Rayuela restaurant review: the best Spanish food I've eaten in the UK

When I suggest to my friends that we try Spanish food for an evening, they complain that it’s too expensive, the portions are too small and it's inauthentic.

Save a select few restaurants - largely run by José Pizarro, the Godfather of Iberian food in London - you often get served bland bravas or greasy chorizo. However, I’m always ready to have my mind changed, and Rayuela, in Ealing, West London, has been getting rave reviews.

The Elizabeth Line has changed the face of London’s suburbs, and makes the stylish restaurant just a 15-minute hop from the West End.

It was set up after Covid by the wonderfully welcoming and knowledgeable Miguel Morales Moreno.

Miguel, who hails from Salamanca, a historic city in the north-west of Spain of the tourist trail, originally launched a cafe, however this was caught up in the pandemic.

Undeterred, he sold portions of paella and suckling pig to hungry locals, and after lockdown ended turned the cafe into a wine bar, now called Reineta.

It is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as an after-work drink.

Two doors down is the fine dining restaurant Rayuela, which opened more recently and is pulling people in from all over London.

We start our evening with a glass of wine in Reineta, and sommelier Peter Ingram produces a beautifully crisp and minerally white wine from the Ribera del Duero region.

At Rayuela, to start, Miguel carefully slices Jamon Iberico from Salamanca (£22 for 60g).

He explains that the thin ankle shows the pig has been trotting around and eating the acorns, which means the ruby red ham that is appearing on our plates has a low fat content.

It has a rich, deep and earthy flavour, and the plate is clean in an instant.

In typically Spanish fashion, a bottle of salty olive oil is left on the table for us to use liberally throughout the meal.

Miguel recommends a red wine from Salamanca, made with the grape variety Rufete from the Douro region which I have not tried before.

It’s a delightful medium-bodied drop, which reminds me of an excellent New Zealand Pinot Noir.

We try the croquettes (£8), filled with more ham, fish and mushrooms, and they are perfectly creamy.

They’re not overfried or fatty and somehow stay relatively light.

The ox steak tartare (£16) is salty and mixed with mustard, while the chef’s tacos filled with suckling pig show the Latin American influence of Miguel’s Colombian head chef.

For mains, the octopus is wonderfully charred and tender (£27) and the arroz a banda de carabineros (£36) is a brilliantly flavourful rice dish with prawn juice squeezed in.

However, the real star of the show is the pluma (£29) - the first thing Miguel recommends we try.

Instead of curing the famous Iberian pig, it’s grilled on the plancha and served with guava.

It’s terrifically smoky and tastes unlike any other pork dish I’ve had.

Despite our stomachs rapidly filling up, we feel we have to try dessert and scoff what tastes like a combination of rice pudding and crème brûlée with coffee mixed through. Like everything else we’ve eaten, it’s absolutely delicious.

In a coincidental turn of events, in the time between dining and writing this review I spent a weekend in Spain.

Rayuela stood up to anything I ate in Valencia, Madrid and Seville, and I’d go as far to say it’s the best Spanish food I’ve eaten in the UK.

The menu is on the pricey side, but rest assured the dishes you’ll get are absolutely top quality. If anyone tells you that you can’t get good Spanish food in the UK, point them in the direction of Rayuela.

NationalWorld was a guest of Rayuela, which can be found at Unit 9C Dickens Yard, Ealing, London W5 2TD. Reservations can be made here.