Arros QD

Entering Arros QD feels like walking into the lobby of a luxury hotel; you’re greeted by a team of immaculately turned out staff, while grand surrounds include patent black walls, burnt orange furnishings and a specially designed chandelier which is made to look like a fistful of rice that’s been thrown into the air.

Once fully inside, you’ll notice an open kitchen complete with a chef’s counter and plenty of other extravagant flourishes, including gold cutlery. Such opulence should come as no surprise given who’s behind the operation – this is the debut London restaurant from three Michelin-starred Valencian chef Quique Dacosta, who is a seriously big name in his home country.

Interestingly, Dacosta’s focus here is paella (arros translates from Spanish as ‘rice’). This could be a hard sell, considering that rice is not typically seen as a high-end ingredient and because paella here can set you back as much as £90. Robust pricing aside though, this paella is worth shouting about.

It’s cooked using wood-burning stoves, with the aroma produced by the wood acting as an invisible ingredient of sorts, which really locks in the flavour. Paella here can be ordered in small or large portions (in defence of those high prices, the larger option can easily be shared between two or three), with both classic and contemporary versions of the famed Spanish dish available. We stuck to the newer iterations, sampling sticky black squid ink rice that tasted of all the delights of the ocean and was mingled with calamari and artichokes, before being rubbed with an oyster aioli.

Aside from the main event, Arros QD’s selection of small plates also impressed, with top shouts being the small but mighty pulled pork slider slicked with kimchi sauce, and a pile of glossy black cheese ‘stones’ that erupt with a thick filling of parmesan, manchego cream and cocoa butter (our waitress cheerily informed us that at Dacosta’s restaurant on the Costa Blanca, the dish is mixed in with real stones.)

A warm atmosphere and a well-chosen European wine list add further to Arros QD’s appeal, which was bustling on our mid-week visit (it will surely benefit from its plum Fitzrovia location). Quique Dacosta may have been a relative unknown on these shores up until now, but with a debut like this, we’re certain that’s about to change.

Arros QD, premium paella restaurant, is the London debut of three Michelin-starred chef Quique Dacosta. The new two-floor project is backed by London-based Spanish group Ibérica, which has seven restaurants around the UK.

Arros QD is based in the Plaza Building on London’s Oxford Street. The interior emphasises luxury, with burnt orange furnishings, gold cutlery, and a chandelier designed to look like a handful of rice thrown in the air. It also features an open kitchen with a chef’s counter, a key part of Dacosta’s aim to bring the ‘warmth and theatricality of Spanish and Mediterranean gastronomy to Fitzrovia’.

As the name suggests (‘arros’ is Valencian for rice), the menu focuses on paella, a more unconventional choice seeing as rice is not typically recognised as a high-end ingredient. All dishes are cooked over an open wood fire to lock in flavour. The menu boasts both traditional and experimental paella dishes, from Valencian rice and Mediterranean seafood rice to Txangurro rice with crab meat and kimchi foam, and Blank ink rice with basque cod, sugar snaps and pil-pil emulsion. All paellas are cooked with a unique stock created by Quique Dacosta. It’s important to note that all paellas are served in multiples of two and are priced per head.

Asides from paella, the menu also offers a generous selection of small plates. Appetisers include unconventional cheese stones and truffle bombs, whereas dishes to share offer a more traditional selection such as sea bass, beef tartare, and wild forest mushroom ragout. The ‘From the fire’ menu offers a wide range of seafood as well as duck with cassava and Iberian presa.

Paellas and small plates are accompanied by a carefully selected European wine list, alongside sake options.

Notably, Arros QD is the only UK restaurant to have been awarded the ‘Cullera de Fusta’ (Wooden Spoon), an award which recognises commitment to Valencian gastronomy.