Black Pig with White Pearls

The vegan tapas are so delicious and unique - as a carnivore I was absolutely converted to veganism!

I've been to this restaurant 6 times now and i love it! I travel to Spain a lot and have eaten at quite a few Spanish restaurants in London and I can honestly say that they are one of the best. The portions compared to others are really good, especially the black squid ink rice which you get too much! Price wise I think its very reasonable and some dishes are cheaper or the same price i pay when i eat out in Spain so I don't think its that expensive really as i usually have 3 tapas and i am full after that which is about £20 The staff are always friendly with us and always take good care of us when we are there. I've recommended it to a lot a my foody friends, and now one has been disappointed so far!

I visited this restaurant to celebrate a friends birthday in July 2013. He had hired out the '60's deco' basement and we each paid £25 for a set menu. Wine was extra and was very reasonably priced. The set menu we received was far from what I would consider a £25 meal. The food was good quality, however, the selection of meat and fish supplied was derisory; I ate 2 rings of calamari, 2 balls of black pudding and one slice of pork. Having eaten tapas many times and visited the south of Spain I was expecting a lot more. I wrote a letter to the restaurant and head nothing in reply.

I like to venture out to Dalston/Stoke Newington to meet up with friends and try one of the many new places that frequently pop up there, so I got very excited when I heard good things about the Black Pig with White Pearls. Admittedly, the prices looked a little steep, but hey, maybe they do really big portions or the quality of the food is out of this world? I am afraid I have to say that our evening was a letdown in both respects. The food is not horrible, but not staggeringly good either (several of the tapas that we tried were definitely on the too-salty side) and the portions are disappointingly sparse. For example, the Spanish meat board came with a hefty £16 price tag but only 16 puny slices of ham and salami. I have paid less for considerably larger portions in posh tapas places in central London. We did not try any of the proper mains… and I was not tempted to, given that they tend to be North of £20. Somewhat ironic for a restaurant that has the Pig in its name, they had run out of the pork ribs—the only true pork dish on the tapas list—and also of a range of other dishes (this was at 8 pm). I guess when going out in trendy Hackney you are willing to forgive the shabby rather than chic decor (only the third chair that I grabbed was stable enough to sit on) and the charmingly scattered service, but taken everything together it appears that whoever runs this place seriously overestimates its gastronomic performance. On the upside: the wines are very drinkable and comparably affordable.

I celebrated my Birthday here last week with 18 friends and I can honestly say that it was the best Birthday meal I have ever had! I thought we was eating up stairs but when we got there the manager gave us the private basement room which was amazing. Its like being in someone's living room! We had it all to ourselves for the whole evening. We had a selection of tapas from the set menu followed by the Iberico pork fillet which was one of the best pieces of meat I have ever tried! It just melts in your mouth! The tapas were really tasty but the fillet was my favorite. The waitress's were really nice and friendly and looked after me and my friends all night. I will definitely be back very soon.

In line with the current vogue for pop up restaurants, 4 of us went along to this place in Stoke Newington on Saturday night. It unfortunately suffers from the same fate as a lot of pop up restaurants, which is that because they are the perceived to be so cool the restaurants buy into their own hype and think they are better than the place really is. This is magnified in Dalston/Stoke Newington, where this is a common trait everywhere, not only in restaurants. So how did the problems manifest themselves> Certainly not in the food, which whilst not of a superb standard was very good. Certain dishes such as the Iberico fillet pork which was cooked pink were certainly incredibly impressive, whilst other dishes were good but not out of this world. The place was let down by its service – which was verging on appalling. The restaurant has two sitings, which is ostentiously to make service easier. This palpably fails however. We arrived at 9.15 for the 9.30 sitting. Whilst we got our table on time, we didn't get our first food until well after 10.30 which is not only bad service, but is actually bad for the restaurant, as you can't truly appreciate the food after an hour and a half drinking. Several things compounded this problem. Firstly there was no apology or explanation (we were later told a chef was off sick but only when we were asked). Secondly, we weren't even brought any bread or anything until we asked, repeatedly. Thirdly, when we did complain, the waitress effectively acted as though we should just be thankful to be eating in the restaurant in the first place. To be fair, the rest of the staff were very friendly so this place is just really let down, as a lot of restaurants are, by one or two people and issues. If the service can be improved this restaurant can stay longer than its pop up status implies but as it stands it will only become a good neighbourhood restaurant, not the El Bulli of Stoke Newington which its attiude implies