London restaurant guide: Cambio de Tercio, west London
In an A-Z of Wimbledon published on the tournament website, A is for aces, B is for Boom Boom Broom Cupboard Boris, and C is for Cambio de Tercio, which might be eccentric were it solely a technical move in bullfighting. What a stroke of luck, then, that it’s also a London restaurant beloved of many tennis stars, by no means all Spanish, but especially of Rafael Nadal.
And so, to Rafa’s seven Grand Slam titles and world number one ranking, we hereby append this: the raging Majorcan bull to Roger Federer’s icy matador has immaculate taste in restaurants. He eats here every night with mentor Uncle Toni during the Wimbledon prep event at Queen’s Club, and no wonder. It is unbelievably good, and I mean that adverb literally
Rafa is “a unique Spaniard who doesn’t like meat or cheese”, Lusa exclusively revealed, the tennis maestro’s favourite being octopus in a paprika sauce. This seemed primarily an aesthetic delight, but another meaty powerhouse would have had us ordering stomach pumps for afters, and missing out on a fabulous white chocolate pudding laced with passion fruit.
“I can honestly say,” declared my friend over coffee, “that I’ve never had a better lunch in this country.” Nor have I, and in a bold stab at originality let me state this: you simply have to go. Be warned, though, that if you go in the next fortnight to gawp, Rafa will not, for buoyancy reasons, be there, unless he’s knocked out early on.
But Nadal will surely not be an early casualty, and Lusa and I expect him to gore the opposition to death.
If I were world number one, which seems a long shot, the thought of this restaurant would see me throw the first-round match 3-6, 1-6, 0-6 to the world number 479 from Papua New Guinea, and leap into a cab to the Old Brompton Road before the sun set on the opening day.
- T Rating 10/10
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