Randomness Guide to London - Differences between Version 20 and Version 8 of El Faro, E14 9RD

Version 20 Version 8
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Now closed; was a Spanish/tapas restaurant near [[Crossharbour Station]] on the [[Locale Isle Of Dogs|Isle of Dogs]].
Good Spanish/tapas restaurant on the Isle of Dogs. The interweb suggests that they do good steak. You can do the full starter-main-dessert thing, or just have tapas. They offer 24-hour roasted suckling pig, flown in from Spain.
== Line 2 ==
The information below is retained for people who want to know what it was like.

<div class="old_info">
Good Spanish/tapas restaurant near [[Crossharbour Station]] on the [[Locale Isle Of Dogs|Isle of Dogs]].

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You can do the full starter-main-dessert thing, or just have tapas. They offer 24-hour roasted suckling pig, flown in from Spain, and the interweb suggest they do good steak - but we've not tried either of these yet, having always gone for the tapas option. (Note that the T-bone steak is priced on the menu per 500g, rather than per steak, so make sure you check the weight of the steak you're being offered if you don't want a surprise when the bill comes.)
[[Kake]] and [[doop]] visited on a Wednesday night around 8:15pm. We hadn't booked, but there was no problem finding us a table for two. They offered us a choice between an immediate table right in the middle of the restaurant, or a "just being cleared" table by the window; we chose the latter, and the wait was indeed very short.
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[[Kake]] has visited three times now, in various company. A Wednesday evening visit in September 2007 and a Thursday evening visit in December 2007 (both times arriving around 8pm-9pm) gave us no trouble with getting a table for two without booking; however, we were glad that we'd booked for our August 2008 visit (a table for three this time) as although the place was fairly empty when we arrived at 7pm, all the tables we could see had "reserved" signs on, and it filled up pretty quickly.
We went for the tapas option, choosing five starters, a salad, and a basket of bread between two of us. With a cheese plate to finish, this was the right amount. The marinaded tuna was a fairly small portion (considering the price) of thin slivers of raw tuna; nice, though perhaps too heavy a hand with the salt crystals. The peppers padrones, on the other hand, though tasty, could maybe have done with a bit more salt (not a problem; our bread basket came with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and a mound of salt crystals, so we just applied some of these). The ham has been raved about, but [[Kake]] was not as amazed by it as she'd expected; it was OK, but not what I was hoping for. The tomato-rubbed toast that accompanied it, on the other hand, was very good. We also had the croquettes (perfectly fine) and the octopus (good; the potatoes the octopus was served on top of were the perfect contrast to the chewy octopus, and the buttery oil that the dish was drenched in was quite gorgeous).
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Dos Hermanos (linked below) rave about the jamon iberico, but despite having tried it on all three visits, [[Kake]] remains unimpressed. The tomato-rubbed toast that accompanies it, on the other hand, has always been very good; the price of the ham means that this dish is quite expensive (&pound;14.50), and I do wonder if it would be possible to just get the tomato toast on its own.
[[Kake]] took [[Bob]] along on her second visit a few months later, on a Thursday evening in December 2007. Again, we hadn't booked, but we were seated immediately. We chose the tapas option again; six dishes the first time around and then a further three a bit later on as we were both pretty hungry. The menu had changed slightly from our earlier visit. The marinaded tuna had been replaced by tuna tartare (&pound;7), a rather more satisfying portion this time; it was served rather cold but was much better after it warmed up a bit. We had the octopus (&pound;5) again, and it was still good, though the potato pieces were noticeably smaller and cooked to the point of disintegration; I think I preferred the previous version. The croquettes (&pound;3.45) had acquired some mushrooms in their filling, which worked very well. Really, it was all good, apart from the pork confit cubes with honey and rosemary (&pound;7); awfully, awfully dry, which is not what you'd expect from confit.
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Other recommendations from [[Kake]]:
* Boquerones (marinated fresh anchovies; &pound;5): fresh
, sharp flavour, nothing at all like the salty things in tins.
* Pimientos del padron
(tiny roasted green peppers/chillies; &pound;4.50) - but if you're not a fan of chillies, watch out for the occasional spicy one; the nature of these peppers means that a small proportion of them are much hotter than others.
* Croquettes (&pound;3.45
): reliably good. We've had mushroom ones and ham ones (ask the staff what's in the croquettes of the day) and both were good, with the mushroom ones perhaps having the edge.
* Pulpo
a la Gallega (octopus on potato slices; &pound;5): good, with the potato slices being the perfect contrast to the chewy - but not too chewy - octopus, and a lovely buttery oil drenching the whole.
* Tuna tartare (&pound;7): although it was served a little too cold in December 2007, and had a slightly unwelcome soy sauce flavour in August 2008, it's still good (I'm just being picky).
* Cheese plate (&pound;7.50)

Service was friendly and helpful on our first visit, and similar on our second, though a little more harried (possibly due being kept very busy by the large party upstairs). They seem to have a very strict division between people who're allowed to take your drink order and people who're allowed to take your food order; on our first visit we got to order drinks very quickly but were kept waiting for quite a while before we could order any food, and the first staff member to approach us on our second visit seemed very surprised to be asked a question about the food menu.
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Disrecommendations:
* Pork confit cubes with honey and rosemary (&pound;7, sampled in December 2007): awfully dry.

If going for the tapas option, you probably want between three and five dishes apiece, depending on how hungry you are ([[Kake]] and [[doop]] had seven plus bread between us; [[Kake]] and [[bob]] had nine plus bread between us; and [[Kake]], Juliette, and Jon had ten between us, without bread but including an enormous portion of patatas bravas). It's perfectly fine to order a few to begin with and then order more later on.

Service is generally friendly and helpful; they're happy to help you choose wine, and when we decided to finish with some sherry they brought us three samples to help us decide. Jugs of tap water are supplied on request.

Our bill in August 2008 was &pound;45/head - &pound;20 apiece of this was food, and the rest was wine, sherry, and the auto-added but optional 10% service charge.

== Line 17 ==
* [http://www.london-eating.co.uk/28170.htm London Eating comments]
== Line 39 ==
* [http://www.biggestjim.com/RestaurantBlog/Entries/2007/5/10_El_Faro%2C_3_Turnberry_Quay%2C_London_E14_9RD.html Biggest Jim's review]
* [http://www.pigpigscorner.com/2009/03/el-faro-london.html Pig Pig's review]
* [http://www.eatdrinksleepshop.com/2011/03/el-faro-beacon-of-light-in-docklands.html Eat Drink Sleep Shop review]
* [http://www.london-eating.co.uk/28170.htm London Eating comments]
* [http://www.qype.co.uk/place/94271#PlaceReviews Qype comments]
== Line 45 == == Line 21 ==
<div class="last_verified">Last visited by [[Kake]], Juliette, and Jon, 23 August 2008. Prices taken from the August 2008 bill unless otherwise noted.</div>
</div>
<div class="last_verified">Last visited by [[Kake]] and [[Bob]], 13 December 2007. Prices and opening hours taken from the El Faro website, December 2007.</div>
== Line 48 == == Line 23 ==
category='Now Closed'
category='Restaurants,River View,Spanish Food,Steak,Take Kake Here,Tapas'
== Line 51 == == Line 26 ==
formatted_website_text=''
host='81.187.166.218'
hours_text=''
formatted_website_text='http://www.el-faro.co.uk/ '
host='213.165.225.132'
hours_text='noon-3:30pm, 5pm-11pm Mon-Sat; noon-3:30pm Sun'
latitude='51.495583'
locale='Docklands,E14,Isle of Dogs,Millwall'
longitude='-0.014628
'
== Line 55 == == Line 34 ==
map_link='http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?x=537804&y=179327'
node_image='https://farm4.static.flickr.com/3043/2576469144_c7936b6f8c_m.jpg'
node_image_copyright='Kake'
node_image_licence='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/'
node_image_url='https://www.flickr.com/photos/kake_pugh/2576469144/'
opening_hours_text=''
phone=''
website='http://www.el-faro.co.uk/' postcode=''
summary='Now closed; was a
Spanish/tapas restaurant on the Isle of Dogs.'
website=''
map_link='http://www.el-faro.co.uk/map.html'
opening_hours_text
='noon-3:30pm, 5pm-11pm Mon-Sat; noon-3:30pm Sun'
os_x='
537804'
os_y='179327'
phone='020 7987 5511'
postcode='E14 9RD'
summary='Good
Spanish/tapas restaurant on the Isle of Dogs.'
website='http://www.el-faro.co.uk/' website=''

Good Spanish/tapas restaurant on the Isle of Dogs. The interweb suggests that they do good steak. You can do the full starter-main-dessert thing, or just have tapas. They offer 24-hour roasted suckling pig, flown in from Spain.

The interior is modern and smart without being fussy. The two-person tables are fairly small, necessitating a fair bit of shuffling if you're having tapas. The main dining area is on the ground floor (toilets are upstairs), but there's another room upstairs which I think you can book, and an outside terrace looking on to the river (although Millwall Dock is perhaps not the most attractive stretch of the Thames).

Kake and doop visited on a Wednesday night around 8:15pm. We hadn't booked, but there was no problem finding us a table for two. They offered us a choice between an immediate table right in the middle of the restaurant, or a "just being cleared" table by the window; we chose the latter, and the wait was indeed very short.

We went for the tapas option, choosing five starters, a salad, and a basket of bread between two of us. With a cheese plate to finish, this was the right amount. The marinaded tuna was a fairly small portion (considering the price) of thin slivers of raw tuna; nice, though perhaps too heavy a hand with the salt crystals. The peppers padrones, on the other hand, though tasty, could maybe have done with a bit more salt (not a problem; our bread basket came with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and a mound of salt crystals, so we just applied some of these). The ham has been raved about, but Kake was not as amazed by it as she'd expected; it was OK, but not what I was hoping for. The tomato-rubbed toast that accompanied it, on the other hand, was very good. We also had the croquettes (perfectly fine) and the octopus (good; the potatoes the octopus was served on top of were the perfect contrast to the chewy octopus, and the buttery oil that the dish was drenched in was quite gorgeous).

Kake took Bob along on her second visit a few months later, on a Thursday evening in December 2007. Again, we hadn't booked, but we were seated immediately. We chose the tapas option again; six dishes the first time around and then a further three a bit later on as we were both pretty hungry. The menu had changed slightly from our earlier visit. The marinaded tuna had been replaced by tuna tartare (£7), a rather more satisfying portion this time; it was served rather cold but was much better after it warmed up a bit. We had the octopus (£5) again, and it was still good, though the potato pieces were noticeably smaller and cooked to the point of disintegration; I think I preferred the previous version. The croquettes (£3.45) had acquired some mushrooms in their filling, which worked very well. Really, it was all good, apart from the pork confit cubes with honey and rosemary (£7); awfully, awfully dry, which is not what you'd expect from confit.

Service was friendly and helpful on our first visit, and similar on our second, though a little more harried (possibly due being kept very busy by the large party upstairs). They seem to have a very strict division between people who're allowed to take your drink order and people who're allowed to take your food order; on our first visit we got to order drinks very quickly but were kept waiting for quite a while before we could order any food, and the first staff member to approach us on our second visit seemed very surprised to be asked a question about the food menu.

Getting here: Unless you fancy the (not unpleasant) 15-20 minute walk from Canary Wharf Tube Station, you'll have to use the DLR to get here, but really, that's no great hardship, and the restaurant is literally seconds from Crossharbour Station.

See also:

Last visited by Kake and Bob, 13 December 2007. Prices and opening hours taken from the El Faro website, December 2007.

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