Birthday Tapas - Barrafina: Soho, Sunday May 5th, 2013

I always believed that the finest food was found somewhere between Italy and France. People have remarked that northern Italy is fantastic in this regard because it combines both extraordinary European cuisines in a perfect way. My father once took a business trip to the region and returned saying he was almost fed up of truffles, so rich and common were they in the season he'd visited. They don't mess about in Piedmont.

This remained my opinion for a number of years until the wife and I met a fellow food writer in Barcelona where we had a wonderful lunch. We went to a lovely restaurant and got some really interesting insight into Catalan and Spanish cuisine. I also realised there may be a second place in the world in which to find the finest food. San Sebastian in the Basque region of Spain borders France and, in much the same way as northern Italy, you get the best of both worlds. I'm now torn as to which place I should visit first, but proper tapas in San Sebastian is something I can't wait to sample one day. The man behind this excellent site certainly sold me on the idea.

Good tapas is hard to find anywhere. Many places serve it, few can get it right. Barrafina was a great meal out for my birthday a while back and, when a friend of ours suggested a meal for her birthday there, we were only to keen to join. In the event, three of us attended, but for an early lunch on a Sunday, it was just about right. We took an outside table, ordered a huge variety of dishes and whiled away the early afternoon as they arrived.

We split our orders between the specials board and the main menu, meaning we had a pleasant spread of familiarity and adventure. The first thing we ate was the reliable, dependable, un-exciting but totally reassuring ham croquette (left). Salty but slightly sweet, soft and creamy on the inside, two of these for £4.50 is nothing to sniff at. Spanish ham is never to be taken for granted, and putting it in a croquette is a beautiful way to invoke such excellent flavour.

Next up was a special in the form of cuttlefish with fennel alioli (right). This was very well prepared and fresh. I am not the hugest fan of shellfish but it was an enjoyable taster. The fennel mayonnaise worked quite well, adding some sharp flavour to the dish. I do think it was slightly over-priced at nearly £8 but that's probably down to my tastes. The girls enjoyed it very much and polished it off promptly.

If the cuttlefish hadn't quite done it for me, the next seafood special was much closer to my idea of fun: razor clams (left). These were the same £7.80 as the cuttlefish but, for me, far more enjoyable. Served with diced fresh parsley and seasoned butter, they were worth every penny. Cooked to a just-right resistance, they were soft with enough bite to be flavoursome and rich. The seasoning was understated enough to bring the seafood to the fore and the whole plate was excellent.

There are certain things on a menu which cannot be ignored. When you see a certain dish, said dish must be ordered without delay. The words "Chicken Thigh with Romesco Sauce" lend themselves to such an impulse (right). We'd eaten this before but this was better. The over-seasoning from our first visit had been dealt with, the skin was gorgeously crispy, the spicy tomato sauce and the garlic mayonnaise were superb complementary dressings. When upmarket Spanish tapas becomes comforting and homely, it's a lovely thing.

The girls were drawn to the oysters from the specials board and ordered one each (left). served with diced red pepper and spring onion, they enjoyed them without much fuss. At £2.80 per oyster they were a bit toppy but that's what one should expect in Soho for fresh oysters. I was feeling a little more rustic so I occupied myself with chips & bravas sauce (right). Crunchy, crisp chips seasoned with thyme salt, spicy tomato sauce on the side... Nothing wrong here, which means they were excellent.

Last visit, we'd ordered some pork belly which was an indulgence we regretted. This time, pig cheeks with celeriac purée was something the three of us couldn't resist. Maybe it was the fact that three of us meant it was more reasonably spread, but this was much better judged than the belly had been. Tender, slow-cooked meat in rich, strong gravy with a smooth root purée was just lovely and not at all like the forced dish we'd tried the year before (left). To go with this, we ordered some beautifully fresh summer peas with ham (right). Perfectly balanced, this was a side plate to remind us how much we should treasure the simple things on our tables.

Three diners, three desserts seems like a simple equation. The wife and I have been known to buck that trend, along with various friends over time. The ordering of four desserts between three, six between four and so on is a total luxury but a lot of fun if you're as fond of sugar as I. In the event, the three along with all the food we'd already eaten were plenty (left). We tried a Santiago Tart, which turned out to be a bit like a fruit cake in pastry-based form. It was rich with fruit, spicing and soft filling. I loved it, despite the presence of almonds (which aren't really nuts anyway).

The Catalan Cream (Spanish crème brulee to you and me) was perfectly nice. Not over-hard on top and suitably comforting underneath, it's like it's French equivalent - or the one that was invented in England first - just not quite as fine. Still, there was none left so I shan't complain. The chocolate tart was a thing of rich and sumptuous quality, with pastry of the right crumbly texture and the chocolate ganache dark, thick and strong. The richness of the mix lent a slight nuttiness to the tart which convinced the wife there were actual nuts in it. A literal debate with the waiter began, much to my amusement as I continued to eat about 60% of the pudding we'd ordered.

This was a lovely birthday meal: an excellent choice for some Sunday lunch at a quality which is frequently unattainable when looking for tapas in London. We were very satisfied with our choices, the service and most importantly the quality of the dishes on show. The big drawback of this place can be the waiting time for a table, but once you're there it's in a league of its own.

Barrafina

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

Barrafina & Madd - Soho, Friday July 6th, 2012

During my birthday week last year, the wife and I had taken in one enjoyable event at Joe Allen and had a pleasant pizza evening at home on the actual day. Ever in the mood for celebrating and eating, she suggested we take in a proper meal to cap things off. Tapas restaurant Barrafina was somewhere we'd long been interested in trying so the pretext of a birthday meal was a welcome one.

You can't book at Barrafina, like seemingly every Soho restaurant these days, so we got there in plenty of time to have an outside seat on a sunny Friday. It was a lovely moment in that we'd never before eaten a proper dinner outside on a beautiful Soho evening. However, before we'd had the chance to sit, we were asked to wait until a table became free. As such, we ordered some snacks while we waited.

Some chorizo wrapped in thin, fried bread got things off to a chewy, greasy start (left). And I mean chewy and greasy in the most positive way. Spanish sausage is wonderfully rich and indulgent and I quite liked the idea of serving them wrapped in crisp bread to provide some contrast and body. More simply, we also plumped for toast with alioli (right). There's not much to say about crusty bread with garlic mayonnaise except that it had better be done properly. And this was.

After our appetisers were out of the way, we sat down and immediately asked our waiter where we could find deep fried baby squid since it wasn't on the main menu. Fortunately, the chipirones were a special of the day so we wasted no time in getting stuck in (left). These were exactly as you want squid to be: crispy, a touch of chewy texture but enough moisture to make it a perfect savoury plate of summery Spanish seafood. Everything that's great about Spanish food in one simple plate.

Another special was one I ordered without a moments hesitation: summer asparagus (right). This was a delectable mixture of green and white, giving a nice variation in texture and richness, served with shaved payoyo cheese and balsamic vinegar. The cook on the asparagus was flawless and the combination of flavours was a mixture of sweet-sour from the vinegar and salty from the parmesan-like cheese, perfectly counter-balancing the sweet vegetables. Reminiscent of Bocca di Lupo some weeks earlier, this was a beautiful summer plate of food.

No visit to a tapas restaurant is complete without bravas potatoes of some kind, so we went for the option on the Barrafina menu which was 'Chips with Brava sauce' (left). The chips themselves were crunchy and properly prepared, with salt & thyme flowers to season. The sauce was a little too sour though, leaving me wishing they had really gone for the sweeter more classic Spanish option with some mayo and more balance to the dish.

We fancied some chicken and the thigh with Romesco sauce was one dish which jumped out at us (right). The chicken was well-cooked with a delicious crispy skin but the sauce, garnish and seasoning did not work. Almonds on top were more confusing than anything else and the whole thing was so covered in thyme salt that it was overpowering and a little too bitter in the event. We got little of the mildly spicy tomato sauce either, with a similar problem to the brava sauce which came with the chips.

More sausage next, with the very modern-sounding 'chorizo, potato & watercress', which was exactly what the dish was (left). Nothing fancy here, just a hearty and well-constructed array of complimentary ingredients. It didn't really feel like tapas as such, but the plate of food was nicely filling without being too rich or salty.

We had one more dish to come and it was possibly the one I'd been looking forward to the most. Pork belly from the specials board was an enticing-sounding thing and it looked pretty impressive too (right). However, it didn't really sit very well as part of a Spanish tapas meal. Where the chorizo with potatoes was a brisk, modern take on classic Spanish dinner, this was an English dish forced into a Spanish menu. The addition of mashed potato added little more than filler and the sauce was so rich and salty that it overwhelmed the pork. A shame to finish on such a strange dish but we were very satisfied overall.

There was not a lot to tempt us on the dessert menu, so we took a short stroll down on to Rupert Street and stumbled upon Madd, a relatively new (at the time) dessert shop/café with a strong mango theme. The setup here is refreshingly simple: you take your mango dessert, add whatever kinds of fresh fruit or dressing you feel like and away you go. The prices seemed a little high but the temptation of a mango creme brulée was too great (left). It was pretty decent in the event, a well-set custard and not too much burnt sugar on top. The mango flavour itself was not so strong, but the scoop of mango ice cream on the side was compensation enough.

I put them to the true mango test by ordering a lassi, one of my favourite drinks if done well (right). It was not the best lassi I have ever had but it was a decent effort: creamy, refreshing and sweet. It was certainly a lovely finisher to an evening of Spanish tapas in the sun. The youth hostel-like atmosphere in the place actually adds something to it, with the board games, pick-up sticks and drawings on the wall reminding you that desserts should always be carefree and enjoyable.

There is no doubting that Barrafina is one of the very best places to eat tapas in London. Especially when the sun is out. By and large the food was delicious and even though not every dish hit the spot, for a little grazing over proper Spanish, it's got my recommendation.

Madd is a different proposition but another well-crafted Soho venture. Properly put together mango desserts at semi-reasonable prices mean punters will keep coming back. For some light-hearted after dinner eats, I'll certainly be back before long. If things in Soho continue to trend as often happens, we might see a second Madd location in the near future.

Barrafina

Madd