A little taste of home, shared

For Raúl, hospitality isn’t simply a profession. It’s the world he grew up in.

Born and raised in Madrid, he spent much of his childhood in his parents’ bar in Vallecas, surrounded by the sounds, flavours and everyday life of Spanish hospitality.

At just 19, Raúl opened his first bar in Madrid. Over the years, one became several, and at one point he was running four establishments of his own.

Alongside the experience gained in his kitchens and businesses, Raúl continued developing his culinary knowledge through professional training, including studies at the Basque Culinary Center.

Then came a very different chapter.

The financial crisis in Spain forced him to close his business, and in 2011 he moved to the UK to start again from zero. What didn’t change was his ambition: to continue cooking Spanish food and, one day, open his own restaurant in Britain.

Over the following years, he built his career in some of the UK’s Spanish restaurants, including La Rueda, Ibérica and Hispania, working in senior kitchen roles and gaining a deep understanding of both Spanish cooking and the British restaurant industry.

The name Pikoteo has its own history.

In November 2016, Raúl rented the kitchen of a pub in Reigate and started serving Spanish tapas under the name Pikoteo.

The name comes from the Spanish word “picoteo” — the informal Spanish tradition of sharing different small dishes around the table, having a little of this and a little of that, while enjoying good food and good company.

It is a simple word, but it describes exactly the kind of restaurant Raúl wanted to create.

Years later, Raúl was invited to Esher by the previous owners of the restaurant, who wanted to develop a Spanish concept.

He helped build it from the kitchen upwards — creating the menu, introducing suppliers and establishing the food and kitchen operation.

When the owners eventually decided that the restaurant business was no longer for them, an unexpected opportunity appeared: the chance for Raúl to take over the restaurant himself.

After years of working towards having his own restaurant again, Pikoteo finally had a permanent home in Esher.

Today, Pikoteo brings together everything Raúl has learned throughout a lifetime in hospitality.

We source many of our ingredients directly from Spain while also using outstanding British produce. Quality comes before shortcuts: our stocks and sauces are made from scratch in our kitchen, including the stocks that form the foundation of our paellas.

We cook with extra virgin olive oil and carefully select our ingredients for their quality — from Spanish produce to Clarence Court eggs for our tortillas.

Proper Spanish food, cooked from scratch and made to be shared.

Because that’s what picoteo is really about.

It’s ordering different dishes, putting them in the middle of the table, sharing, talking, discovering another flavour — and perhaps ordering one more.