Twist at Crawford in Marylebone, near Edgware Road tube station, does outstanding Spanish tapas. Delicious meats, great flavours, lovely service - definitely a restaurant I will visit again.
Spanish Tapas restaurant Twist at Crawford opened in early 2015, bringing more excellent Spanish food to Marylebone. The decoration is very typical for new openings these days, industrial shabby-chic, exposed brick walls, hipster light bulbs. A combination that should perhaps best be forbidden outside designated areas of urban edginess. Still, Twist in beautiful Marylebone somehow manages to add a little bit of Spanish authenticity to the mix beyond the standard urban-cool decoration.
Staff were very friendly and helpful in the selection of dishes and continued to deliver good service throughout my visit.
I started with a white wine, the Madregale Bianco Chardonnay-Trebbiano 2013. They had more interesting wines on the menu, but unfortunately they were only available by the bottle. That said, the Chardonnay-Trebbiano was an enjoyable wine, and surprisingly one of the waiters complimented my choice, as in some parts of Italy, people would also drink white wine with cured meat, he explained. Good to know - often, people expect that you have to drink a red wine with cured meat and cheese.
The first dish that arrived at my table was the Paleta iberica de bellota D.O. Reserva 24 months. This basically means, that it was an extensively matured Iberican black pig ham, and as the menu added, it is "nominated best jamon in the world". I am not a big fan of fatty meat, but in this case, the thinky sliced ham tasted great and the fat just added to the flavour.
The meat was served with thin, crispy Sardinian bread. I was a bit skeptical first and ordered a bread basket in addition to these thin bread chips, but really, the ham and this Sardinian bread was a perfect combination. The other two kinds of bread were too sweet and too dense for my liking.
Not long after the ham, my second plate arrived, roasted chicken thighs, chili, honey and toasted macadamia almonds. I was prepared for chicken pieces on the bone, but was happy to see only boneless chicken, as I find it in general much easier to eat without having to cut around the bones. More importantly, the chicken thighs were one of the best chicken dishes I can remember.
The juicy chicken and the sweet sauce together were a heavenly blend of flavours. Finally, the slightly sweet cumin bread also came to good use, when I soaked the remaining chicken sauce up with it, after I had finished the chicken thighs.
I rounded off my meal with the lovely fleur de sel chocolate tart. A cold, rich delight with a strong chocolate taste and a pinch of salt.
The individual dishes were small, as you expect for tapas, but two of them were filling and left enough space for the dessert.
Overall, I was very happy with the portion sizes as well as the friendly and competent service. read more