscotch over there to check out Rayuela.
OPENING TIMES
Monday – Closed
Tuesday
6.00pm – 10.00pm
Wednesday – Saturday
12.00pm – 3.00pm
6.00pm – 10.30pm
Sundays
12.30pm – 5.00pm
ADDRESS