Donostia Restaurant — Restaurant in London

Overall the food is delicious!!! Food was very tasty!!! I think we tried to order the whole menu! However, the problem was mainly Front of the house. (FOH) I have made the booking myself as it was my birthday and I can assure you they wasn't welcoming. They were a bit rude with a lot of attitudes!!!! We were looking for our waitress all night as she wasn't paying attention to our table at all. On Sunday night there were just a few tables around. We had to wait for drinks for almost 40 min . We wanted a bottle of wine and we ordered from the manager at the time. I guess he didn't understand us so the waitress came to ask again what kind of wine she suppose to bring us. After 5 min she came back again for 3th time to ask what wine do we want. Once we ordered the starters to share they were bringing each item one by one as we were 7 people we were starving by the time they brought a second starter to share .Then another long wait until we get 3 th round with starters for sharing. We are expecting all drinks to be served at the table together and all starters and main courses to share with all sides are supposed to come along together. Especially when we are a lot of people . It happened the same with our main courses. The first thing on the table arrived was patattas braves as a side and no main course yet. We waited at least 10 minutes after that to get the first main course! Horrible service!!! Literally there is nowhere around that I know where someone is going to bring my side dish first and as a second the main course, after long wait !!!! And again the restaurant had just few tables at the time. Not so busy. My table was set for 5 but I had 2 more guests came along later on and the waitress was telling me that she is not happy to add another pair of cutlery on our table as there is not enough space . She was rude and again I was so upset as it was my birthday and they didn't even offer any dessert for me. I had a conversation with the executive chef Charlie couple days ago and he promised me that they will look after me. Unfortunately this didn't happen. My guest were not happy, a bit upset, thirsty, hungry and no desserts at all !! All them were in a rush to close down the restaurant at 21: 00 pm so therefore they didn't even offer anything for desert or imagine me having my birthday party there. Not to mention that nobody even asked how was everything or do we like the food. Or if we need anything at all !! We were chasing them all night instead of enjoying our conversations. And then we got kicked out with a service charge above 100£ which we did not agree of course. We asked them to take this off the bill because we we're not happy with the service and also we were overcharged for some item that was ordered but they didn't deliver at all. And instead they promised us to give us an extra side of patattas bravas and we never got it either. In generally the kitchen can push for customers but front of the house is destroying the whole main picture!! They should be very polite, welcoming, not rude with knowledge about the alcohol, drinks and the food. They didn't know the wine lists , either the allergies as we specified no selfish from...

Food quality: 5/5 Food taste: 5/5 Restaurant atmosphere: 4/5 Service: 5/5 Price: 3/5 Menu: 4/5

Overall: 4.5 (50% food, 50% the rest)

A great restaurant if you are looking for good quality food. The food tasted good, all dishes had great flavor, they were all colorful and creative. We ordered three main dishes (one fish, two meat) and some vegetables, including a salad. The salad (HOSTO ENTSALADA) was amazing with some fruits and nuts. It had a lot of flavor with a great sauce. However some of the salad leaves were quite big, so it was a bit awkward to eat. The cod fish (ARROZA) was absolutely brilliant . The fish it self was quite small, but was cooked perfectly. It came with some black rice, which tasted fantastic as well. For meat, we ordered the PLUMA and SOLOMILLO, which were again both excellent cooked with great sauces. The one was the Romesco sauce and the other was with chestnut. The vegetables were fine, nothing too special. For example the PATATAK was just with some potatoes and a little bit of spicy sauce. But the vegetables were necessary since the portions of the main dishes are quite small, so you end up ordering 5-7 dishes with 4 people.

Edit: We ordered the signature Cheesecake, when we went for the second time and it is absolutely INSANE!

The atmosphere of the restaurant was good. Good lighting with some music. However the kitchen was an open type, so it was also a bit noisy. There was also a counter in front of the kitchen, so if you are with friends, the bar counter will be the best seat for you. They were also enough tables for families. We went there at 9.15pm and it was still full, so it is necessary to have a reservation. The staffs were all great. They were all smiling and had good experience. The prices were ok, not too expensive but also not too cheap, so I would consider it as normal, so I gave 3 points. The menu was good, 4 choices for fish, 4 choices for meat. They were not a lot of vegetarian meals (especially for the main).

Overall, a great restaurant with excellent food quality, perfect to come with...

We have a tradition of celebrating our anniversary with Spanish cuisine whether a home cook or to dine out depending on what we fancy each year. Because this year it was a surprise lunch so I had no idea where we were going to. At first, I didn't know what to expect from this Spanish restaurant near Marble Arche where I usually don't travel to for a good food destination, except of course the delicious Thai food at The Heron. However, all of this will have to change from now on. I genuinely have found the best Spanish restaurant in London and beyond right here in W1 and it's a Basque cuisine. Couldn't get any better. We ordered a few starters and everything on the fish tapas menu including tomatoes salad and tortilla. Every single dish was just super scrumptious. I could taste every freshness of crab, prawns, squids and even meat tomatoes. I couldn't false anything on the table. They were cooked to perfection, well seasoned and the intensity of the flavours was just unbelievable. I couldn't pick the favourite one which I usually do at the end of the meal. It was that good! We always end the palettes with a dessert but after finding out that they only had one option for that day which was cheese cake we didn't fancy it as we were quite full by then so regrettably we had to say no but the bill came with a small box of cheese cake to take home with. We're so chuffed and impressed with the service, generosity and really made our special meal even more memorable. When we got home we shared the cheese cake and we wish we had more. It was utterly delicious! The lightest cheese cake I ever had. Not at all dry nor firm like New York cheese cake, more soft and moist like creme brûlée but with cheese flavour. I just can't have enough of it. We already recommended to our friends and will make ourselves back to have this incredible food for the...