Getting decent, authentic Spanish cuisine in London today is less of an uphill struggle than it was a decade ago, but it still isn’t an easy task. For every genuine establishment that reminds the weary and hungry of the best of Madrid or Barcelona, there is a cynical chain that’s about as ‘authentic’ as Manuel from FawltyTowers, or some backstreet dive that single-handedly justifies all your grandmother’s complaints about food from ‘over there’ being greasy, fatty and tasteless. To say nothing of offering questionable standards of hygiene.
Thankfully, Cambio de Tercio in Chelsea offers an altogether different and more pleasingly upmarket experience. Regularly acclaimed as serving some of the finest cuisine in the capital, it is part of an operation that includes a newly opened sherry and ham bar, Capote y Toros, next door and a tapas bar, Tendido Cero, just adjacent. Each will satisfy your craving for authentic food, at sensible and non-astronomic prices. However, if you’re after the full deluxe experience, then Cambio, the grand kahuna, is the one to head to.
Of course, if you’re still after tapas, there is an excellent selection on offer here, from quite exquisite Serrano ham croquettes with thyme and tomato sauce (the flavour of which are something else, and miles more interesting than the usual bland, cheesy non-starters) to char-grilled octopus, which has a rich, meaty taste unlike the drably fishy slitherer that this can often end up tasting like. The chef’s signature tapas are also worth trying, with our favourite being the deconstructed Spanish chorizo omelette, as influenced by Ferran Adria’s El Bulli.
The brave are advised to move onto the main courses afterwards and enjoy the chef’s culinary pyrotechnics. Basque-style monkfish stew is hearty, filling fare, elevated from workmanlike to splendid because of the unusual touch of adding vanilla and lentils to it. The mighty ox tail caramelised in red wine is enough to send even the most staunch vegetarian back to meat, if only for an evening, and a shotgun marriage of salt cod and braised pig’s head is beguilingly unusual enough to attract many. Desserts are a mix of the comfort food (Spanish bread and butter pudding) with the more unusual; gin and tonic ‘on a plate’ wouldn’t be out of place in many a more formal Michelin-starred establishment. But the vibe here is casual and friendly, helped in no small part by the eclectic, Spanish wine list which offers an array of vintages and vineyards that you would be hard pressed to find anywhere else outside Spain. As you would expect, sherries and cavas are well represented as well.
When you emerge from your repast here, perhaps somewhat sated but undeniably happy and impressed, the kindest thing to do would be to head straight home and book a flight to Spain, so that you can continue a culinary odyssey of this calibre. The only disappointment might end up being that what you eat there might not be as good as this transplanted slice of the plains.
163 Old Brompton Road, London SW5. www.cambiodetercio.co.uk
