Fino

Fantastic tapas restaurant. Good service, good food and good wine selection. The mussels dish was not a great choice but the rest of our meal was great.

If you want good tapas in London — Fino is the answer! All of the food is amazing but they do a strawberry daiquiri to die for.
Great for all occasions.

In the heart of Fitzrovia, in Soho, there is Fino, a recommended tapas restaurant.
The place is elegant but not posh, the staff is fast and polite and the food will make you happy with your choice!
Head chef Nieves’s mouth-​watering bites include milk fed lamb and Iberica pork.
But, as its name would suggest, this top-​notch tapas restaurant doesn’t limit itself to seasonal sharing plates. Sample one of 25 sherries available by the glass.

Made a reservation on a Tuesday night, and no regrets. The lady at the reception greeted us warmly and seated us at our table quick enough. Fino serves traditional Spanish food, small portions, tapas-​like. For the 2 of us, we had ordered 5 items off the menu — the manchego cheese and membrillo, scotch egg with sweet potato, chorizo and alioli tortilla, acorn fed duck and purple broccoli with white cabbage. All the pairings of the ingredients were very complimentary of each other. The cheese and membrillo was unexpectedly good together, the scotch egg was well-​paired with the sweet potato purée (I had initially thought it was going to be with sweet potato fries). The duck was crispy on top and juicy in the middle and the tortilla was deliciously strong in flavour with the garlic, chorizo and cheese. One of the most enjoyed Spanish tapas place I’ve been to. Would come again.

Food was good but the service really sucks I asked for tap water and got charged for 2 bottles I also had to hunt down a server to get a water re fill and then the jug was just thrown on the table. we were served something we didn’t order and when we told the manager she asked us 3 times if we were sure and when we did track down the server and asked her what she recommended we got «whatever you like» so in a nutshell good food and really awful service.

Service — excellent
Food — great tapas, some of them really exquisite
Desert — so so, a small variety
Drinks — great wines and nice cocktails.
A great place to hang out with friends and enjoy a great dinner. A must see and taste in London

Have been here twice. The food is traditional Spanish food. Recommend for pork belly which was amazing. The service was not bad. Will go for next time. !

Came on a Thursday with reservations. Service was great — which is a deal breaker for a restaurant in this price range. Ordered a bottle of bubbly that was kept chilled through out our meal. We ordered a few things, however the standout dishes were the pork belly and jamon croquettes. I also appreciated the fennel salad. In fact we ordered a second plate of croquettes because it was that good. No dessert was ordered since we stuffed ourselves with tapas. Small portions and surprisingly decently priced, but not necessarily on the low side.
The only negative was that the food can out too quickly and would have preferred a slightly slower pace.
The restaurant is in the lower level, so no natural light or views of outside. Despite this, the restaurant feels bright enough and not claustrophobic.
I would return, but for a special dinner. Total came to about £125 for about 7 plates and a bottle of bubbly for two of us. Applying our lousy dollar conversion rate, it’s about 200 bucks. Not bad considering we ordered whatever we wanted and walked away feeling very satisfied.
A special call out for the host who was very kind and welcoming upon our entry and departure.

A good restaurant — it is a rather restaurant rather than tapas place. The setting is quite classy rather than a taps joint with white table cloths, etc.
Food is quite nice with lots of dishes executed well. Great venue for a weekend dinner with friends.
For me, I would like my Spanish place to feel more of a joint than a restaurant — the venue feels too formal for what it serves. The setting comes with the price as well — think it is more like 50−60gbp per head to eat full and ½ bottle each.

A sister restaurant of Barafina and serves great tapas as well. I went there a couple of time and every single time I was filled up with very delicious food.
Pimientos de padrón is usually a good tester dish for a tapas restaurant, and Fino does it really well. Another dish that you see in almost all tapas restaurants is tortilla Espanola and I can tell you not all tortilla Espanola is created equally. Fino probably has the best version I have tasted. Some restaurants give you a slice of tortilla, but here you get a whole one that shaped like a small wheel of cheese. As soon as you cut into it, you know why you get a whole one, because it is cooked just right and the middle is gooey and runny with egg, cheese and potato goodness. It is so delicious and enjoyable, nothing like the reheated, rubbery version from some restaurants. Octopus and Capers is a must try if you are into octopus. It is so tender and tasty. We suspect they have someone who’s job is to massage the meat to tenderize it for hours.
Honestly, I haven’t tried anything I don’t like yet, so just go and order away. You won’t be disappointed.

Fino is the grown up restaurant cousin of tapas restaurant Barrafina, one of the London Unilocal’s highest rated restaurants. Located in the foodie area of Charlotte Street, its discreet entrance on Rathbone Street may be just off the main drag but worth the detour
The only issue I had with Fino is that its underground location means no mobile phone signal (I’m with Vodafone), which made it a little hard to keep in touch with my late-​running friend
The menu is subdivided into the different genres of tapas and it’s definitely a good idea to come in a group to try more dishes. Tapas is the original small plates restaurant. I recognised quite a few dishes which crossover with Barrafina
My favourite dish of the night was seared cuttlefish wrapped with pancetta, which had rightly been recommended by our waitress. The cuttlefish had the perfect chewy texture, which was offset by the smoky salty pancetta and all brought together by a black squid ink sauce
There was also a nice pork belly with crispy skin and their signature Fino sandwich, comprising wind dried beef and tetilla cheese sandwiched between Swiss chard and crispy fried
Reminders of Barrafina included good ham croquetas and stuffed deep fried courgette flower
Somehow, we found space for dessert. Crème catalana was a well made Spanish version of crème brûlée but we liked the mil hojas more. It was a almond heavy millefeuille with caramel sauce
Barrafina is fun, especially watching the chefs cook but if you can’t be bothered to queue, come to Fino instead

Fantastic food… but pretty expensive fantastic food -£ 164 for 2 ppl (OK maybe we ate for 4).
My boyfriend and I loved all of the dishes — we ordered 11 dishes to share between the 2 of us. OK maybe that’s why it was a bit more expensive than usual, but we have no regrets.
We ordered:
1. Spanish ham — OK how can it be bad?! (bypass rating as it’s hard to be bad)
2. Diver Scallops x2 — Really good, perfectly cooked.
3. Langostino — Grilled… hm… if I have to pick one dish to not order again, it’s probably this one. Not bad at all, but I’ve had better.
4. Arroz Negro — Oh Yum yum. A bisque based risotto + cooked to perfection squid + squid ink… served in copperware. Beautiful presentation!
5. lamb chops — really good herb crust, and it’s supposed to be milk fed lamb. Not bad.
6. Grilled Quail — OMG!!! THE AMAZING DISH OF THE NIGHT!!! perfectly seared, juicy tender… unforgetable~!
7. Crispy Artichoke — 2^nd most amazing dish. crispy baby artichoke… never seen anything like this before!
8. purple sprout brocolli — great garlic oil on top, it’s very delicious.
9. ice cream + Donut — fresh made donut, bomb!
10. Coffee date — OH, while a tad too sweet, I’ll have to say the memory of that dish stayed with me for the next few days… highly recommend!
+ 2 carafe of wine
I’ll be back!

With memories of an excellent meal at the raucous Barrafina in mind, the bf and I dined at mother restaurant Fino tonight following a ballet at the Royal Opera House. We had a 10pm reservation and were politely informed that last orders must be in by 10:30. We quickly settled on a carafe of Espelt red wine and the following dishes:
+ Little Gem Lettuce with Pancetta and Anchovy — A dish that made it onto TimeOut’s Top 100 Dishes in 2012, this salad was enjoyable but ultimately was our least favourite order of the night. The pancetta, anchovy, diced shallot, and herbs worked well together as a topping, but this could be recreated at home too easily.
+ Beetroot Salad with Picos Cheese — Beetroot and blue cheese is one of those classic combinations that I usually gravitate to on a menu. Fino offers an excellent rendition made with plenty of herbs and a strong Asturian blue cheese. With a grind of black pepper, this dish will satisfy any beetroot cravings.
+ Cuttlefish with Pancetta and Ink from the Plancha — The unanimous favourite of the evening, the cuttlefish wrapped in pancetta had an excellent charred flavour and extra kick from some finely diced garlic sprinkled on top. The ink sauce provided a flavourful coating for the tender cuttlefish and had a nice consistency.
+ Braised Lamb with Green Kale — Another enjoyable dish, the lamb fell apart at the touch of a fork. The kale tasted predominantly of garlic, but since I regularly double the amount of garlic a recipe calls for when cooking at home, I welcome Fino’s (and Barrafina’s) heavy-​handedness with garlic. (Protip: Bring a pack of gum to share afterwards with your dining companions.)
We finished with:
+ Dates Poached in Coffee and Cardamom — As a sucker for anything with cardamom (I’m part Finnish, what can I say?), this dish immediately called out to me on the dessert menu. Unsure of what to expect presentation-​wise, we actually received a pretty conventional looking plate of three juicy dates over a mild whipped cream, surrounded by a moat of coffee-​cardamom syrup. While the syrup was a touch too sweet, I adored this dish. It was a refreshing alternative to the rest of the rich, custard-​based desserts on the menu. (Full disclosure: I am not a fan of most desserts except for my mother’s, and particularly not of Spanish or Portuguese desserts.)
By 11:30, only a handful of diners, lubricated by wine and sherry, were left lingering over desserts. Despite arriving at the end of the night, we never felt rushed. My only minor gripes about the otherwise enjoyable experience: when we asked the waitress for a description of the Bobal and Carignan wines (two grapes we had never heard of before), she just proclaimed that the Carignan was better without offering any description (the wine was good though); the décor leaves a lot to be desired; our water glasses were never refilled.
While Fino resembles the basement dining room of a mid-​priced hotel chain, the food clearly comes from the kitchen of talented chefs using quality ingredients to prepare well-​executed Spanish classics, and that is reason enough to come here.
(Visited November 2013)

Had a fantastic meal here tonight. The dishes were all well executed, incredibly succulent, delicious. We worked through two bottles of wine; one was good, the other outstanding (can’t remember the names — sorry). It’s not a cheap meal but it also wouldn’t break the bank. Four people, appx. six starter plates, six+ main plates, three desserts and two bottles of wine for appx. £150, which I don’t think is outrageous for a special Friday night meal out. Well worth a visit.

Very good food and service but a bit pricey. Wine was extremely tasty (and not so expensive). I am going back next week for a work team dinner I am organising.

We were here on Friday night and without a reservation, we we lucky that two seats were free at the bar. Of course a very nice wine selection and the staff seemed friendly under pressure from a busy kitchen that is an open view to bar patrons. We started with salchichen iberico (hard salami) which was quite nice and followed that with pan con tomate which was very good. The lamb was tender and cooked perfectly but I can’t remember if we had the mixed greens or the spring greens. Whichever it was included pomegranate seeds — out of this world. So, so good. The fino chips brought this down to four stars because they were just too salty. The seasoning was great and the homemade sauce (not ketchup because I despise that stuff) was a surprise. Very tasty. Once or twice it became crazy behind the bar so it was difficult to get anyone’s attention, but overall we enjoyed just about all of it.

While in London, we wanted to go to some highly rated restaurants… Fino was mentioned on several where to eat lists and even better, it’s tapas!
After sightseeing the whole day, only two of us gals made it to this reservation, which served to be just fine… r
ah
Our waitress at first seemed a little put off by my friend because she could not decide on a bottle of red… but as we got to tasting 1, 2, then a 3^rd bottle, I believe our high maintenance southern charm got to her and she became our friend…
Our waitress along with other staff helped us with our menu choices and we had the following:
pimientos de pardon (peppers in spicy oil sauce)
chorizo & alioli (pancake like with meat inside)
grilled quail
fennel, radish and pomegranate salad
2 desserts
iEverything was amazing, from the wine to the food to the desserts and it showed because our 6:30 reservation turned into a 4 hour spanish feast!

I visited Fino for the first time in a couple of years last Saturday night. I phoned on Friday and booked a couple of seats at the «eating bar» — the main room was fully booked but no worries as sitting at the bar overlooking the kitchen is my favourite spot. Be warned that the main restaurant is a little lacking in «vibe».
The staff are professional, knowledgable and friendly — if you need a bit of advice they are very helpful. They have a good selection of sherry and you can try something quite special without breaking the bank — so it was a glass of fino for B and an olorroso for me (be warned that this kind of thinking can saddle you with a hefty bill at the end of the evening — it all mounts up).
The food is always good and sometimes very special. When ordering, even though this looks and feels like a standard restaurant in the centre of London, think tapas and order a few bits and pieces, drink some wine and then order some more.
We had some delicious chipirones which were a match made in heaven with a glass of sherry. The octopus wings were also very good and the fennel salad was spot on. The quail was tasty but I had a touch of food envy for the suckling pig.
The wine list is pretty good and there is a fair bit of choice for under £30. We had a bottle of the Catalan Eagle which was drinking very well and seemed like decent value for a small scale organic product.
We had a lovely evening and a very fine supper. Fino is a great place if you are sitting with your partner at the bar or you are being wined and dined in a booth.

Dinner here last night with parents. I’d been once before a couple of years ago with clients.
I wasn’t sure how it was going to go down, as its quite young and modern inside, and my dad has previously had problems with young restaurants — Gaucho, for example, was too dark, Hawksmoor was too noisy — but Finos luckily seemed to pass this test.
We had cocktails in the bar area to start, we chose from the Fino list as these seemed to be more Spanish, rather than the classic list. These were nice, but as noted by some other reviewers they do seem to take ages to come.
For food, we started with one each of the ham croqueta, prawn croqueta and red pepper croqueta. These normally come in threes but they were happy to do them in dishes of five so that we got one each. These were amazing. We also had tuna tartar with guacamole, which again was amazing. My dad doesn’t do fish so we also ordered a meat platter and some bread.
For the main course my dad had pre-​ordered half a suckling pig. With this we had a chorizo tortilla, the Finos chips, mashed potatoes and cabbage with pancetta. I never really used to like pork until a few years ago, probably because I remember it from school and over-​cooked roasts as a kid. But since trying pork the way Chinese and Spanish people do it, it can now be one of my favourites. The tortilla was excellent, so were the chips (particularly the sauce) but I was mostly concentrating on the pig, which properly fell of the bone and melted in the mouth.
We had dessert, sherry and coffee afterwards but I was mainly still remembering the pork. I think my parents are planning to come back here independently

How could it be short of excellent food being that this is the same owners as Barrafina. Food was fabulous – unbelievable bread, love the lamb chops, great cured meats, and the foie gras with sweet chili was TO DIE FOR.
So why 4. I have to agree with Annie H. that the atmosphere was a little boring. There is a bar with cocktail tables upstairs where I was escorted waiting for our table and it was very generic and old looking. It just feels a bit generic.
The service was just okay too.
For the food, I’d much rather be at Barrrafina.