London Food Detective

Salt Yard, Fitzrovia: Some hits, some misses at tapas tavern

Before we all got partners and settled down a bit, I used to go on regular football, food and drinking trips to Spain with some friends from uni.  My love of Spanish food developed from trips to Barcelona, Madrid, Bilbao and other Spanish cities.

Anytime we meet up (usually in London or Liverpool) the first thought is to look for a Spanish restaurant to try and so it was with this in mind that four of us decided to give the Salt Yard a try on a cold Monday night.

It's normally a good sign if a restaurant is full on a Monday night and as were led through the bustling bar area to a downstairs table the place had a good vibe to it.

The menu is compact with six or seven choices in the meat, fish and vegetable sections of the menu.

The good:

If a Spanish restaurant can't get it's chorizo right then it's in trouble. Fortunately, the Salt Yard produced some excellent, hot, smoky chorizo on a bed of slow roasted peppers. Moreish.

It's only in the last few years that i've really got into calamari, but it's now one of my favourites. This crisp, lightly battered version came with a powerful aioli and went in a flash.

The butternut squash gnocchi was an unexpected hit.  Served with sweet, golden sultanas, pine nuts and a sage and butter sauce the contrasts of textures and flavours worked really well.  My favourite dish of the night.

The mediocre

My friends reported that "an excellent salsa verde didn’t quite rescue the Fillet of Lamb, which didn’t seem well matched with crushed Jerusalem artichokes."

The bavette (flank steak) would have been sent back if it wasn't the last dish we received and we weren't so full already. Served with luke warm onion rings, the beef was chewy, tasteless and very disappointing. I've a feeling this was the last bit of steak they had on the evening (another table near us were told it was finished) and it just wasn't up to scratch.

Overall, though we had a really good meal.  It was great to catch up with friends and the relaxed, informal and unobtrusive service added to the ambiance. 

You can see why the Salt Yard is a popular restaurant.  The beef aside, everything was of a high quality and, like the best Spanish cooking, the kitchen kept things simple and let the quality of the produce shine through.

 

Camino, Canary Wharf: All aboard the sherry ferry!

To celebrate the opening of Camino, Canary Wharf I was one of a group of foodies to be invited to board a special 'sherry ferry' to take us from London Bridge to Canary Wharf.

Enjoying a glass of cava outside Canary Wharf

As we checked out the sights on the Thames Clipper, we were served sherry and cold cuts.  It was a great way to travel to a restaurant and we were greeted off the ferry with a glass of cava.  Not a bad way to start the evening!

Camino has a prime spot overlooking the river alongside a number of other restaurants (including a branch of Gaucho and Royal China) and I'm sure the aim is to entice the city boys down to spend the big bucks.

The restaurant is stylishly decorated with a large bar and open plan kitchen.  Unlike the King's Cross branch it is one large room, but like it's sister venue it has a good, lively vibe to it.

 

Some of the stylish features in the restaurant

If you're a fan of the food at Camino's King's Cross branch then you won't be disappointed as the menu is the same.

You can read my review of the full menu and, as last time, the figs, pork shoulder and baby squid were my favourites.

I got the chance to speak to Richard (the owner) and Ross (restaurant manager) during the evening and they are both passionate about providing welcoming service and good food at reasonable price and I think they've found a winning formula.

If you're in the area or fancy a bit of a sightseeing trip along the river, followed by a good meal, then Camino is just the ticket.

Camino: Eating the whole menu!

I recently visited Camino as a paying customer and had it in my list of reviews to do in the coming weeks. However, before getting chance to write it up I received an invite to attend their training session for the staff of their new branch opening in Westferry.

As I'd enjoyed my meal there a few weeks ago I jumped at the chance, even if it did mean taking a long lunch from work and having to work into the evening!

The tasting was hosted by Nacho, the Head Chef and he talked us through the menu, answering any questions that the five bloggers or new staff had.

Now, it would be a bit much to review every single dish on the menu, so instead I've picked out some highs and occasional lows from each section.

Meats & Cold Cuts

 First up was a fabulous selection of cold cuts and cheese. We received them on individual plates, but Nacho also brought out a board showing how they'd be presented in the restaurant.

A selection of cold cuts & cheese

Highs:

The Jamon Iberico, which had been cured for 36 months, was superb. It had an intense, heavy, nutty flavour (from the acorns that the pigs feast on) and wasn't too salty. The slithers of ham just melted in the mouth.

Lomo Iberico was was the fattiest of the salamis, but none the worse for it. The fat just dissolved in the mouth leaving little morsels of cured meat to enjoy.

Manchego cheese. I can sometime find manchego a bit bland, but this was a lot stronger than most I'd had. Matured for 8 months it had a nutty flavour to it that worked perfectly with the sweet quince.

Lows:

Compared to the other cheeses the Tetilla was a little bland and unmemorable.

Salads & Vegetables

Next up was a range of salads and vegetable accompaniments.

My two favourite salads: the artichoke on the left and the fab figs on the right

Highs:

Fig, Mahon cheese and ham salad was wonderful. The figs were wrapped in ham and contained a small cube of cheese. They had been grilled and the sweet figs, melted cheese and salty ham was a fantastic combination. It came served with some mixed leaves and a sherry vinegar dressing, but it's the figs that stick in the memory. Nacho explained that this dish is only on the menu for a short time as figs are only in season for a couple of months.

Grilled artichoke, red and yellow peppers, green beans and tomatoes on a bed of cracked wheat was an unusual combination that worked surprisingly well.

Sauteed piquillo peppers in white wine and garlic is a favourite of mine and this was a good version. The peppers were soft, sweet and delicious.

Smoked cod and orange and the pimientos
 

Lows:

For me, the orange overpowered the delicate smoked cod in a salad which also contained black olive, red onion and new potatoes.

Everyone else loved the pimientos de padron (little green peppers with sea salt), but I found them slightly bitter and too salty. They are a bit of an acquired taste and weren't for me.

Fish

A selection of seafood dishes

I'm not a massive fish lover, so I didn't over indulge on these courses (I was saving myself for the meat still to come) and my favourites were all the shellfish dishes.

The crisp fried baby squid had a light crunchy batter, was not at all chewy (which often happens), and came served with a light, creamy alioli.

King prawns were served cold in their shells and were some of the most succulent, sweet prawns I've had.

 
The spectacular looking octopus tentacle

 

I've never had octopus before and was pleasantly surprised by this dish. It was very meaty and tender - not at all rubbery as the appearance would make you think.

Meat

This was the course I was most looking forward to and on my first visit I'd been really impressed by the quality of the meat selection.  Nacho explained that Camino use a two tonne charcoal grill that they imported specially from Bilbao.

Highs:

Iberico black pig shoulder blade was served like steak and came medium rare, which is unusual for pork. It had a lovely char on it from the grill and was super succulent and was a real porky treat.

The rib-eye steak was equally good. It was served very simply with just a bit of olive oil and salt, which let the quality of the beef shine through.

On my first visit, I was also served some really good morcilla. It was served with apples and had a soft, crumbly texture and was some of the best I've had in the UK.

Lamb skewers, chicken skewers and lamb cutlets

Lows:

I like my lamb served rare, so I thought the lamb skewers were a little over-cooked, though the marinade of paprika, chilli, garlic and chilli did provide a good flavour.

Overall:

It was a real pleasure to spend the afternoon grazing through the Camino menu.  Nacho's passion for his food shone through and he answered all our questions enthusiastically and appeared to really value our feedback. I was impressed that he had such a commitment to training his staff, so they understood the food they would be serving.

Camino's food philosophy seems to be to find the best ingredients and serve them in simple, tasty ways and on the whole they do this very well. There aren't too many elaborate flavours or techniques, which allows them to get the food out of the kitchen quickly. It seems to be a winning formula, as when I went on a Thursday evening the place was packed and there was a 45 minute wait for the table.

Tapas Fantasticas 2010: Sun, wine, tapas - just don't mention the footy!

A beautiful sunny Sunday and what better way to prepare for the England v Germany match than a couple of glasses of wine and tapas from some of London's best Spanish restaurants.

The three day Tapas Fantasticas festival was held on the South Bank and was a showcase for wines from Rioja. However, it was the various food stalls that grabbed my attention.

I love tapas, but it's not one of Grace's favourites so I don't get to have it as often as I would like, so I decided to fill my boots whilst I was there!

I did a quick reccy of the site and decided to start with some manchego cheese, quince jelly and some acorn fed jamon iberica from 5J Iberico Ham House. The cheese and quince were both good (it's a great combination), but the ham was disappointing.  It was such a hot day and the ham had been left out in the sun.  This meant that it wasn't at it's best, as it was almost baked.  Sadly I also decided to record this rather than photograph it, so don't have the pictures to go with it.

Not to be deterred I decided to go back to an old favourite: chorizo.  I'd spied a stall that was selling chorizo lollipops with pear aloli and I wasn't about to miss out!  The chorizo had been deep fried and was very good - not at all greasy and the accompanying aloli was light, tangy and accompanied it well.

Also on the same stall was a slow cooked, pork sandwich, which was served with a grilled pepper. The pork had a sweetness to it and was delicious.

 

The next stall was from the El Faro restaurant and they had the biggest choice of dishes. 

Unsurprisingly though I went for the morcilla sausage with a piquillo sauce and rocket leaves.  I love morcilla (similar to black pudding) and this was fantastic. Grilled perfectly it was soft, tasty and delicious. The accompanying piquillo sauce gave a bit of heat and, together with the peppery rocket, provided a good contrast to the morcilla.

 

 

Next up were a couple of chicken skewers.  These had been marinated in paprika and lemon juice and were packed full of flavour. They were served with a pesto dressing and at £1 per skewer were a bargain.

I hadn't had my full protein fix yet and decided to finish off with one of Brindisa's famous chorizo sausage buns.  If you've ever been to Borough Market on a weekend, then you've probably seen the queue for these at their takeaway.

Served simply with a roasted pepper, rocket and a drizzle of virgin olive oil the real  star of the show is the chorizo. It had that lovely coarse, chewy texture and was packed full of flavour.

To finish off with I decided to go for some churros.  The last time I had these was about three in the morning in a cafe in Madrid and I've probably romanticised them a bit in my head, as these were slightly disappointing.

The dough was quite heavy and the accompanying chocolate tasted a little cheap and runny.  Overall they weren't as good as I remember and i'm not sure if it's my memory or this particular version of them that's to blame. To be fair, most other people seemed to be wolfing them down and loving them.

 

Overall, I spent a lovely couple of hours at Tapas Fantastica. It was well organised, not too busy, had some good music playing and was at a great location. Fingers crossed they'll hold it again next year. 

I left with a full belly, a slightly light head from the wine I'd consumed and feeling confident for the football - the less said about that the better...

Websites from some of the stalls I visited:

Baron de Ley

Iberica London

Camino

Bar Gansa, Camden

Twitter Summary Review:

Good buzz, slow service. Reasonably priced, but average tapas. Decent wine & cocktails. Veggie & seafood dishes better than the meat.

Full Review:

A few friends were staying with me ahead of a wedding we were all going to yesterday, so we thought we'd have a leisurely stroll down to Camden for a few pints and a bite to eat.  It was gone 9.30pm by the time we decided to put food choices to the vote.  I nominated burgers at Hache but was outvoted in favour of tapas at Bar Gansa. 

As we entered the place was full and really buzzing and we got a table near the front door, which is great for people watching.  At 10.00pm on a Saturday though this was mainly an electic mix of drunk teenagers queueing for the off-licence next door!

Before I go any further I should declare that Spanish food is one of my favourites and i've been known to spend a small fortune at Brindisa - so my standards are high when it comes to tapas.

Anyway, back to the meal.  We were waiting 20 minutes before anyone asked if we'd like a drink and we decided to order at the same time.

Three of us went for a selection of tapas, one for a seafood paella and one for a sizzling seafood dish.

Forty minutes and a couple of bottles of wine later the first tapas dishes arrived.

I tucked straight into the meatballs and stuffed yellow peppers (not red as it said on the menu). The meatballs were reasonable, but the sauce was fairly bland, however the peppers were pretty good with a generous helping of rice and melted cheese.

Next up was some disappointing and overcooked chorizo in red wine.  I'm a bit obsessed with chorizo and love the texture and flavour, but this was fairly chewy and no better than you can get from your local supermarket.

My favourite dish was a bit of a surprise.  The 'Tumbert' (a sort of aubergine lasagne) was excellent.  It was what good tapas should be all about - simple food, well executed and with plenty of flavour.

Garlic king prawns were ok, though my friend wasn't too keen on pulling their heads off, which is something I find strangely satisfying.  The dish I was most looking forward too was the Morcilla with black pudding and chilli pineapple salsa.  Sadly, like the previous chorizo, the morcilla disappointed.  In fact, i'm pretty sure it wasn't morcilla at all, but bog-standard British black pudding.  Most people probably wouldn't have been able to tell the difference, but I could, it was drier and didn't crumble like the best morcilla i've had and the pineapple salsa just didn't work with it.

We had to pester the waiters to get us another bottle of wine whilst we waited for the two main dishes to arrive.  For some reason they decided to wait until three of us had finished our tapas before bringing out the paella and platter, which meant it was gone 11.00p.m. by the time it arrived!

Both the paella and platter contained a generous amount of fish.  I managed to nab a muscle and some squid when my friends weren't looking and both were good and tasty, which led to my inevitable food jealousy of not choosing the same...

We finished off the wine, got the bill (about £125 for 5, including 3 bottles of wine and the obligatory 12.5% service) and walked back up the hill home with a warm wine glow.

Overall, a good evening and I thought the buzz and vibe of the place compensated for the average food and slow service.  My friends enjoyed their meals, so it could be my Spanish food snobbery that has led me to be fairly critical and only rating the food average.

How i'd improve it

• The menu outside looked a bit shabby.  The case could do with a clean and it needs to lose the bluetac and things behind it.  It was also low down and so hard to read.
• The staff were really friendly, but could have been a bit more attentive.  We had to ask for more wine (twice) and also had to wait over an hour from arriving to getting our first dish.