Cigala

What a outstanding place can't believe I hadn't been here before. Outstanding food and service which you could not fault thank you for such a lovely evening

Delicious tapas and friendly and helpful service. The seafood was particularly good but we enjoyed it all. Would definitely go back. Very highly recommended indeed.

The food at Cigala is excellent. Good ingredients, well cooked, elegantly and simply presented. The tapas are great, they also have a set menu lunch and dinner and a la carte. I had the grilled calamare a la plancha with mojo verde - nicely caramelised and beautifully presented, Bacalao fritters with aioli, Ensalata primavera and Chicken livers sauteed in Pedro Ximenez sherry - sweet, rich and unctuous. Pudding - a very rich dark chocolate and almond cake/tart thing was delicious. Good house red. Bread and olive oil was very nice but a £3 extra. Cost and service let the occasion down a bit. Over £50 for tapas seems a bit much to me and then they add on "discretionary service" daring you to take it off. I may have been unlucky with the lad who was looking after me - he seemed new and nervous. Aside from dropping things, he seemed to forget a lot of things - his bill pad twice, to take the order , to get the water, to bring a bill. Either service is a fixed cost in which case it is non discretionary - fine, lets just be clear about that. Or it is genuinely discretionary for good service - in which case don't presume to put it on the bill.

This was our second visit to Cigala, and even more pleasant than the first! We came with a friend who was born and grew up in Malaga, Spain, and who enjoyed the food. The four of us were very happy with our shared tapas, with the excellent and friendly service, and with the relaxed atmosphere. We wish we could return one more time before flying back to the US, and we will be looking forward to returning to London--and especially to Cigala! Thanks!

We ate at 8 PM on a Saturday, so were not expecting peace and quiet. But it was very raucaus, to the point where the meal was spoilt. The restaurant badly needs to soften the interior walls and ceiling, both of which are hard surfaces. Nothing to be done about the glass walls, of course. So be warned this is not a relaxed venue. The two servers were polite and only got one dish wrong, tho to be fair another server was badly needed, either that or a table clearer, which job the servers were also doing. The food was mixed in quality - with the salads being tasty and creative. Excellent Spanish wine list. Give Cigala a try if you like for lunch during the week, but definitely avoid crowded times. It would also help if certain patrons could be mindful of their own contribution to the noise level; one table of well-dressed 20 somethings were hooting like they were in a pub on a Friday after work.

Cigala is one of the most delightful restaurants which I know. The staff are so welcoming, which, when combined with the perfect Tapas (which is what we always have), makes for a relaxed and celebratory atmosphere. The cooking is wonderful, and a real sense of fresh, home cooking. There's no where in London where you can get better Spanish cuisine; we were there to celebrate an anniversary, and it was lovely.

Pleasant restaurant with authentic Spanish food and atmosphere. We picked it because it was not yet another Tapas bar. We had Jamon Serrano and Manchega cheese with some an excellent glass of Rioja and some Bacala fish cakes to start with. The Jamon was"OK" but bearing in mind the price, it was good value and we did not go for the Jamon Iberico which is obviously better but you pay £25 for it. It's not cheap in Spain either ! The bacalao fish cakes were very good. The Paella de Mariscos was pretty good; perhaps a bit overcooked. Have had better in Spain and you'd expect that but I thought it was very good at least by English standards. The Spanish bread and Olive oil were both excellent. The service was extremely good. The wines were very good. We were happy !

Maybe I was just lucky - it was a warm day and I met an old friend at an outside table. The waiter was not the fastest, but I didn't care. His attitude was friendly and cheerful, he recommended exactly the wine that touched the spot with both of us, the simple menu delivered things that were prepared to perfection. I had a marinaded chicken kebab to start, and then sea bass (said it was simple). I stayed a long time, and there was never a hint that I should pay the bill and move on. Works for me.

Always like Cigala...but I should have stayed with the tapas... the paella was too filling and a little too salty and I would have preferred coming away feeling hungry (slightly) rather than worn out and unable to move. But that said I still enjoyed it and, as ever the staff were pleasant and welcoming. Nice glass of sherry too.

Service was slow and the atmosphere was non-existent. They also do this awful thing of adding the service charge on the bill as standard. I know a lot of restaurants do this but come on, at least make sure 1) your service is not slow 2) your waiters/ waitresses know what the food on your menu is like (my waitress couldn't advise on a dish) 3) your restaurant offers a pleasant atmosphere (no music in the place, bare walls with no decor) 4) you actually welcome us when we enter your restaurant Food was very good but sick and tired of restaurants expecting a service charge when the service is nowhere near deserving this.