Rayuela restaurant review
In the quest to finding good neighbourhood restaurants, we headed to Rayuela. A Spanish restaurant near Ealing Broadway. Rayuela translates to “hopscotch’ in English. This refers to the menu where you hop from 1. Cocktails 2. Small plates 3. Starters 4. Mains and 5. Sides which is printed clearly on the menu. Not speaking Spanish I simply thought Rayuela was a decent sounding name for a Spanish restaurant.
Image courtesy of Rayuela
Reyula is the restaurant of Miguel Morales and his wife, Anastasiia as well as business partner and supplier Pedro Cubino. Miguel is from Salamanca in Spain and Anastasiia is Ukranian and their chef, is Colombian so seemingly quite an international affair. The cuisine as a result is Spanish with Latin American influences.
The restaurant is based in Dicken’s Yard, a mixed-use development of shops, restaurants and apartments just off The Broadway and a stone’s throw from Ealing Broadway Station hence super easy to get too. Developments like this often lack a bit of soul and this one is no different but the saving grace of Rayuela’s location is it’s proximity to the beautiful Christ the Saviour church which we could see from the terrace where we chose to sit outside on the balmy evening of our visit.
Image courtesy of Rayuela
The Dining Room has light wooden floors contrasting with dark wood tables, chairs and orange leather banquettes, and is made cosy by dark wood panelled display walls which break up what is otherwise a long rectangular room. The high ceilings give a lovely sense of space, and the walls are adorned with fabric panelled art works. At the back is a bar counter with slight views to the kitchen. As they own the wine bar Reina next door they have plenty of space to play around with should people need to gather for pre-dinner drinks.
We chose to sit on the terrace and were entertained by the goings on. A solo diner very excited about his menu choice and being super chatty with the kind waiter and a table of lively Spanish men conversing and playing cards on a table draped with felt, puffing on cigars, drinking a rich red coloured digestif on the rocks. Regulars no doubt. If you closed your eyes, (and if it was a few degrees warmer), you could imagine sitting in a town square in Spain somewhere.
Image courtesy of Rayuela
Presentation of the food is simple and unfussy letting the flavour of the dishes do the talking. We began with a plate of perfect thinly sliced Jamon Ibérico served with small picos (a Spanish breadstick shaped like a small bread roll). Ibérico ham is always a treat with its special melt in the mouth texture. We also had the Croquetas, two pieces arrived on anbeautiful organically shaped wooden board - crisp on the outside and with a moist unctuous and tasty filling. For freshness we added an Isle of White Tomato Salad with Fresh Garlic dressing, Green Chillies, Basil and Crisp Leeks (£16). A combination I have to say I loved. I may need to add green chillies to my tomato salads in the future. The Tuna Tataki starter sounded interesting served with Ajo Blanco- Almond milk, chive and a confit garlic Oil. Cutting into the tuna revealed it to be over cooked. Tuna Tataki should be lightly seared and rare and pink inside sadly this was just one drab, almost grey colour but the flavours where potentially there for a good dish. Perhaps the pan wasn’t hot enough when searing – that’s my guess.
Moving onto mains we had their popular Pluma (£28) - a fine cut of Iberian Pork with Guava Sauce. It’s a sauce I can imagine would be sensational with duck too. The pork was to die for. Cooked perfectly tender and full of flavour. Served on slender long al dente carrots. Indeed, a popular dish for good reason. My husband had the catch of the day. There is an offering of several different fish. I assume they select what is best on the day. We were recommended hake. It arrived as a fileted crispy skinned slice of fish sitting on a small pile of flavoursome soft potato. I tried to find out what exactly was inside the potato, but the chef did not reveal too much. He simply said, potato, white wine and parsley the rest is secret. Whatever is in there it is a flavour bomb. Hazarding a guess, Isuspect there is some mashed confit or roasted garlic...whatever it was it was delicious! We ordered the side of Grilled Baby Gem with crispy bacon and melted cheese but what arrives is more of a salad. If any grilling went on it is not obvious but who cares, it was a really good salad! Dressed perfectly and with a sprinkling of sunflower and pumpkin seeds and golden raisins. I would order it again.
Image courtesy of Rayuela
As I had enquired earlier about the liqueur the card playing Spanish gentlemen were drinking, our waiter kindly gave us a glass – hence I discovered something new. Patxaran is a Spanish liqueur, traditionally from the Basque Country. It's made by steeping sloe berries (from the blackthorn bush) in. Very enjoyable indeed and paired well with our desserts of Cream Catalana which was infused with coffee, and of a superbly creamy texture. We also tried a customer favourite -Basque Cheesecake. I am very accustomed to the La Vina’s style cheesecake (the restaurant in San Sebastian which made the cake famous) so I found it a tad difficult to get my head round as instead of cream cheese this one is made with a blue cheese. Don’t get me wrong I love blue cheese but not so much in a sweet dessert. This is obviously entirely a personal preference as my husband had no issues and demolished it, as I am sure many of their diners do.
Overall Rayuela might not be a destination spot if you’re coming from across town however if you’re anywhere in West London, you’d be lucky to have this charming neighbourhood gem close by. It’s the kind of place you’ll want to return to again and again.
Location: Unit 9C, Dickens Yard, London W5 2DT . Website: rayuela.co.uk Instagram: rayuela_uk
Review by Natascha Milsom
