Camino - tapas in London - restaurant review

After hearing good things about Camino in Canary Wharf, my sister and I headed there for dinner last night.

Canary Wharf in the summer is really nice, with lots of outside tables for eating and drinking.  There's a lot more to it than office blocks, although it is pretty quiet at the weekend and can lack atmosphere - but hey, you can always get a table and you don't have to stand on a pavement next to a main road!

Camino has a nice terrace overlooking the river but it was getting a bit chilly by the time we arrived so we headed inside.

The staff were very friendly, efficient and attentive and were happy to point out their favourites from the menu.

The complimentary olives were yummy.  They were marinaded with smoky paprika, orange and onions.

Bread was also complimentary (don't you hate it when restaurants charge for it?).  Quite dense but warm and fresh.

Arroz negro con sepia (rice with cuttlefish, squid ink and alioli) looked gorgeous - very glossy black rice - but was slightly lacking in flavour.

Patatas de boniato (fried sweet potatoes with chilli and lime alioli) were delicious.  Crispy and sweet and well set off by the creamy alioli

Chipirones a la Andaluza (crisp-fried squid with alioli and lemon) were excellent.  The batter was crispy and the squid tender.  Delish

But, the star of the show for us was the pulpo a la parilla (octopus tentacle with olive oil mash and paprika).  We are pulpo addicts after our time in Central America, where it's served all over the place and usually extremely cheap, and order it at any chance we get!

It was very well cooked, slightly crispy on the outside from the grill, tender on the inside and a lovely smoky flavour from the paprika.  Yum scrum.

Pimientos de padron, manchego cheese and croquetas were all good too - clearly very good quality ingredients.

Oh and did I mention the prices?  Most of the tapas dishes were under £5, which is excellent value.

Camino is definitely not middle of the road and might well be the best tapas I've had in London.