Mar I Terra — Restaurant in London

Spectacular, authentic Spanish tapas.

I love that the garlic bread came with a warning from the waitress (“It’s real garlic, are you sure?” 😅) and this is always a good sign.

The special on the day (braised beef stew) was a highlight, but I can safely say, having eaten a morsel or two of 8/9 different dishes, that there were no caveats. The prawns were fresh (and chunky), the rabbit stew as tasty as anything, bread portions plentiful (necessarily so, as the sauces and juices were spectacular!)… I could go on…

I’d heartily recommend the Ribera del Duero Red Tempranillo which was an excellent match to ordering a bit of everything and reasonably priced.

The dessert I ordered was a home made Crema Catalana (beautiful, NOT bright yellow!). This meal made my week. The prices were not the cheapest but I’d say it was absolutely worth it, and I’ll be back!

Service was also impressive- one waitress served the whole restaurant, attentively (yes, really!), and ensured there was not waiting on a busy lunch time. Even to the point of warming the cognac glass before serving. Truly above and beyond. Amusingly enough, the owner was away the day we visited. I think we may have been fortunate, judging by the other reviews… but I’d be curious to return and meet such a colourful character!

Actually, one tip for diners: if you order the peppers stuffed with crab they are served straight out of the fridge (around 4 degrees). Serve them up and leave them on your plate till the end to ensure they are not so cold that the flavour is lost. It would be a shame, as they too are a home made delight!

Around £50 per head, including a £20 bottle of wine, a spirit and coffee each to finish (cognac &...

Very pleasant evening with my daughter. Authentic Spanish food.

I've been meaning to try this restaurant for some time so picked this for a dinner with the sprog before she gets too old to be seen out with her old dad. This is a fairly small intimate restaurant which even on a cold February evening soon filled up. A fair number of the guests were speaking spanish but most were English.

Our waitress was very nice but barely spoke english so we switched to spanish as you do. Other patrons however seems to manage.

The food was generally excellent. If I had to quibble the bread wasn't the best and the olives while nice didn't look Spanish. All our tapas were excellent however

We ordered to share between the 2 of us:

Croquetas de pollo. These came with a nice tomato/pepper sauce. We only get 4 small croquetas which is probably a bit on the mean side as they are quite small. I was slightly disappointed that ham croquetas weren't on the menu but these were nice all the same.

Tortilla española. This is the best tortilla I have had in the UK. A great big thick wedge of tortilla. Moist yet with soft potatoes. Very well made.

Arroz A Banda. I'm not a big rice fan but this was excellent. Full of flavour.

Estofado De Buey. This was the dish of the evening for me. A nice beef stew in red wine over some potatoes.

All washed down with the house red (not great but pleasant all the same)

Price? £56.50ish not bad for this part of town.

I'll be...

We arranged a works meal here with about 20 of us. The food and wine were very average. However, they decided to keep giving us bottles of wine even though we had not finished the previous bottles. They obviously decided that as a large group drinking alcohol we wouldn’t notice. Well, when we told them to stop giving us more wine it didn’t go down well with the owner who was now very angry with us. When it came to the bill we noticed we had been charged double for many dishes and for the wine which we did not request. The owner obviously thought we would be too drunk to notice - nice try but some of us are tee-total and some of us were driving. We refused to pay for the extra items and this was when it turned pretty nasty. The owner was furious and verbally abusive to the point of almost physically assaulting us. This was pretty scary for us and we didn’t want any trouble so we just paid and left. Reading some of the other reviews here about the owner it seems this is a regular occurrence. Trust me, do not go to this place unless you want to be served average food and wine, charged double for it, and shouted at/almost physically assaulted by the very...