Dehesa Tapas Bar-restaurant: my bad reaction to bar stools, good but expensive food, but not enough

Dehesa
Evening started badly. Bar stools.

What I think of Bar Stools
Horrid. Nowhere to put your handbag except on the dirty floor out of reach. Trying to fit into a tiny stool wearing a winter coat. Nowhere to put your coat. These stools do have a back.

Unfortunately we were coming from another event and had to go to the extra expense of a taxi to arrive on time. We were dropped in Regent Street and ran through following satnav on a phone. On time!

Even so, our relatives had arrived first. They were already settled into the straight wall banquette seats, whilst we had the awkward bar high stools opposite. I beamed enthusiasm. I did not want to disrupt our event by making them move.

Food Size and Dividing
Small portions. We were dividing between four. We ordered two portions of the starter. Asparagus with a smidgen of goat's cheese on the end, in a shallow sea of honey. Up comes a plate containing two. Everything was like that. I thought you got tapas for sharing. Everything had to be cut diagonally.

Sharing Plates
Plates not easily divided are an absolute disaster in groups, especially if you have any kind of hierarchy. I mean a work situation such as boss and employee so that one has to constantly defer to the other. In a family, older brother and his wife and younger brother and his wife. Or any situation where one is trying to please another.

Fish and meat
Most of the dishes for starters contained shellfish, to which I am allergic.
I had a lovely fish with tiny morsels of something delicious. We had two meat dishes. They also had lovely sauces and morsels of mushroom or fruit. With four of us sharing every plate it was quite hard to get your share. The meat was dark and shiny and looked raw. I thought it looked undercooked and was stringy and got in your teeth. Everybody else loved it.

Potato
We ordered (potato) chips. Very Spanish style, brushed with red pepper powdered or chili powder, which added visual appeal and flavour. Served with two small pots of dips.

Desserts
We told them we were sharing but the deserts were not shaped for sharing and not served for sharing. We had to play yo-yo with the plates. Could they have served us half portion each, or two plates as well as two spoons. I can tell you that I have been to five star restaurants which do so. Do they think it's bad form to share a dessert?

Shared Desserts
If you are running a tapas bar, which is designed for 'sharing' I think a table for four should be served all dishes for sharing. Otherwise the diners end up not sharing.

Whoever gets to eat the bigger portion or keep the whole dish feels guilty and the others feel resentful. However much you try to smile and be obliging, you are constantly on the alert to grab the first half, the last half, not be the first to dip in, and so on.

I don't want to go back. I must remember to tell them I'm a blind one legged cripple (not true, just joking) and will walk out with my group if I am given a bar stool. The more I think about it, the more cross I get. I did not enjoy the meal at all.

Completely put me in a bad mood. The family asked if I wanted to go onto a film with them but I said no and we went home. Two of us felt that despite having starters, two meat courses, two fish courses, two shared desserts, one coffee and three drinks, glasses of tap water all round, we were still hungry. A hungry diner is not a happy diner.

The service charge is twelve and a half per cent. To cap it all the bill includes a supposedly optional donation to charity, already printed on the bill so you would have to make an embarrassing fuss to delete it.

I would have been a lot happier on a chair nearer the ground with my feet on the ground. The semi-circular seating near the door. That's what I want next time.

You can sit outdoors on the corner of the block looking up the pedestrian alleys leading in two directions. The main pedestrian alley leading to it is lit by seasonal lights and flanked by other amusing restaurants, shops and pubs. You are a short walk from Regent Street and Oxford Circus station. London right now is thronged with crowds of jolly people.

I managed to scoot down the steep staircase to the toilets. I thought, no good for wheelchairs or people with knocking knees and awkward ankles. Nor drunks misplacing their footing.

Dehesa, 25 Ganton Street, London WIF 9BP
+44 (0)20 7494 4170
info@dehesa.co.uk
saltyardgroup.co.uk

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Dehesa Tapas Bar-restaurant: my bad reaction to bar stools, good but expensive food, but not enough

Dehesa
Evening started badly. Bar stools.

What I think of Bar Stools
Horrid. Nowhere to put your handbag except on the dirty floor out of reach. Trying to fit into a tiny stool wearing a winter coat. Nowhere to put your coat. These stools do have a back.

Unfortunately we were coming from another event and had to go to the extra expense of a taxi to arrive on time. We were dropped in Regent Street and ran through following satnav on a phone. On time!

Even so, our relatives had arrived first. They were already settled into the straight wall banquette seats, whilst we had the awkward bar high stools opposite. I beamed enthusiasm. I did not want to disrupt our event by making them move.

Ranting Against Bar Stools
I did my pole-vaulting impression, perched with the uncertain air of a parrot shifting about on bar, about to speak words everybody waited for. I tried to look agile and nonchalant.

Being on a bar stool put me in a bad mood for the whole meal. Are you sitting comfortably? No. I feel like I am in an airport lounge, or eating a snack of pot noodles on a trapeze. Bar stools must be designed for drinkers at bars, so they move on quickly to make way for others, and fall off as soon as they have had the second drink; approved by people who want the most uncomfortable chairs in order to get a quick turnover of diners who don't linger.

Did I say any of this? No. (It's our secret!)

Bar stools have only one use. Sitting up high to play electric organs on x shape supports.

Food Size and Dividing
Small portions. We were dividing between four. We ordered two portions of the starter. Asparagus with a smidgen of goat's cheese on the end, in a shallow sea of honey. Up comes a plate containing two. Everything was like that. I thought you got tapas for sharing. Everything had to be cut diagonally.

Sharing Plates
Plates not easily divided are an absolute disaster in groups, especially if you have any kind of hierarchy. I mean a work situation such as boss and employee so that one has to constantly defer to the other. In a family, older brother and his wife and younger brother and his wife. Or any situation where one is trying to please another.

Fish and meat
Most of the dishes for starters contained shellfish, to which I am allergic.
I had a lovely fish with tiny morsels of something delicious. We had two meat dishes. They also had lovely sauces and morsels of mushroom or fruit. With four of us sharing every plate it was quite hard to get your share. The meat was dark and shiny and looked raw. I thought it looked undercooked and was stringy and got in your teeth. Everybody else loved it.

Potato
We ordered (potato) chips. Very Spanish style, brushed with red pepper powdered or chili powder, which added visual appeal and flavour. Served with two small pots of dips.

Desserts
We told them we were sharing but the deserts were not shaped for sharing and not served for sharing. We had to play yo-yo with the plates. Could they have served us half portion each, or two plates as well as two spoons. I can tell you that I have been to five star restaurants which do so. Do they think it's bad form to share a dessert?

Shared Desserts
If you are running a tapas bar, which is designed for 'sharing' I think a table for four should be served all dishes for sharing. Otherwise the diners end up not sharing.

Whoever gets to eat the bigger portion or keep the whole dish feels guilty and the others feel resentful. However much you try to smile and be obliging, you are constantly on the alert to grab the first half, the last half, not be the first to dip in, and so on.

I don't want to go back. I must remember to tell them I'm a blind one legged cripple (not true, just joking) and will walk out with my group if I am given a bar stool. The more I think about it, the more cross I get. I did not enjoy the meal at all.

Completely put me in a bad mood. The family asked if I wanted to go onto a film with them but I said no and we went home. Two of us felt that despite having starters, two meat courses, two fish courses, two shared desserts, one coffee and three drinks, glasses of tap water all round, we were still hungry. A hungry diner is not a happy diner.

To cap it all the bill includes a supposedly optional donation to charity, already printed on the bill so you would have to make an embarrassing fuss to delete it.

I would have been a lot happier on a chair nearer the ground with my feet on the ground. The semi-circular seating near the door. That's what I want next time.

You can sit outdoors on the corner of the block looking up the pedestrian alleys leading in two directions. The main pedestrian alley leading to it is lit by seasonal lights and flanked by other amusing restaurants, shops and pubs. You are a short walk from Regent Street and Oxford Circus station. London right now is thronged with crowds of jolly people.

I managed to scoot down the steep staircase to the toilets. I thought, no good for wheelchairs or people with knocking knees and awkward ankles. Nor drunks misplacing their footing.

Dehesa, 25 Ganton Street, London WIF 9BP
+44 (0)20 7494 4170
info@dehesa.co.uk
saltyardgroup.co.uk

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Dehesa Tapas Bar-restaurant: my bad reaction to bar stools, good but expensive food, but not enough

Dehesa
Evening started badly. Bar stools.

What I think of Bar Stools
Horrid. Nowhere to put your handbag except on the dirty floor out of reach. Trying to fit into a tiny stool wearing a winter coat. Nowhere to put your coat. These stools do have a back.

Unfortunately we were coming from another event and had to go to the extra expense of a taxi to arrive on time. Even so, our relatives had arrived first. They were already settled into the wall banquette seats and I did not want to disrupt our event by making them move.

Being on a bar stool put me in a bad mood for the whole meal. Are you sitting comfortably? No.

Food Size and Dividing
Small portions. We were dividing between four. We ordered two portions of the starter. Asparagus with a smidgen of goat's cheese on the end, in a shallow sea of honey. Up comes a plate containing two. Everything was like that. I thought you got tapas for sharing. Everything had to be cut diagonally.

Sharing Plates
Plates not easily divided are an absolute disaster in groups, especially if you have any kind of hierarchy. I mean a work situation such as boss and employee so that one has to constantly defer to the other. In a family, older brother and his wife and younger brother and his wife. Or any situation where one is trying to please another.

Fish and meat
Most of the dishes for starters contained shellfish, to which I am allergic.
I had a lovely fish with tiny morsels of something delicious. We had two meat dishes. They also had lovely sauces and morsels of mushroom or fruit. With four of us sharing every plate it was quite hard to get your share.

Potato
We ordered (potato) chips. Very Spanish style, brushed with red pepper powdered or chili powder, which added visual appeal and flavour. Served with two small pots of dips.

Desserts
We told them we were sharing but the deserts were not shaped for sharing and not served for sharing. We had to play yo-yo with the plates. Could they have served us half portion each, or two plates as well as two spoons. I can tell you that I have been to five star restaurants which do so. Do they think it's bad form to share a dessert?

Shared Desserts
If you are running a tapas bar, which is designed for 'sharing' I think a table for four should be served all dishes for sharing. Otherwise the diners end up not sharing.

Whoever gets to eat the bigger portion or keep the whole dish feels guilty and the others feel resentful. However much you try to smile and be obliging, you are constantly on the alert to grab the first half, the last half, not be the first to dip in, and so on.

I don't want to go back. I must remember to tell them I'm a blind one legged cripple (not true, just joking) and will walk out with my group if I am given a bar stool. The more I think about it, the more cross I get. I did not enjoy the meal at all.

Completely put me in a bad mood. The family asked if I wanted to go onto a film with them but I said no and we went home. Two of us felt that despite having starters, two meat courses, two fish courses, two shared desserts, one coffee and three drinks, glasses of tap water all round, we were still hungry. A hungry diner is not a happy diner.

To cap it all the bill includes a supposedly optional donation to charity, already printed on the bill so you would have to make an embarrassing fuss to delete it.

I would have been a lot happier on a chair nearer the ground with my feet on the ground. The semi-circular seating near the door. That's what I want next time.

You can sit outdoors on the corner of the block looking up the pedestrian alleys leading in two directions. The main pedestrian alley leading to it is lit by seasonal lights and flanked by other amusing restaurants, shops and pubs. You are a short walk from Regent Street and Oxford Circus station. London right now is thronged with crowds of jolly people.

Dehesa, 25 Ganton Street, London WIF 9BP
+44 (0)20 7494 4170
info@dehesa.co.uk
saltyardgroup.co.uk

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Spanish Restaurant and Tapas Bar menus translated

I have been sent details of a forthcoming Tapas Restaurant meeting in London, England. London has several Tapas Restaurants. I looked up the menu on the restaurant website. I translated the words. I looked at the restaurant website and saw three desserts, all containing ice cream, but still did not know which was which. So I went to TripAdvisor where I found customer photos at the top and the most useful pictures, which I have a click for useful, showed the food and had a caption saying which ingredients were shown.

Having sorted out the desserts, I could see what was all sugar or all sugar and fat (I love it - but my companions will be telling me I need to lose weight and I will be wondering about my next dental appointment. Any dessert with chocolate? Scrumptious.

Any dessert with healthy fruit? Figs? Dates? Should I go for the cheese and figs? That has fruit and calcium.

If the restaurant has two sittings, or closes early, at 2 pm lunch time, or 6 or 7, o 9 or 10 in the evening, or I am running for a train to another event or to get home, I need to allow time for coffee and cleaning all that sugar off my teeth.

I then looked at the savouries and checked on all the foods to which I am allergic (prawns, oysters, lobster, mixed shellfish). I checked on what I might wish to avoid (suckling pig, pig's cheek, pig's trotters). Other members of my group will be very keen on these dishes. But it could be a problem if they want to share the food, or share the bill as we need two sets of orders, one for them and one for me. I also looked at salami (highly processed food - avoid if your family has been on a post-cancer and prevent returning cancer diet).

Finally I am making a translation of a Spanish menu. TripAdvisor did not help. Google found me Wikipedia and dictionaries and reviews but I wasted a lot of time on long posts like this one which made me hunt to the end for a translation. (I had to use menus from some nearby rival restaurants and those in other countries to finally get what I wanted). I remembered buying a laminated card which translates menus at a museum in Spain, either at a Rioja vineyard tour shop, or at the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao in Northern Spain. However, I now don't know where it is. Probably inside the front cover of a large English-Spanish Dictionary.

So now my next task is to create an ongoing menu translation for myself which I will share with you.
Please follow my posts. Some of the Spanish terms are so similar to the Italian and Portuguese that if you know one you can guess the word from the other, or they have dishes in common or borrowed from each other, just as English menus often contain French dishes.

Tapas - small portion or snack, originally the plate made from a piece of thick salami placed over an alcoholic drink at a bar to keep flies off. Later an accompaniment to drinks. Same as we serve olives or nuts with drinks in England. In some bars tapas would be free, to keep you drinking. Salted nuts make you thirsty so you feel the need to drink more. Dehydration makes you want to drink.

To avoid getting drunk or dehydrating, either ask for water, or take your own. If you take your own you could drink it before entering the restaurant or after leaving. (Or in the toilet cubicle if you are using it to clean your teeth.)

SPANISH / ITALIAN MENU TRANSLATED
affogato - coffee ice cream, sometimes vanilla ice cream with espresso coffee poured over it. Delicious.
porcini - mushroom

Spanish restaurants with menus online

www.dehesa.co.uk    Spanish-Italian menu
"Dehesa- a unique woodland area in Spain which is home to the black-footed Ibérico pigs – said to produce the best ham in the world."

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g186338-d1027064-Reviews-Dehesa-London_England.html

http://translation.babylon.com/english/Porcini/

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/affogato

-ends-

Angela Lansbury BA Hons, ACG, travel writer and photographer, author, speaker. Books on Amazon and Lulu. Follow me on blogger and follow me and like my pages on Facebook. If you are Travel, PR, or any related business please invite me to events or contact me on LinkedIn.
 I have put this up for you to read and will add more here and to a later post.