La Ventana Restaurant

A few hours after my mom and aunt arrived in London, they selected La Ventana to eat a late lunch. The set lunch menu was a great value and the food was excellent. Two days later, with LOTS of other options for eating out, we were back! The service was great, especially Leyla - so friendly and accommodating. Going back for cocktail happy hour later today!

We have visited on Friday night with my other 4 friends. We have been warmly welcomed by the manager Rado who made sure we are happy throughout whole night. Staff was very friendly, sangria never tasted better after all day running around London and the food! I think I have never tasted better selection of tapas! Restaurant looked flawless, clean and beautifully decorated! Keep up good work guys ! Hope to visit again! 😍

La Ventana is a brand new tapas restaurant in the heart of Dalston Square. The restaurant is spacious with a gorgeous bar area serving up fantastic cocktails and sofa booths for larger tables. La Ventana actually translates to “The Window” in English so it is good to have a few tables by the window for people watching! So excited about this cocktail menu – so many of them were up my street and also the majority are £7 or £8, which is a bargain! We had a Red Velvet Daiquiri (Wray&Nephew, Aperol, Velvet Falernum, Pink Grapefruit and Lime), Hendricks Dream (Hendricks, St-Germain, Cointreau, Lime, Elderflower Tonic) and Spicy Passion Margarita (Don Julio Blanco, Aperol, Grand Marnier, Homemade chilli syrup and lime. All of them were delicious and they were happy to adapt the flavours slightly to our taste. What a fantastic menu – La Ventana has all the classics as well as some more unusual dishes. With all tapas dishes ranging from around £3.50 – £8.00, it is good value for money. Around 3 tapas dishes per person is recommended but we just could not choose so had 8! Although I am hoping the Chargrilled Bread served with extra virgin olive oil (gorgeous warm ciabatta bread) doesn’t count right?!) we ordered the Lubina A La Plancha – grilled sea bass filler served with asparagus risotto and a balsamic glaze – not a dish I normally see on a menu and it was delicious. The Bombas, deep fried potato balls filled with beef mince, onion, garlic, chilli and herbs served with ali oli and brava sauce, another dish that I don’t see very often on tapas menus – they were absolutely huge and filling! Some more traditional dishes we had were the Chipirones, crispy fried baby squid served ali oil sauce, choi-sum salad and lemon zest (I prefer it when the squid is a little crispier and the sauce is separate but that is just personal preference), the Grilled Chorizo sautéed with baby onion, choi-sum and thyme, which was fantastic and the Croquetas De Jamon, always a firm favourite of mine. We obviously had to order Patatas Fritas, which were delicious as they had a paprika kick to them and a highlight of the meal, the Courgette Flowers in tempura stuffed with goat cheese and drizzled with honey. At lunchtime, La Ventana offers 3 selected tapas for only £12 (meat, fish and veggie) which is an absolute bargain! The food was great, seven (or eight…) tapas was absolutely enough for two people and the service was friendly and attentive. Definitely a great tapas restaurant to visit in Dalton and the music is fab!

Excellent Spanish tapas and cocktail bar in fashionable Dalston. I went on a Sunday night which was very quiet but, the restaurant is large and when busy with one of their flamenco shows I imagine the atmosphere will be electric. Their fifth star is available but I would like to reserve that test for a busier evening.

I had my first meal at LA Ventana this week. I had been advised by others that a restaurant such as this would be pricey. Well I will pledge my last pound to find a meal in TGI Friday or Nando's that is more affordable. The quality of the tapas meals here are not in comparison with these two mainstream franchises. Both the service and the food are of a very high quality. Nutritionally I felt an Angel had touched my tongue with delicious and delicate flavours which astounded me. Hackney has a gem of a restaurant to compliment the myriad of eateries abounding the area. The restaurant is a good size and can easily host 50 or more people quite comfortably in a luxurious and tastefully decorated environment. The wine list is EPIC along with the generous wine glasses.