Stephen and Abbey Wright - Ex- British ambassador to Madrid
"The tapas are served to customers sitting on stools at the bar and the staff are all very friendly, personable and knowledgeable. There is a serving kitchen in the centre of the bar (a full kitchen is located nearby to prepare all the tapas freshly) and an expert carver was continuously carving beautiful high grade portions of jamon.
Amongst the dishes we sampled, the house olives were deliciously plump and flavoured with rosemary and a little garlic, and the classics - boquerones, a small salad, the jamon with crunchy tomato bread were all tasty and of the best quality. The tortilla was the best we've ever eaten!
Other highlights included Huevos Rotos (tasty chunks of chorizo with potato and garlic dressed with a perfectly runny baked egg, Morcilla de Burgos - delicious slices of black pudding served in a sweet apple compote and dressed with spicy red peppers, Pulpa a la Gallega - tender steamed octopus with potatoes and two types of paprika, as well as some inspirational pimientos stuffed with a delicate mushroom béchamel, dressed with a pepper sauce. The prawns in garlic were soft and sweet and, as with all the dishes, the garlic was just enough but not overpowering.
The wine list was interesting and we tasted a lovely Albariño with the fish tapas and a super Borbal de San Juan from Valencia with the meat ones. The house Sangria was delicious and for the less sweet toothed an alternative Tinto de Verano was available. The most expensive wine on the list was £25 and the tapas prices were also very reasonable including set meals of tapas selections for £18-£20.
The puddings were interesting, a coulant de chocolat with a hint of orange and very crispy churros and chocolate, although I would have liked a higher percentage of cocoa in the chocolate.
We enjoyed a very delicious lunch of high grade tapas, served by lovely people. A good experience and if you are not a shopping centre fan, the good news is that a new Tapas Revolution bar and restaurant is planned to open in Shoreditch later this year.
Will we go? Yes we will and for anyone shopping at Westfield, this is THE place to eat."
Jimmy Burns - Anglo- Spanish journalist and author of 'La Roja' and 'Barca'
"For those of you like me who don’t like being hemmed in or rushed when eating, this a place definitely to avoid at weekends when I am told there are up to half dozen people waiting at peak times for one high chair. But then, if you are local, you might find it a convenient treat before or after visiting the nearby multi-screen cinema.
I went early evening on a Monday with another friend and we had Tapas Revolution almost to ourselves but however hard one tried it was still difficult to feel intimate, let alone romantic. Not only is this built conceptually like a Japanese Sushi food bar, with tapas (cooked in an off-location kitchen) seemingly fast-cooked and fast-delivered, but it is dwarfed by its immediate environment-the Westfield shopping centre.
And I have to say I am not a fan of Westfield shopping centre. Not only do I find the surrounding area-Shepherd’s Bush and White City- a disaster in terms of urban planning but I also believe this gigantic shopping mall epitomises a brave new world of soulless consumerism which can only damage the soul.
And yet those who own and work at Tapas Revolution are a very friendly and creative bunch who try their best to help you shut your eyes and think of Spain as you sit at the 40-seat counter , being served tapas as quickly as you can eat them.
My companion on the night lives locally, is English and loves Spain without being spoilt by too much real quality Spanish food. She told me, once our tasting was over, that she found the tapas”scrumptious” and never had had such fun at Westfield. I was slightly less enthusiastic but I liked being served some traditional dishes from around Spain that took me back to my Spanish grandmother’s kitchen. Favourites in order: pan con tomate y jamon; huevos estrellados (eggs scrambled with small chunks of fried potato), pincho Moruno (spicy marinated pork kebab of North African origin and a popular dish in the south of Spain), and the home-made chocolate and orange dessert washed down with some nice house Rioja and a digestion-aiding herb liqueur.
In the end however it was all over too quickly and the food I had smelt and tasted seemed as illusory as Quixote’s giants. I was plunged back into the living nightmare of Westfield as I took a wrong turning down an escalator and lost my way in the monstrous car park. I felt I would need some hard persuasion to ever come back."
Tapas Revolution, The Balcony, Westfield Shopping Centre W12
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