Opera Tavern: Covent Garden, Tuesday October 2nd, 2012

As I reflect on what a laboured, late and lackadaisical venture this blog is becoming, I start to regret the fact that I have vowed to myself that I'll be totally up to date by the end of this year. Whether that happens or not, at least I'm honest enough to admit that it was a promise I made. And honesty is a large part of what this sort of thing is about. Without memory, notes, photographs and ideas, no late reviews get posted.

Fortunately, I have a great memory for fairly useless information which includes food. I suppose it's not so useless in terms of writing a restaurant review blog, but it takes up a lot of brain power when there is probably more relevant information that should be using it. Yet, at the expense of my job performance, while my blog performance suffers because of my job, the show goes on.

A year ago, the wife and I joined two friends for some dinner at the Opera Tavern, renowned Spanish eatery and sister venture of the famous Salt Yard. Whilst there are Italian influences in the food, it remains an Iberian franchise in my mind, and that's down to the tapas. Four of us ate a whole host of dishes throughout a frantic, excessive dinner service. Whilst I will touch on all elements of the dinner in this review, I would find it somewhat disingenuous to methodically dissect the meal since it was a delightful, sprawling dinner punctuated with excellent food.

Now that the cat's out of the bag I can relax a little. Whilst the memory of each dish remains, the overriding recollection I have of the evening at Opera Tavern is one of enjoyment. The scallops, served in the shell with celeriac purée and smoked butter were a real treat to start with (left). These were perfectly cooked soft sea pearls, seasoned exceptionally. At £4.50 each they justified the price tag.

Continuing the theme of excellent combinations, the pan-fried pigeon breast with figs and herbs was another treat (right). Figs can be a tricky piece of food to get right, but when they're on the side of perfectly gamy piegon, they make sense. We also ordered a trio of the signature dish, the Iberico pork and foie gras burger (below left). The only thing that needs saying about this is it's as good as it sounds. Moist, flavoursome, rich... An utter delight.

To stop myself going into things too much here - especially since I promised I wouldn't - some parts of the meal need only a mention and a verdict... The chips with alioli and bravas sauce were a delicious sharing snack. The 'classic tortilla' was exactly that. Spring lamb cutlet with garlic purée, tomato, courgette and cumin was an elegantly presented dish with well-defined taste (right).

A feature of the Tavern (the name, by the way, comes from the fact that it is a converted pub in Theatreland) is their charcoal grill downstairs. The mini-burgers had been cooked on it and so was our Iberico Secreto with cider, apple and sage (left). It was a miniature portion alright but the flavour and moisture of the meat was excellent. And at £3.75 I was pleased enough. Continuing the meat theme (we really didn't bother much with fish) some slow-cooked beef shin with charred onion purée and girolles, topped with salsa verde was a triumph of less European than local proportions. Grilled Iberico pork shoulder with capers and a thick, sweet sauce was enough for all of us to dig in and enjoy.

Desserts continued in the sharing theme, with three being ordered between the four of us. In fairness, this was the most uninspiring part of the evening. A lemon tart was as it should have been, though the honeycomb & rosemary cream helped elevate it slightly (right). A chocolate fondant was well-executed other than the strange idea of serving it cold. Some roasted peach on top of what seemed like undercooked polenta was certainly the low point of the evening. Strawberry and mascarpone on top of the dish served only to confuse it more.

As a more brief review than most I have posted in recent times, I think this does get the message across. Only one dish out of twelve wasn't much cop and the rest all hit home with either marginal or total success. I think the best way to approach somewhere like the Opera Tavern is with a hungry group of sharers and to dive in without much thought for table manners or the cost. In this case it wasn't too pricey and we were all relatively pleased with our share of the bill.

A converted pub it may be, but the Opera Tavern is serving up some of the most creative, modern and enjoyable Spanish (and I do believe it should be pitched as Spanish) fare in town. I certainly enjoyed my meal there and the memory remains. Thank goodness...

Opera Tavern