Tapas: Dehesa

Dehesa
25 Ganton Street
W1F 9BP
Tel: 020 7494 4170

Date of Last Visit: Thursday, April 3, 2008

The Victim: Anonymous

The Damage: £30 each

The Background: Jess is raffling me off. OK, maybe not raffling. But she is accepting applications on my behalf. Anonymous suggests Dehesa, which I'm excited about because Howard, Ben, Antonia and I tried to get in there the other week and were sadly denied. 

The Entrance: Dehesa is small. And it gets crowded later on. But for now, we have two seats at the bar, which is good because we're not surrounded on all sides, like the other seats. And I get to watch the bartenders scrupulously clean all the glasses.

The Food: Now I have to preface this by saying that I am "in training" for the British 10k. Imagine someone who has a pretty healthy appetite to begin with. Now imagine that person running 3 miles three to five times a week. Yeah, I'm hungry. I also made the mistake of eating lunch at around 11:15 and now it's close to 7 p.m. So now I'm STARVING.

Padron peppers. (Excellent.) Marcona almonds. Two of my favorite things. Pork belly (pictured), with a good almost of crispy skin. The pork was better than the beans, which were on the bland side. Grilled artichokes (only okay). Baby squid. (Lovely.) Manchego cheese. (Always nice.) Gnocchi. (Odd.) Rice pudding brulee. (DENSE.) Biscotti. Yes, a lot of food.

Interesting: Anonymous is an Economist, and I forget how much I love economist talk. I talk about my time and aggravation theory. He calls it my implied wage rate. We discuss the ethnic sub-groups of cleaning people. (I am in with the Romanians.) We briefly debate eBay and the efficiency of markets. And we wonder why the U.S. has one of the developed world's highest birthrates, although Americans generally get some of the worst maternity and paternity benefits in the developed world.  Hmm.

The Loos: Spic and span.

The Verdict: Honestly, I thought the food at Dehesa was just okay. The pork belly was the standout for me. And the padron peppers. If I go back, I'd go back for the atmosphere and I'd order differently.

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