Cigala Restaurant

In a calm street in Bloomsbury lies this quite modest looking tapas restaurant, friendly service and good atmosphere, and not to mention the delicious tapas dishes, would go there again!
If you’re hungry you’ve come to the right place.

The location and look of Cigala is a winner; it wears a quiet, discerning garb in the middle of Lambs Conduit Street, a rather secluded part of Bloomsbury, although the interiors are very unassuming. The waiter was welcoming, but a tad sarcastic
The cured black foot ham, the serrano ham with manchego and the oak smoked beef, all excellent picks for starter meats.
We went on to order the Berenjenas alpujarenas which are aubergines stuffed with goats cheese, mint, cumin, red onion and chilli. Not bad, but I think the spices suppressed the goats cheese, so I’d say a tad easy on the spicing. The mushroom croquettas and the padron peppers, both excellent. The lamb meatballs (Albondigas de cordero) in tomato sauce were good (3 pieces). The large grilled calamari came with with mojo verde and guindilla peppers. The ‘Higado a la jerezana’ or the pan-​fried chicken livers with softened onions and pedro ximenez was one of my favourites. The caramelised onions were delicious and went very well with the strong taste of the livers. The grilled homemade chorizo with fried breadcrumbs, peppers and cumin was excellent (although they would’ve been just fine without the taste of cumin).
The tarta de Fruta — almond and fruit tart with crème anglaise, and Tarta de Naranja for dessert. Worth a try.
I’d definitely come back here for another go. Priced reasonably, with very satisfactory service.

Very simple and I would even say boring interior. But God, the food here is excellent.
Like most good places I’ve had lunch at — I found this randomly.
I was in West London with a friend. We don’t know the area that well and we were starving! Glad we came in.
Spanish cuisine of good quality is hard to find in London. This place beats all my expectations.
We ordered a portion of ”Paella de pollo” which is rice with chicken and veggies.
It came in a huge serving and even both of us couldn’t finish it even though it was delicious. The products are fresh and tasty. The service is friendly and polite.
Would definitely come back if I find myself in West London again.

Will definitely be going again. Excellent, even over compensating, service (we ended up with 2 extra tapas and 1 extra pudding), all tapas dishes from the £16pp amazing value weekend menu were so flavoursome and authentic reminding us all of much loved family holidays to Spain. Standouts were the tortilla, salt cod, vermut de Rioja with a wedge of orange to squeeze in for £3.75, and the homemade honeycomb ice cream that came with the walnut cake pudding. For a 3 courser, we left content — that rare feeling from the perfect amount of very good quality food.

I like Cigala, it has a great atmosphere and some really excellent food. We’ve been twice now, and stuck to tapas on both occasions and had a great time. The only issue is the wine list, which was disappointing — we had a number of glasses of wine by the glass and none were that good (all were modern «fruit-​forward» wines, which are the tarts of the wine world!). The other minor issue is the downstairs room — if you book a table, request one upstairs because downstairs is dark and smells damp!
Well worth a visit for some good spanish food, and at relatively reasonable prices too.

Not cheap but easily 5 stars, therefore popular with an older /​professional crowd. Fresh ingredients, great service & decent wine list. Also very helpful with food intolerances, and most dishes are cooked in oil. My favourites are the gambas, salt cod fritters & the pan fried chicken livers, although everything is good.

We ate here during a vacation. Food was pretty good but the meal was ruined by the most insolent waiter I’ve ever had. She was downright rude to us for no reason at all. Another diner (not with us) complained about her to the manager when we were leaving. The strange part was that she was all happy and smiling with other customers, but with us she acted as if we’d done something to offend her.
Anyway, I’d really avoid this place unless you get a really good feel from your waiter right when you sit down. It’s no fun to have your dinner ruined by a bad waiter.

My wife and I visited Cigla, on Lambs Conduit Street and was a great choice on a snowy February night! Staff were very welcoming and friendly and good service. Choice of Spanish tapas wide and varied, our choice of fresh anchovy salad with artichokes and pepper salsa and Iberian blackpudding with fried egg and «hot» sauce were both delicious. Main course of seafood paella was equally tasty. A shared desert of prunes, chewy meringue with cream finished us off! Very good wine choice of wine from all regions of Spain
Definately worth a visit

I’m surprised at the three star review — I really like this place. Very friendly staff who accomodated us at the last minute and were helpful with menu choices.
It is a little pricier than some other tapas places — that giant one at Kings Cross for one — but the food is really worth it. Everything tasted really fresh and was delicious. Especially the black pudding. They have four kinds of olives, and the cheese plate is generous. Even the house wine — available in carafes which I love — is decent.
A good find, I’ll definitely be back and would like to visit the little bar downstairs.

A sweet Tapas place on a quiet street with a great Spanish wine menu. Dishes are more wholesome than the «tapas» tag name. Service is great — really friendly and accommodating. During weekday lunches the crowd is a work crowd but it was more fun on a Saturday night. There is a tapas wine bar downstairs for starters or nibbles and drinks only. The restaurant is on the ground floor and has a fuller menu. We discovered some great Spanish wine that has been hard to find elsewhere in London, so worth it for great wine!

I have been to this place many times. It is on a lovely pedestrian street corner, and the atmosphere could range from quiet to very noisy, tightly packed with doctors and consultants vividly discussing their stuff. At times, the food was unbelievably good. I remember grilled squid (starter), paella, lamb, sea bass, of various makings and flavours. At times, it was a bit over the top: too much fried garlic, too hot a souce, too reach a granish. Their own bread could be fantastic or, at times, a bit flat. The staff sound pretty unfriendly at times, but this is just as in Madrid; in the end the are quite helpful. I will come back because this is a proper restaurant, with some unexpected taste combinations, never dull or plain. It is not cheap, unfortunately, but service is always included.

Great service and great food. Hearty stuff.

Just the most excellent Spanish food in the area. Great for tapas or a meal and an amazing wine list. Nice one!