Pizarro

I love how high end food this place is minus the uptight (excuse my French) wank a lot of white table clothed places are.
Firstly, the wine list is pretty good and the staff seem to know a lo about it. Would love to see a couple more sherries but that’s because I’m sherry obsessed
Secondly, the menu is great and the serves are pretty generous. I saw some reviews complaining they were still hungry but that says to me bad ordering. First rule of thumb when hungry at tapas: pain de tomate. (Tomato bread). Delicious, stomach lining, delicious. I would definitely share all of this food and it’s perfect to do so between four per plate. Lots of seafood options, colourful veg options and of course excellent cheese and charcuterie.
We asked the waiter his picks and he gave us excellent recommendations, which brings me to point three: staff are great. You can tell they enjoy working there.
And lastly, the room set up works well for big groups, small groups, successful tinder dates.
Mmmm jamon.

I love Jose’s signature Tapas bar, just down the road, this one still not sure. My biggest problem was that everything we ordered had a sweet flavouring rather than savoury. Ordered starters of chorizo iberico, red pepper salad, followed by mains — Artichokes with baby squid, clams with haricot beans and beef cheeks. The artichoke dish tasted like dessert, too sweet and couldn’t find any baby squid in it.
The red pepper salad tasted of anything but red peppers, was too cheesy and sweet. Beef cheeks were succulent and tender but not sure about the flavouring which was again ambiguous. My favourite dish was the clams with haricot beans the only one with distinctive flavouring. I will give this place another chance, though thou redeem itself.

Good place !! Good wine !! Good good !!! Good place to have a lunch or dinner with family !! Reasonable price !!! Fabulous neighborhood !!’

Fabulous lunch of stuffed squid, bomba, and monkfish. Washed down with a fragrant glass of 2010 Taberner, Huerta de Albala Syrah. Delicioso!

By far the best tapas in town. Jamon of supreme quality and same goes for all products.
Great wine list, staff is very knowledgeable and helpful if you’re not accustomed with Spanish or Latin American wines.
Amusing atmosphere, very vibrant and easy going! The restaurant is not big (actually very small) and you might have to wait before getting a spot but it is well worth the wait!

The only thing that Pizarro and Jose have in common is the same owner. Both restaurants are completely different. Jose is small and serves the most common (yet mouth-​watering) tapas with a menu that rarely changes. Pizarro, on the other hand, is a much more spacious restaurant that serves inventive dishes that don’t always reflect Spanish cuisine. The menu at Pizarro is constantly changing, so it’s always good to review it before making a reservation to ensure it has something you will enjoy. While I like Pizarro, I wouldn’t rush back anytime soon.

A really fun vibe for a team dinner and such friendly staff — they happily chatted to us about what we liked, where the food is from, and (as needed at several points during the meal) what it actually was we were eating! The cod tongues triggered the most questions (who knew they grew that big?!).
We were a group of about 12 so were served the set group menu of dishes to share. I usually like taking that approach in a group anyway as you get to try more things. The food was good quality (and the classic iberico jamon was superb) though I would’ve liked a teeny bit more variety — out of 8 or 9 items there were 3 different types of ham etc.
This was problematic for my colleague who doesn’t eat pork, particularly when he added at the table that he doesn’t really like seafood, which together practically ruled out everything on the set menu apart from the tomato paste bread. The colleague who had chosen the restaurant was about to cry at this point. So defo check your mates/​dates are adventurous eaters before you go for this place!
I’ll try pretty much anything though, and found the pork belly my highlight and the cod tongues a definite low (bleugh, must be an acquired taste!!!). Great wine choice helped too. I don’t think I’d be quite so happy if I’d picked up the bill though (thanks boss!) as in my opinion it was pretty steep for the amount of food we got. So as long as the ambiance and service stays on point they can probably get away with it, but I won’t be rushing back on my own dime…

We stopped in for a quick drink before dinner and found this restaurant to be super friendly. We sat at the bar which was nice and spacious. The bartender let us try a couple of red wines to find the one we really liked. The restaurant was packed and the ambiance was buzzing.
Price: 16.31 GBP for one red wine and one glass of cava.
I will definitely come back for dinner next time.

I live right up the street, so walk by Pizzaro almost daily. It’s generally packed Friday and Saturday. But, hungry and not wanting to cook, we wandered down Bermondsey Street and were happy to finally see some space here on Sunday.
We were seated near the front window right away. It’s a nice, rustic interior, and I liked the seating along the front. Prime people watching.
It’s Spanish cuisine, so the menu features some decent seafood options amongst the traditional ham, etc. We enjoyed the chorizo starter and then shared the steak and pork rib mains. In retrospect it was a little (lot) meat heavy but I really wasn’t expecting the portions to be as big as they were. They are very generous to say the least. If I went back I’d probably prefer to share a few of the starters and sides, as they looked really good and the mains were pretty heavy.
We skipped dessert but the pineapple option looked really delicious. Might have to come back for that.
It was a nice, simple dinner. Not too pricey, and the place looks like it would be a fun night for a birthday dinner with a larger group. The wine list was great.
I’m in the ‘hood so I’ll be back.

You could feel the hype swirling around you as you entered another trendy Bermondsey establishment. But trendy doesnt mean good. Average décor and uncomfortable chairs. In fact two of our chairs were four inches higher than the others?. Service excellent, good waiter and great explanations. Prompt and helpful. But what about the food? Average. Short menu with a some specials. The jambon was v raw and very chewy £22! Other starters were nice goats cheese was good as was bomba. Main courses average. Fish was sent back translucent dont worry says chef… Pasta type paeilla looked awful but tasted ok. Lamb was middling nit crisp enough. Stick to Jose.

If it hadn’t been so small the 20£ Rib eye steak (medium rare) would have made an excellent shoe sole: sturdy, tough, yet flexible. I tried chewing it, but failed. We ordered olive oil to go with the bread, but it never came. We ordered extra bread, once. 10 mins later again… and 15 mins later again. With the third reminder the kind waiter finally brought 3 small dry slices, similar to cardboard — at this point we had almost finished dinner. Another waiter kindly topped up our half full sparkling water glasses with non-​sparkling water, leaving them rather flat. The bill included an embarrassing £3 extra charge for that embarrassing extra bread. It is a typical restaurant which tries to be posh by serving small portions on large plates, but fails at delivering quality.

On my way to Pizarro I walked past Jose, the sister tapas bar to this place, which was packed to the brim! I was so glad we made a booking for Pizarro instead.
When we arrived in the evening the place only had a few guests seated but it soon filled up. The waitress was quite friendly in explaining the menu and the specials, and we were off!
Starter: We ordered the octopus, which was basically a gigantic tentacle on your plate. Very fresh and tasty.
Our party also ordered jamon and we watched them slice it at the bar, amazing to watch! It was very delicious indeed… wish I was in Spain and could stuff my face full of these!
The highlight of the meal was the head of hake. It came in a huge oven dish and don’t be deceived by the name of the dish. This could easily feed two people as it was shared between the table. The garlic oil was just right, not too greasy. The fish melted in my mouth and the potatoes were nice (but not amazing).
We also had a dish which our party said was pork but looked more like beef steak! They were all complimenting on how soft the inside was and how crunchy the outside, although I do not think it was anything too special.
Near the end of our meal a male staff came over and asked us how we were doing and even took the time to explain our dessert to us (sorry, don’t remember what it was called but it was puzzling us what we were eating). This was a very nice touch.
Overall it was a nice place for gatherings and I would bring friends here to experience the head of hake!

Love this place. Atmosphere & Décor are great. And the food is amazing. Only thing I find difficult is sharing! We went here last night with friends (slightly worried that it was Valentines but they didn’t change the set up to fit in loads of couples or put up sickly hearts, or on the table or menu. I digress). Our waitress was this little Italian cutie who was so cheerful & helpful she made you feel like you were friends. We had too many dishes to jot down here but the stand outs were the pork presa — it didn’t look or taste like pork but truly amazing. And the chocolate fondant. Though to be honest I feel like I really should include the whole list… even the spinach with olives & pine nuts tasted great (meat dishes generally beat everything else for me!)

Just a little further down Bermondsey Street is the slightly bigger but younger sibling of Jose. Like Jose, Spanish food is on the menu. However, at Pizarro it is served via an a la carte menu rather than the tapas sized bites down the road.
Inside, a mixture of bar stools (at the windows and looking onto the open kitchen) and booths and bigger tables are dotted around a cosy attractive space. When I popped in for lunch today, I sat looking into the kitchen. I love this as you get to see the brigade working at first hand — fascinating stuff.
Today, the restaurant was relatively quiet but the kitchen was on great form. To start I ordered a hunk of glistening and perfectly tender beef cheek was served upon silky smooth sweet potato. Arguably there was too much beef but it was so lovely that it didn’t really matter.
To follow, I ordered a chocolate fondant. Ubiquitous but lovely when made correctly. Pizarro’s version is served with brandy vanilla ice cream and caramelised nuts. Both complimented the molten chocolate inside the fondant. Wonderful stuff!
Everything was complimented by friendly service and an interesting wine list. I am quite certain this will become a favourite haunt of mine in the months to come.

We went here on a Friday night because Jose was too crowded, and they recommended we go down the street to their sister restaurant — Pizarro. We walked up and saw how crowded it was, 8PM on a Friday and were thinking… no way we’re getting a table. The hostess told us there was a 45 minute wait, and when we were thinking of leaving, she pointed us to the bar and suggested we wait there. Most often, if you don’t have a booking, places don’t encourage you to stay, so it was very welcoming (I actually just read on the website they don’t take reservations for dinner). The bartender had a similar attitude, told us to just eat at the bar but we decided to just have an appetizer and wine. And they have free sparking water!
Our table was ready in about 30 minutes so was a pleasant surprise. It’s a really nice warm ambiance with rustic wood flooring and walls. We were even given a gratis jamon starter (even though we just had one, not complaining!). The food is spanish with various entrees from salmon, scallops, beef cheeks to venison and more. The menu isn’t very large but they also had many specials available. One dish we saw ordered was a leg of lamb for four, it looked very impressive! I wish we could have ordered but I think it would have been a little much for two of us :) The venison with potatoes was amazing. We ordered the sweet cheese honeycomb dessert, was also delicious. It was just sweet enough but not overpowered with sugar. Between two, we had a starter, two entrees, two small carafes of wine and one dessert and I think our total was around 60 – 65 pounds.
Our service throughout the nice continued to be great, we had a table right next to the kitchen and was fun to watch the chefs and the main chef, Jose Pizarro to their thing. He had a pig leg on the counter and was shaving off jamon serrano as ordered and even giving a slice to people who walked by! I would love to go back and would recommend it!

We walked by Jose looking for a place to have a couple cocktails and bites, and it was just way too busy so we decided to head further down to Pizarro, which was a lot less crowded and loud. We were seated right away with a view of the street. Both my husband and I Love to people watch, so it was a perfect seating arrangment for us. We were offered complimentary still or sparkling water! LOVE THAT! !
We had a carafe of house red wine and amazon beer, both good ways to start out the evening with again complimentary bread and spanish meat. Its a very relaxed, cute atomosphere and no one is pushing you to figure out what you want to order. We ordered a couple items: prawns, which were outstanding and the dish of the day — lamb chops, which were a little on the gamey side but nonetheless quite good. it was also a good size, not too small or too big.
We were tempted to get some dessert but were really too full at that point. Im really glad this place is right down the street from me. woot!

Nice ambiance, friendly staff. It’s got sort of a fine dining vibe. Try the lamb sweetbreads. I also got the hake, scallop, and clams, which was good on a rainy day. The wines here are excellent, especially the dessert wines. The vanilla cheese cake with raspberries was great.

This restaurant has taken the place of the old Bermondsey Kitchen. Seriously, Bermondsey Kitchen didn’t have a bad menu and was decently good the number of times I went there, but I guess the Bermondsey St scene has changed a lot since I lived on the street.
Anyway, to the point. So, was catching up with a friend, ex-​Londoner who now lives in Helsinki, and we’ve always wanted to go to Zucca. But her mistake left us without a reservation. But, we went to try Jose instead. Jose — the tapas place was ridiculously full, and in all London splendor these days, you can’t make a reservation. Grr.
So fail #1, we went to the restaurant instead — Pizzaro. Actually, it wasn’t bad, we ordered all the small plates to make it such that we could do tapas. The tapas itself wasn’t bad, the wine was good — we had mostly seafood tapas, but a lot of it was actually way too salty. The best thing we had on the menu that we had was the razor clams. We also had a beet salad with walnuts that was delightful, but there were a few things — Sardines, aubergines on toast that was actually quite dreadful, and I had to hold my breath so I didn’t puke it out.
The wine selection was good, and the desserts delightful — I just wouldn’t ever travel down this way anymore for this level quality of tapas, not when my favorite place (Meson Don Felipe) is 1. Closer, 2. Better, and 3. Takes Reservations.

Amazing ambiance, staff, food and local! I have friends who live in this new hip neighborhood and this is one of three restaurants the owner has there on this street… By far my favorite!
A must for Sunday hangover food — Pork Burger all the way!

First time for this SWer to hang out in this area. As I was walking down Bermondsey street, I didn’t think it would be very promising. We first tried to go to Jose’s but of course it was crowded and no place to stand and eat.
I really like the vibe of this place but was a little surprised how short the menu was. I would’ve liked to see the menu to be similar in variety as Jose’s plus a few more things. I’d give this place 4 stars for food but 3 because it fell a little short in other areas. .
Prawns — you get only 3 so order wisely if you’re sharing with a group.
Croquettes — delicious!
Jamon — one of my favourite dishes but yes, it was the amount of a medium size side plate.
Mains
Manchego — My favourite main dish — was tempted to ordered a 2^nd one
Seabass — this was a real meeehhhh — nothing special
Lamb — was very tasty but think I’d still trade this one in for another manchego.