Richmond tapas bar

 We're meeting S&S in Richmond again, but this time instead of our usual favourite Chez Lindsay, we going to Tapas Brindisa overlooking the river. We'd been there before in a previous incarnation as Jackson and Rye, but just for drinks. Brindisa is of course a small chain of places that spun off out of it's Borough Market branch and food shop. 

It's a lovely day, and we get a great table in the corner by the window, with fine views of the Thames. It's quite full, and a bit noisy, but overall this feels good. The wine list accelerates rapidly, so we settle for the house Macabeo at £25. 

The menu is wide-ranging, and as always at tapas places the challenge is to guess how many dishes to order. We eventually narrow it down to 7 dishes plus bread. Whether deliberately or not not, they end up serving us them in two courses, which is great as otherwise dishes can go cold, or you stuff yourself trying to eat them before they do.

The first round of dishes consists of the croquettes of the day (prawns), Iberico ham croquettes and gambas al ajillo, along with the bread and oil and vinegar. Both croquettes are very soft and gooey, but also full of flavour, and identifiable protein. The gambas comes sizzling, with loads of garlic slices - the sauce is ideal for mopping up with the bread.  

Next up comes the "pollo picante" - chicken thighs with a spicy sauce and hazelnuts, also good for dipping. Accompanied by the chorizo on toast with peppers and rocket, and two potato dishes. The patatas bravas come with spicy sauce and alioli quite separately so you can decide your preferred proportions.  The other was Huevos Rotos - potatoes with fried eggs. It's supposed also to come with Mallorcan black pig sobrasada (sausage) but that's not in evidence.  The chicken and chorizo are great; the patatas bravas good, and the huevos rotos fine, but a step too far - we couldn't finish that.

After a decent pause, we decide against desserts in favour of the cheese plate. Two ewe's cheese, one goat's and a blue - not enough biscuits. 

Service has been good: attentive, not familiar, alert to our need for another bottle of wine. We manage 4 in all. So with the usual 12.5% service, the bill gets up to £210 for the 4 of us, which seems pretty fair.  Seems we have another Richmond favourite. 

Indian "tapas" in Twickenham

 It's Varsity match day - in April, a major change in tradition. None of the usual gang can make it, so B says she'll come with me - another break in tradition. This means that the normal all-day breakfast at the Wetherspoon's before the game won't hack it, so I research some other options. 

I was looking for tapas, but the only one I could find was Indian "tapas" at Tsaretta Spice at the far end of  chi-chi Church Street.  When we arrive at 1pm, we are the only ones in there - later two other tables arrive. I had expected them to busy on a match day, so was pleasantly surprised to be offered the choice of tables, including ones for four. 

We order a French Viognier at £26 and settle down to choose the dishes. There is a wide selection, tapas and mains. So in the end we settled on just having the chef's meat tapas tasting platter, with a few extra additions - scallops, pappadums, dhal makhani and garlic naan.  

The pappadums come first - smaller, curly ones - with three dips, which are all interesting and quite spicy.  Could happily just munch on those all day. The platter is four dishes - grilled tiger prawns, tilapia fish fingers, fried chicken pieces and lamb meatballs in a particularly spicy and gooey tomato sauce. The scallops are small queen scallops, but served nicely in a shell with garlic lemon and shallots. The dhal is good and thick and creamy, and the naan visibly and nasally very strong on the garlic. 

All very good and served in a good friendly style. It's a modern style place with big windows and it seemed that there would be tables outside in the summer. Modern inoffensive music at low volume.  There's just a 10% service charge, so with a second bottle of wine it comes to £115. Not cheap but worth it. If you were local, then this would be a regular haunt I imagine.