Bar Estilo

«A night to remember» Tuesday April 24^th
Called in to grab a bite on the way to the pub to watch the Chelsea Barça game.
First impressions … watch out for the faux entrance!
Once you find your way in, get a table down the very far end to the right as you enter. There are a couple of tables down there that overlook the river, great view.
If you and your boo are looking for a little segregation/​privacy then ask for a booth as they also have a few of those scattered about the spot. Very cosy.
Take note, noise levels can get high in here dependent upon how many flocks of twittering female pairs are in. Hey don’t get your feminist on, you know it happens and when i arrived I was seated close to 4 pairs who were creating a decibel tsunami !!
The décor is a bit all over the place but interesting as it seems the brief is ‘Mediterranean’ but i think the interior designers may have been smoking something when they set out the design. I have a feeling they may have also laid down the house muzak as we tripped between Steely Dan all the way across the spectrum to Robert Miles with some mainstream inbetween. I actually enjoyed the randomness of it all and the volume of the music kind of cancelled out the twittering sound waves.
What did i eat ???
Duck & Cucumber & Spring Onion wrap — sans the Spring Onion?
I can understand when a place fills out the wrap with salad/​veg and skimps on the meat but these things were chokka with Duck meat and a few bits of Cucumber but i found not one morsel of Spring Onion!
Spicy Meatballs with Spanish Rice — spicy indeed but not the kind of spicy that goes to the back of the throat or returns from the pit of your stomach. This was a roof of the mouth heat and may be a bit too fiery for the more genteel palates amongst you. I enjoyed it and soothed it by gargling beer.
What did I drink.
Waiter; «What would you like to drink sir?»
me; «Staropramen please»
Waiter; «Sorry Sir, we don’t have»
me; «Hoegaarden?»
Waiter; «Sorry Sir, we don’t have that either»
me; «Czech Budvar»
Waiter; «Sorry Sir»
me; «so if you don’t have them why are they present on the Drinks menu?
Waiter; «Erm…»
me; «any possibility of a Peroni ?»
Waiter; «We have!»
This is the kind of place that would suit all/​every kind of people but i get the feeling that as it fills up the service will suffer but, from a price point, £16 for 2 courses and a beer served in an affable spot with a view of the river in Richmond on Thames then Estilo is a ‘miracle’ find.
btw Parking is nowhere to be seen round here, be prepared to get your feet on the ground and hoof it.
This was a solid 3* until the debacle of the savaged beer choice (which took half a star off) resulting in a 2.5* and (as we only ever round down) leaves us at 2*
Hey! Didn’t you say at the beginning of this review «A night to remember»?
Yes I did and if you didn’t see Chelsea pull off a result at the Camp Nou then you missed a slice of history pie right there.
Wow …Two miracles in one night!

Not bad but it’s currently closed being refurbished and it maybe a different restaurant

My feelings towards this place are luke warm– neither here nor there really. Good ish food i suppose– rather a pre prepared feel about he tapas im afraid but the main courses– of which ive had the salmon and the sausages are a good, genourous and tasty sourse of warming comfort food. Come here for the relaxed atmosphere and reasonable prices. Good for a chain but this is definately what it feels like– not an individual restaurant with a free and adventurous chef thats for sure. So for that reason its ok– good at what it does– but not special.