Our Story
We are a group of friends from different nationalities (Spanish, Thai, and Italian) sharing a passion for good food and drinks, and, especially, for Spanish gastronomy and wines. Apart from our passion we share a similar background, with wide experience in the hospitality, restaurant and service industries, having all of us worked in different countries such as Thailand, the UK, France, Italy, Hong Kong, and (of course) Spain. We aim to bring our love and expertise on Spanish food and wine to Bangkok, and to share the amazing gastronomy and culture from Spain with locals and foreigners residing in this buzzing and lovely city. We’re looking forward to welcoming you in our “casa”... ¡Hasta pronto!
Our Sister Restaurant in Madrid
“El Rinconcito de Juan”, opened in 2005, is the result of many years of effort. The
restaurant, located in one of the most popular neighbourhoods of the Spanish
capital, offers a gastronomic experience focused on the homemade traditional
Spanish cuisine. Its most popular dishes are the “huevos rotos” (broken fried eggs)
with various garnishes, the fried cheese with raspberry jam or the Spanish
croquettes with different flavours.
Moreover, the restaurant offers a great selection of wines, including 30 Spanish
wines coming from different Denominations of Origin in the country. The restaurant
incorporates new dishes and wines to the menu periodically, without losing its
essence but providing its customers with new flavours, culinary innovations and
always offering a homemade approach.
Our Chefs
Rubén González
Rubén González
Rubén González is a real restaurant and gastronomy lover. While he was studying his
Bachelor Degree in Tourism and Hospitality, he worked for different bars and
restaurants in Madrid. It was during this time when he really discovered this world,
in which he has been involved for almost 20 years. In 2003, he helped a friend to
open a bar/restaurant, in which he was in charge of the establishment of the
business, its operations and its management. This experience led him to open his
very own business “El Rinconcito de Juan” a couple of years later.
Apart from his entrepreneurial skills, he has engaged in different courses, trainings
and specialisations on gastronomy and its different techniques. He graduated from
an “Advanced Course in Professional Cooking and New Culinary Techniques” from
the prestigious Escuela Superior de Hosteleria de Sevilla. Furthermore, he has
complemented this course with different wine tasting courses organised by the
Escuela de Hosteleria de Madrid.
One of Rubén’s main objectives is to continually reinvent and update himself, by
trying and experimenting new techniques and concepts regarding gastronomy. He
has competed in several local “Ferias de la Tapa” (tapas contests) in Madrid. In 2013,
he got both the first and the second prizes at one of these competitions with two of
his creations: “Black rice arancini with squid leg and tartar sauce” and “Madrilenian
squid sandwich with wasabi mayonnaise and squid-inked black bread”.
Now, he has embarked on a new project of managing the kitchen at “El Tapeo –
Spanish Eatery and Wine Bar” in Bangkok. While he will still manage his restaurant in
Madrid, he will travel to Bangkok as often as possible, in order to train our home-
based staff and make sure that the menus and standards of the plates at the Thai
branch keep up with the level of his original venture.
Joseba Jimenez
Joseba Jimenez
Raised in San Sebastian, arguably the top gastronomic mecca in the
Basque Country and Spain overall. Joseba holds over 30 years of kitchen
experience. Apart from the Basque Country, he was formed in some of the
most prestigious cooking schools in Madrid, France, Italy and Germany. His
big step to move to the United States proved highly successful. In his over 10
years experience in this country he owned, managed, and run the kitchen in
several restaurants, focusing on Basque and regional Spanish cuisine. In
2001 he became a Eurotoques Maitre Cuisinier (Master Chef of the European
Union) and he was nominated four times for the James Beard Foundation
Award in the category “Best Chef in Northwest USA”.
He has spent the last decade in different countries in South East Asia,
where he has worked for several restaurants and companies as a head chef,
hospitality consultant and even gastronomy lecturer at universities. Now he
has joined El Tapeo – Spanish Eatery and Wine Bar where he will bring his
expertise in Spanish cuisine and tapas to the Thonglor buzzling neighbourhood.