This is an original idea for UK soil and sells a varied selection of Barcelona style Pintxos. These are served buffet style at the front bar. Every item has its own cocktail stick and you are charged based on how many cocktails sticks you have used at the end of the night.
This place is incredibly popular but also incredibly small for somewhere in such demand. Booking is essential!
For such a hip and happening place, we were surprised to discover our children were also welcome. Always seeking new experiences for them, we took them along on a busy Friday night. We were made very welcome, as were the kids (aged 6 and 4 so not many places are all that welcoming to them in central London on a busy Friday night).
We were offered drinks and opted for a reasonably priced bottle of Cava. You can choose from lots of Spanish wine, the usual array of spirits, cocktails, liqueurs, Cava and Champagne. Kids had fruit juice.
We were advised on the set up when we arrived; you simply take a plate from the bar and help yourself to the food. Pintxos are served on a rotational basis so we were told to keep an eye open for new dishes appearing. We were given a small glass to keep our emptied cocktail sticks in so that we could be charged accordingly later on.
There were quite a variety of pintxos already available so we made a couple of platefuls, took them to our seating area and enjoyed them! The food was very tasty indeed. Even the kids approved of most of them and they are known for moderate fussiness!
The staff were efficient and friendly and despite being super busy, we still got drinks when we asked for them and they still checked back to see that we were enjoying our food.
A few trips later and we had sampled most of the dishes that we thought were available but we had not yet tried the Albondigas (meatballs). Now Mr Travel Freak had been told by a very reliable source that the meatballs were not to be missed. I hold a bit of a soft spot for meatballs, as does our son so this wasn’t something we were going to give up on.
We hovered like vultures waiting on the magical meatballs, after some tentative moments, the meatballs appeared. Like starved and crazed creatures worthy of a Hitchcock movie, the collection of vultures in the small restaurant swooped and swiped the meatballs. We managed to get two portions to try, and then they were gone. Clearly we were not the only ones waiting…they were worth it though, quite delicious!
There were a couple of puddings available but we let the kids be the chief pudding testers. Both of those that they tried met with their approval.
Having filled ourselves to a degree worthy of floating along the Thames to our residence, we left after paying for what appeared to be a rather substantial amount of cocktail sticks compared to the others in the restaurant. Ah well, we had the kids as an excuse! Terribly greedy they are for four and six year olds!!
There are two Pix restaurants in London. We went to the one in Soho (16 Bateman Street) but there is also a Pix in Covent Garden (63 Neal Street).
The Pintxos are charged per stick as I mentioned earlier. Long cocktail sticks are £2.75 and shorter ones are £1.95. Seems reasonably priced but if you are unable to resist new dishes like us, they can mount up!
You can be invited to apply for a Pandillero card, this means ‘gang member’ and once you have the card, you become eligible for special offers, discounts, loyalty bonuses and special events.
We highly recommend that you try this place out!
Pix Pintxos, 63 Neal St, London WC2H 9PJ. Website
