Despaña

If your a lover of Spanish food, there is no better place in NYC to find the variety of gourmet items that are sold at Despana, It’s both a grocery store and tapas bar. Up front you can find sauces, olives, jamon, chorizo, cheese, cans of all kinds of canned seafood, olives, olive oil, vinegar and more, It’s like walking into a shop in Spain. In the back they serve tapas and pinxos, which you can take out or eat in a lovely white-​tiled side room. If you’re eating in and want wine, just go next door to their wine shop and they’ll provide the glasses. Typically, there will be sample of olive oil or olives with pieces of bread on the shelf for you to try. Since almost everything is imported, it can get pricey, but the food is great and authentic. You can get an Iberian foodie experience without having to fly to Madrid.

Made a large order for a gift to our planner. The produce they have is just excellent and I was very happy with their flexibility and professionalism managing my shipping requirements.

Love, Love, Love this place. Great for a quick bite or to do some light shopping for chorizo and olive oil.

Delicious, authentic, expensive. Good service.
However, on a couple occasions things haven’t been so great: they’ve messed up orders and not cooked certain things properly.
But still, whenever the kids are hankering for some Spanish food, this is where we go.

Fantastic. The best of Basque cuisine! Cured meats, fish, wonderful olive oils, cheeses, nuts, honey. Friendly staff all around. Casual but feels like a treat. For sure a must stop place in NYC and one of first stops we’ll be making he next time we’re in NYC!

The place is small but offers a great variety of food from Spain. Lots of wine and beer choices from the continent. A nice place for lunch.

Despaña is consistently fresh, delicious, and affordable.
I love the atmosphere. It has such a European feel and the food is great too. They have a selection of olive oils and meats in the front but you can order from their assortment of salads, sandwiches and other options the back. There’s seating on the left hand side too. The food comes out pretty quickly even though they’re busy. The flavors are distinct: olive oil, high-​quality meat and cheeses.
It’s definitely a go-​to lunch option when in SoHo!

What a great place, wish there was a place like this back in Rhode Island. Top quality.

This was my second time here. We ordered two tortillas and they were delicious. You can never go wrong with tortillas española. I also liked that they had small plates with pieces of chocolate on each table for free.

The selection of meats and cheeses were great, the ambience was great, and the food being served was, again, great! Not much more to say than that, but it’s definitely worth stopping by and having a look/​try.

so good, portions are quite sizable and way more than what I’d expect from something in soho. super lowkey and casual vibe, don’t let the plastic plates detract from the food
the morcilla blood sausage and tomato tapa was my favorite, one of the more unique things I’ve put in my mouth and I’d be happy eating some all day every day
wasn’t a big fan of the whipped potato underneath the octopus in the pulpo a la gallega, I’d prefer if it was separate from the octopus instead
my gf and I also split the chorizo and chestnuts tapa and the serrano tortilla (which is more a frittata than a tortilla)

My sisters had been to this place when they were in NYC and insisted that we go here and buy some of their items for home!
We ordered a variety of tapas for lunch. Each item was tasty and reminded me of the tapas that we had in Barcelona. I’d itemize them but I don’t think you can go wrong here, order one of each and share!
When we were done with lunch, the gentleman behind us said he was a tour guide and that this was a secret gem, not many tourists know about it but it’s so good it should be shared with the world!
They had samples of all sorts of chorizo and sausages. Manchego cheese with quince paste and Marconi almonds. Sardines. Lots of items!
You look at the menu, order with the girl behind the counter, pay and find a seat at one of 3 communal tables or at the small bar. There’s water and plastic utensils on a table in the corner. When your order is ready they bring it all out at the same time.
I bought an assortment of jars of tuna packed in olive oil, sardines, anchovies, octopus and paquillo peppers. An extra 6 lbs to stuff in my suitcase but worth it!
Atmosphere ⁵⁄₅ reminds of a Spanish deli in Spain!
Service ⁴⁄₅ they do exactly what they’re supposed to
Value ⁵⁄₅
Food ⁵⁄₅
Bathroom or the WC ⁵⁄₅ super duper clean!
I love this place and I’m kinda glad we don’t have one near us in CA I’d spend all my money at their store. We will for sure be back

Great destination for all things Spain…
The store isn’t big but it’s packed with lots of good things. As you enter, there’s a giant wall of various canned goods from Spain.
There’s some good paprika and indigenous shelf stable ingredients.
On the right side there’s a counter where you can get some of the popular selection of cheese and charcuterie.
Towards the back of the store there’s a self service refrigerator of beer, cider and other beverages.
Quite honestly the food was just okay, I think you go here for the atmosphere and experience. All the food is served tapas style/​small plates.
They serve beer and wine, and if you go next door there’s a full service wine shop. Great selection of Spanish wines. I found some great deals and great wines from this shop. They also can deliver the wine if you happen to be traveling.
Salud!

Serendipitously stumbled upon this little gem one afternoon. Despaña stocks incredible, high-​quality items like guava and quince paste, piquillo peppers, vinegars, olive oils, and many more. The marble counter is also packed with abundant samples of olives, cheese (yes, there’s more to Spanish cheese than Manchego), and several varieties of chorizo (which they make themselves in their factory in Queens). And let’s not forget their selection of jamons that will be haunting my dreams for nights. Despaña hand-​slices their jamón iberico, something I have not seen yet anywhere else. Having tried the jamon iberico puro bellota, I have repudiated my love for prosciutto di parma (and my paychecks).
Cannot wait to return and try their sandwiches and tapas!

ROCK AND ROLL CHORIZO & ADDICTIVE JAMON!!!
I love me some chorizo, and Despana makes some delicious chorizo.
Store stocked to the rafters with specialty items from Spain, a full line of housemade Spanish sausages, Spanish cheeses, and (OMFG) hand — sliced Iberico Jamon, WOW!
Yea that hand — sliced ham’s pricey, but so densely packed with flavor, it’ll get all the same neurons firing as when you fall in love. (Except you don’t have to introduce the Jamon to your parents, or explain why there’s lipstick on your collar.)
Prepared tapas, and some creative hot and cold Spanish inspired sandwiches in the back of the shop. Gregarious staff, clean, crowded at lunch time, free samples abound.
I’m sure I’ve left something out, and I may just be speaking from the altered state the Jamon places me in, but I really, really like Despana, and if you don’t check your pulse.

We’ve had a great meal which brought us lots of surprise! Since we cannot read the menu, we ordered our meals though pics and recommendation!
Which I love the most is «Toasta Pulpo» and the special called «Morcilla Flauta».

I saw a Unilocal reviews on this place and I knew I had to try it. Oh. My. Gosh. Literally the most amazing chorizo I’ve ever had! My boyfriend ordered the chorizo sandwich and I ordered the gallego sandwich. Both were to die for! It was a simple combination of my favorite things: MEAT, CHEESE, BREAD, NO BS. Seriously though… I’m considering coming back tomorrow before our trip ends.

Great place to stop in for a casual but authentic lunch/​HH/​dinner — whatever type of meal you’re looking for. Great tapas, great wine. Fun, fresh ambiance. Feels very authentic and made me miss Spain!

A great place for tapas and wine!
Order at the counter then grab a seat and they will bring your food.
You can get a bottle from next door to enjoy at the café. Totally an amazing deal. We got a bottle of red for $ 21 that the person there recommended and we thoroughly enjoyed it.
The meat and cheese plate ($ 25) was huge and full of variety. The chroizo and olives were both huge portions for a few bucks. The octopus was delicious and probably my favorite dish. The boquerones were a smaller portion but still very good.
You can get a delicious meal with wine for under $ 40 per person!

Absolutely delicious sandwiches– my favorite (thanks other Unilocalers! For the tip) is the Picante, it’s not just for hot sake– the flavor of the chorizo, peppers, delicious cheese and some sort of aioli is incredible!
The Sangria puts all others to Shame. However, the service is seriously impressive and I honestly don’t usually care either way as long as the food tastes good– but after only a couple visits one young lady memorized my typical order… she’s just so sweet. I wish I remembered her name because she remembers mine (stupid memory!!) Despana– pay them right! And lucky customers — tip well! Also, their olive oils for sale… I can almost drink.

Despaña…I want to sing you a song, seriously.
I can’t even take this review seriously right now because I am too emotionally invested.
Service is lovely, products are lovely, take out/​eat-​in food is lovely
But, I must tell you the real reason why I burst for joy here…
They carry Jose Andres’ Jamón Ibérico de Bellota!!!
This cured meat rings in at an outrageous price, but it is totally worth it.
The cured meat and cheese selection is perfect for a fancy light dinner or appetizer, also, don’t forget to stop next door at the wine shop. They have the most beautiful Rioja collection I have ever seen! #fangirl
Oh, Despaña~~~ My Spanish paradise!

There’s a special place in my stomach for this place. Truly takes me back to Spain with all my favorite bocadillos & tapas. If you have time, it’s nice to sit inside and relax a bit as if you were having a leisurely lunch on the Mediterranean. If not, take out is just as delicious.

As a spaniard I can say without a problem that this store is legit. The products are top notch an authentic. Even some of there US made stuff is good. Especially the sobrasada and chistorra. Stay away from their fuet as its just not even close to the real thing.
I also recommend their canned goods and some of their more unique stuff like the Cola Cao which I’ve been drinking since I was a kid.
Btw their tapas bar in the back is worth staying for as well.
Overall I’m so glad they exist. If. It where would I get my Spanish food fix!!! :)

It is around the place I stayed and I swung in to check it out as Unilocal says it’s good. I ordered a sandwich the store is famous for and it tastes good. (lots of cheese with different texture and tastes.) Judging from other customers’ order and tapa, I think they are good. Will try next time in New York downtown.

The absolute real deal. Having been in Madrid and other spanish cities, this is how they eat for lunch. The personnell all our spanyards and they cook with pleasure. Plastic plates and cutlery do not affect the overall experience of amazing, filling and full of calories dishes.
Try the croquettes, boquerones, and morcillas… Staple dishes from a gorgeous contry. Next, go visit Madrid!

Services was great! Zaira was a welcoming host. The pintxos, tortillas, and tapas were excellent. The highlight for me was the flan tradicional. Prices are very reasonable. This review if for the café, but know that there is an attached store with authentic Spanish products of great quality. Try their paella days!

Despana is an amazing little shop in SoHo. I finally decided to venture here on a nice lazy weekend. As a huge fan of Spanish tapas and all other Spanish food, I fell in love as soon as I stepped into the door.
To the left, walls upon walls of various olive oils, crackers, paella rice, and Spanish snacks. To your left, cheese and cured meat. This way by far the best part.
The meat section offers samples of the chorizo that they sell. There’s about 5 varieties if my memory serves me correctly. The fattier chorizo would be the regular chorizo and the spicy chorizo. Try as much as you like, the staff doesn’t really seem to care. In addition to chorizo, there’s a choice of jamon – Serrano, Iberico, etc. You can get it machine sliced or hand sliced but hand sliced is almost double the price. I wish someone that day had ordered some hand sliced jamon just so I could witness the technique. There’s also prepackaged jamon which is obviously cheaper. Grab some bread to go with your cheese and cured meat and you’ll be good to go!

I can’t speak for the dine-​in experience or the wine shop next door, but I can say this place brought back great memories from my semester in Spain. Tons of authentic Spanish products that are hard to find outside of specialty stores such as this.
Free samples all over the place, including jamon serrano, olives, bread and olive oil and hazelnut spread.
A little pricey, but not overwhelmingly so.

Authentic Spanish tapas food and a great brunch spot!
You can find all sorts of good cheese, meats, oils, and spices. You can even sample the variety of oils, meats, and cheeses they have for sale. The staff is super friendly.
They have beer available for purchase, which I love to have along with a nice tortilla and pintxos (goat cheese and carmelized onions are so friggin’ good).

$#@%, how am I supposed to live knowing this place carries an extensive line of Spanish olive oil, vinegar, cured meats, and tapas?! My bank account is screaming ‘stop’ while my mouth is screaming ‘more’. And the most damning element of Despana? Samples. Their never-​empty plates of samples. Dammit!

My favourite place in the area! Ok, I am biased, I lived in Spain, but seriously this place is as Spanish as Soho can get…
Get the chorizo sandwich or the jamon salad (don’t know the exact name, but it has jamon and manchego).
It’s pretty hard to find a place to sit at peak hours, but you’re in Spain, so you can just eat around the place or outside.
Seriously, go try it out — and practice your Spanish too. Oh, and the best part — they have like food to try everywhere around the restaurant, so if you don’t get a seat or the line is too long, entertain yourself with the 10 different samples.

I wanted to have a taste of Spain before I actually go to Spain next month. The man behind the counter was kind enough to help me point out what was good and showed us the free samples they have on the counter by the entrance. I got here half an hour after they opened and was surprised their samples of sausages were still warm.
The seating area is reaaaaally nice. Tables are marble, there’s olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper in nice bottles on the table, and there are also small plates of mini bread sticks for people to share. There’s a small counter for water and utensils on the side.
We ended up getting a sandwich with the spicy sausage, a cod fish ball, octopus, and sardine tapas. They were very good, except the sardine one. I thought it was kinda weird and sour. I’ve never had anything like these tapas before so I don’t know what else to say besides «they’re good». But don’t get sardines unless you know you like them. The sausage sandwich was very big. With the tapas, I wouldn’t have been able to eat it alone. It had some pickled green peppers in it that I didn’t really like. But the sausage was good. I’ll be back to try other tapas.

Was I in New York or Madrid? I’ve been to Madrid about 3 times and Barcelona once so I’ve had my share of Spanish Tapas. This brought me back to Spain. Wasn’t exactly sure what to do when I entered Despana but was instructed by the very friendly cashier on how to order. But let me digress; the café is in the back of a Spanish grocery that has many items you could only normally get from Spain. I wish we could have bought some items but being from out of town and not having access to our parked car would have meant carrying everything around all day.
Back to the café. You walk through the grocery and in the back is a nice display case of many delectible items. We ordered the Tosta Pulpo (Octopus with aioli and tomatoes), Tosta Cebolla (Goat Cheese and caramelized onions), and Boquerones (anchovies and tomato on bread). You then sit down in the dining area (small) and they bring out your order. All three of the items we ordered were great. The Octopus was nice and tender (not tough), the onions were very sweet (a good thing) and went well with the goat cheese, and the anchovies were perfect with the tomato and bread. You could also get drinks from Spain including beer.
We don’t get up to New York that often but when we go back again it will be hard to pass up Despana if we’re in that area.

This is great store with a wonderful selection of products from Spain.
The staff is very attentive and friendly.
However, yesterday, I felt very insulted by them.
I always purchase a cured meat and cheese to share among friends. Yesterday, was the first time that I had sat down and ate the meat with my friends in the store. It was not very busy and my friends and I had an overall good time.
When we were leaving, one of the ladies approached me and said that next time we cannot sit there because that it for service for the café. She was very rude about it. I love Despana, especially their store in Queens. Yesterday, their service gave me and my friends a very bad taste. Her attitude felt incriminating, as if we were young teenagers hanging out in the store. We were only there for 15 minutes and we are young teachers who needed to sit down after a long day at school and a hot and humid day.
If it weren’t for that rude service, this place truly deserves 5 stars. I think I may stay away from Despana for a while. I was going every week, but now I feel unwelcomed. Maybe I will check out their Queens store more often, since their staff are very sweet, attentive and non-​judgmental.
Go to Jackson Heights, where you will meet the friendly owner! He is the best!

Spanish Heaven in Soho.
We stumbled upon this little shop on our way out of little Italy and thank God for that. Upon entrance you can see a beautiful display of meats and cheeses and floor to ceiling walls full of spanish products. They had tons of chorizos and cheeses out to try and they variety of rices, and spanish olive oils and vinegars are to die for. Hoewever, my favorite part of the store is the back where they have a little café style display with pintxos (traditional spanish small bites, usually on bread”), sandiwches and soups. We couldnt resist and we ordered to spanish beers, and three pintxos. They were all amazing. The croquetas were creamy and delicious and their anchioves pintxos very tasty. The best thing is that a few minutes later they began cooking the Paella of the day! So we were able to enjoy our food while watching someone make Paella.
Definitely a great place to buy beautiful hugh quality spanish products and also have a tapas and a beer or perhaps sangria! Recommended. I think I’m obsessed with this place!!!

I think Spanish food is vastly underrated. This store is located on the edge of Soho and Little Italy. I find myself noshing on the samples that are on the counters, looking at the many offerings of canned fish in Spanish olive oil, and thinking of what tapas I want to eat.
Great store with unique and interesting offerings. Sure, the prices are steep for certain items, but this is high quality merchandise.

My husband used to work at a tapas place and since then we have been obsessed with finding tapas. We were more than pleased when we bumped into Despaña. The shop specializes on Spanish food and ingredients. There’s always samples on the shelf and the counter. Yesterday I enjoyed a Marcona almond, some fig and manchego. My mouth was so happy. The three were the best flavor profie. There was also some fruity olive oil. I even tried a lovely meaty olive.
At the end of the food tasting you are greeted with a variety of tortilla. I normally like to keep it simple, Tortilla Española and Pintxo Boqueron. Sometimes I will order the hot chocolate to go with my brunch. There’s always a lovely bottle of olive oil on every table and a bottle of sherry vinegar. I love drizzling the two over my tortilla and boqueron and a crack of the pepper. This is sometimes the perfect breakfast. The seating is family style and casual.
Those Spaniards know how to live the good life. I highly recommend to come here for a taste of Spain and also if you are entertaining. This is a great place to pick up some noshes for you and your friends.

The meat and cheese market looks superb, but this review is only for the tapas lunch I had. I loved the food — it was all very flavorful and yummy. The presentation would have looked nicer had it not been on plastic plates, but the dishes were still great. Absolutely loved the octupus and mashed potatoes as well as pinxtos (mixed vegetables). The plate of sausage came out and it was a lot for two people to eat.
Also would recommend the café con leche here (delicious). A fun lunch spot indeed.
Note: limited seating… we came here at 4pm and it was still pretty busy!

I am in love with this place.
The store has two sections, one is a wine store and the other is for imported food. The wine store has a nice collection and the workers are very helpful in picking a wine. They have wine tastings every Thursday from 6pm and they also give cheese samples from the other part of the store. It is a small store but very clean and organized with very friendly workers.
The other half of the store is my favorite of the two. They have small samples throughout the store so you can taste their cheese, cured meat, sardines, olive oils, and vinegars. One of the samples is these anchovies with a tomato sauce and it is AMAZING. The cheese here is also really good. They have a large selection from cow milk cheese, sheep, and goat or a combination. The workers will let you sample anything you want and give a pretty generous amount. It isn’t cheap but the quality is really good. One of my favorite things from here are the marron glacé which are candied chestnuts. These are REALLY expensive at $ 2.50 per chestnut but they are expensive online, too. The back of the store is a café that has coffee and sandwiches as well as soups, salads, small tapas plates, and fritatas.
If you are in the area, I would suggested checking it out. There are a lot of products here that you will not fid in your regular grocery store as well as really good cheese. I come here once a week and get ¹⁄₃ lb of cheese which usually ranges from $ 4-​$ 7. I have yet to try the food here but it looks delicious.

OYE