Dinner in Mayfair can often feel repetitive – polished brass, perfumed air, and the quiet fear that speaking too loudly will get you judged. El Pirata, on the other hand, never got the memo. It’s been here for 31 years, serving tapas with the same informal warmth it probably had in 1994, as if someone picked up a neighbourhood bar from Madrid and wedged it between the hedge funds.
The dining room looks like it’s survived three decades of laughter and Rioja – lively, spread across two floors, surrounded by wooden beams. There’s the clatter of plates passing between couples on dates at the bar upstairs and families laughing downstairs. Hidden on the quiet streets of West London, behind a door plastered with colourful posters, it’s not trying to be Mayfair – it just happens to exist there.
With more than 60 classic tapas dishes to choose from, your night will be spent eating like you’re in Spain. Boquerones, croquetas de jamón ibérico, pulpo al pirata – all cooked and prepared perfectly to capture everyone’s favourites from a tapas menu. The chorizo bubbles in its own cider-and-onion perfume, while the secreto de cerdo ibérico balances smoke and fat so well that a single portion will never be enough. And when the paella arrives, saffron-yellow and unapologetically rustic, it doesn’t look staged. It looks like dinner.
El Pirata’s wine list could hold its own against any Spanish restaurant in London – deep, knowledgeable, and perfectly paired with the complex array of flavours that any tapas selection will take you through. Or stay on cocktails: a Caipirinha that tastes properly of cachaça and lime, or a Coconut Margarita that’s smooth and oddly transportive, like holidaying in a glass.
Desserts are playful but traditional – churros con chocolate, crisp and sticky-fingered, or the bar’s favourite: torrija caramelizada con helado, a Spanish-style French toast that has to be tried.
There’s something defiant about El Pirata, and a reason it’s survived long enough to prove that authenticity isn’t a trend but muscle memory – the quality of proper Spanish tapas, right at the front of Mayfair. In a neighbourhood obsessed with appearances, that’s exactly why El Pirata still matters.
