Fino

Smee couldn't wait for me to come back to London so that we could eat at Fino together.  It is a sister restaurant to Barrafina and unlike the latter, they accept reservations (yay) so there is no need to queue for 40 minutes.  Smee had his first taste at a friend's birthday and was especially impressed with the suckling pig.  Despite all the dreams about eating more piglets, he managed to resist returning to the restaurant in my absence.

Tonight was the night and with the bucketing of rain outdoors, it was sure nice to walk into the cosy restaurant den.  We began with a nice bottle of Rioja and then waited for our food to arrive.

Pimientos de Padron.  Seasonal seafood is available daily.  We settled on squid in it's own ink, wrapped in panchetta and razor clams.  Num nums. 

Tuna tartar with guacamole.  Food blogging comes with it's risks and because I am such a duh-brain, I dropped my camera into the guacamole :-S  Grilled octopus with capers drizzled in paprika olive oil.  (I think). Mixed tomato salad.  Num nums again. 

Chorizo and aioli tortilla.  Same as the Barrafina one - nothing impressive.  The piece de resistance - suckling pig with crispy skin.  These little oink-oinks must be ordered 48 hours in advance.  We were not a big enough party to warrant ordering an entire Segovian piglet but this quarter hind was quite enough.  The little pot of piggy juice to eat with your succulent piggy meat.  NUM NUMS!!!!! 

We were full but hey, why not go all the way and have dessert too?

Leche Frita - literally, Fried Milk/Custard.  I could not resist.  My mouth waters looking at this picture.  Spanish donuts.  Well, they're just normal cinnamon/sugar dusted donuts, but when they're fresh they are so yummy.  Yummy I tells ya!  

Yep, I'll come back here.  Priced towards the moderate end of the market, I would say that the cost of each dish is still fair without feeling entirely ripped-off.  Our dinner was a little bit more than the average meal because of the piglet.  I guess I'll always have a more expensive dinner bill because when I return, I'll be having more piglet-goodness!