Opera Tavern

My new No1 for dinner with friends in Covent Garden. We managed to try most dishes on this modern tapas menu between us and I'll be back to try what we missed. Meats were most successful, with high points for juicy pork belly on cannelonni beans (complete with crackling). Surprisingly some of the more run-of-the-mill dishes were the tastiest: deliciously gooey-on-the-inside tortilla was a hit. Specials of the day really were special with ham croquettes and fried courgette flowers stuffed with goats cheese and drizzled with honey still making my mouth water. Given the more experimental nature of the tapas there are a few misses: patatas bravas were presented with “originality” but looked more like chips to me and fish croquettes were just a bit too richly fishy. After such wonderful mains, the desserts came as a bit of a disappointment: we managed to order every single one so we can say with some authority the chocolate pud was the best but the others were a bit bland (we couldn't really identify what the cheesecake was made of and the panna cotta with orange sorbet ended up being a slushy mismatched combination) so spend your stomach space and your pennies on the mains. Good wide-ranging wine menu with plenty of dessert wines too. This is a great place with a group as you get to try so many dishes, but if you are in a couple ordering a limited number of dishes take the advice of the staff who are well-informed, helpful and not afraid to give their own opinion on what's best (but without being pushy). I thought the atmosphere upstairs matched the buzz of downstairs where we had pre-dinner drinks, although be warned the tables are close together so not a place for an intimate conversation. We each had several glasses of wine and came out stuffed with delicious food after a very pleasant, unhurried evening; the best £51 I've spent for a while.

To my mind, tapas is fun food which is perfect for eating at a bar, and the bar area at the Opera Tavern is a great example of where this works brilliantly. They do have a more sedate restaurant upstairs for which they take bookings but it doesn't have half the atmosphere of the downstairs area. Downstairs, where no bookings are taken, is much more vibrant with some tables but the best seats are the stools at the bar. I have to say that I enjoyed all of the dishes we ate but the burgers with foie gras, which really did melt in your mouth, was the stand out dish. It is fairly noisy and so I would not recommend this for a night out with your parents but it is perfect for a pre/post theatre supper or a Friday night on the town with one or two friends (just not big groups as you will not get a table).

Arriving late on a Friday evening, getting a quiet table for two in Theatreland was always going to be tricky. Opera Tavern offered us the bar, but stools and blearing music sent us upstairs to the restaurant. And the two tables of a dozen people each who, judging by the empty plates and numerous bottles adorning each table, had been there for a wee while.

Stuck between a rock and a loud place, we settled on animated conversation over the music. After all, tapas is about sharing. What better way to share every dish on the menu than to get a big crowd together. Although the tables are pretty close together, other than the two big tables, upstairs was pretty empty, so we got two table together, so that we could both sit on the banquette, facing out at the revelry, and allowing us to converse better.

Irony is writ loud and large at OT: from the pig’s trotter door handles, through the Jamon leg beer pump to scotch eggs and pork scratchings on the menu. The latter masquerades as crispy pigs ears but, by any other name, is as fine a deep fried, salty pork skin as you will find. The scotch eggs too were fine, although one was extremely salty and the other not. In both cases, the egg was just cooked with the yolk still runny and the Ibérico pork a tad better than your usual head cheese affair. What made them Italian, I am unsure.

In fact, the odd croquette and crispy squid aside, the tapas are pretty different from the run of the mill Spanish joint; even the croquette was a mushroom, rather than the more common ham, variety. Mini burgers (or large sliders maybe) came with that excellent Ibérico pork again, topped out with foie gras. To complete the porcine theme, we had the grilled Ibérico pressa – shoulder of the self same pig, with capers and lemon.

The wine list is good, solidly Iberian, with a few Italians thrown in, and is split by style. We had a medium bodied Verdjo from Rueda, and very fine it was too.

Service is friendly and unhurried, plates coming as done, as they should, and at no rush to get us through, even though it was late for the kitchen.

Amongst all the noise and bustle, I missed the fact that we had been charged for a bottle of wine that we didn’t have, so called back on Monday to mention this to the restaurant. Kate was extremely helpful, handling the matter swiftly and with charm; it is always pleasing to see professional restaurants act professionally. For this alone I would return. The fact is, however, that the pork scratchings have been calling to me all weekend; like Lord Darlington, I can resist anything but temptation.

The rave reviews abound in the press along with Opera Tavern coming from a pedigree stable of the Salt Yard and Dehesa made for much anticipation and excitement.

The lunch stared well with the very welcoming Maitre D’ come waiter, who took us too our table. One of the few criticism I’d have, is that the tables failed the fat man test, they are rather snugly placed so a struggle for anyone passing in-between especially those of us with a larger girth.

We had eight different tapas, doubling up on the scallops and fois burgers. These were served sequentially more in tasting menu style than loading the table with tapas, I am not sure if this was dictated by style or table size.
The much raved about fois burgers were moist and delicious and probably the best burger I have had, although the taste of fois was a little lost. Cheese filled courgette flowers smothered in honey were sublime, confit of belly pork was melt in the mouth with a nice crisp crackling. The scallops perfectly cooked as was the duck livers special, in fact every dish we had was superb and spot on in cooking and taste.

Already amply filled we had to engage the greed gene for cheese and desert, who can turn down a truffle Pecorino, served with flat breads which is so much better than crackers or ordinary bread.

For desert it was a biter chocolate sorbet with sabayon and chocolate truffles. The sorbet was delicious and a great end to the meal. The truffles well were a little more suited to petit fours and indeed did go well with the espressos.

All in for two people it was £150 of which £65 was drinks (beer, wine, water and coffee). I would certainly recommend a visit and I am looking forward to returning very soon.

Despite being nestled on one of Covert Garden’s quieter streets, this little gem of an eatery has a menu that speaks volumes!

We were seated outside (blame the smoker), but the best seats in the house are in the softly lit downstairs bar. It’s here that you can really appreciate the relaxed informal atmosphere of the guests, coupled with the frantic buzz of waiters and waitresses, as they deliver plate after plate of innovative yet inviting mini-dishes to the crowded dining room.

Plates arrived one by one, which if you are sitting inside with limited space is perhaps sensible. The iberico pork (recommended by our enthusiastic waiter) was absolutely delicious – I could have eaten the entire thing twice over). Any shortfall made by the monkfish and crispy squid verging on being a too salty, was made up for by the delightful courgette flowers. Coated in a delicately sweet batter and filled with creamy goat’s cheese – these little fellas did not disappoint. Pork belly was cooked to perfection, although I secretly wished I had ordered the ox cheek, which my dining companions had overridden despite the animated endorsement of the previously aforementioned waiter.

Portion sizes were our only complaint. A single dish shared between three equates to just under a mouthful per person which is perhaps why we had to order two portions of bread with dipping oil. My advice to diners: Either order far too much and take the hit of the extortionate bill (each plate is around £8) or factor in that you may need to stop at a kebab shop on the way home.

It's an old Covent Garden boozer, converted into a clever, classy little tapas bar. Split over two floors, bar stools predominate the converted pub downstairs, small table informality and big (slightly drafty) windows balance an open glass wine wall in the space up the small staircase. From the team behind one of my favourite restaurants in London, Dehesa and older brother Salt Yard, it's fair to say that the opening of the Opera Tavern had me salivating slightly.

The strong wine list mirrors the focus at sister restaurant Dehesa. Much of the menu appears to come from their older siblings too. The focus on solid Spanish swine is happily reprised. (Slightly sloppily carved) Jamon Iberico de Bellota is excellent. Salty and sweet with a nutty marbling of divine fat daring your heart to complain. Heads of deep fried courgette flower come next, stuffed with sticky goat's cheese and drizzled with honey.

Mini Iberico pork and foie gras burgers fall apart without their skewer, the devil's own canapé. Rich little bundles popping with flavour, they feel a little out of place here, slightly too refined and worked, but unbelievably tasty non the less. This also applied to the (thankfully grease free) ‘Italian style’ Scotch Eggs. A clever take on the dish, soft cooked eggs lightly rolled in a spiced pork blanket served with garlicky aoli, it just felt slightly wrong in a tapas bar. The one bum note of the night came with a totally tasteless Short Rib of Beef served with over-cooked polenta and over-salted cavalo nero. Shame that. The gnocchi, taleggio cheese and mushroom gratin made up for this side step in the quality of the food. A perfect counterpoint to the meaty dishes served alongside.

We finish our savories with the full set of three different pinchos morunos, squat charcoal grilled skewers, a little pricy at £3 a pop, but stickily well cooked. The Salt Marsh Lamb Leg with smoked paprika stands out as a favourite of the three, cooked to pink perfection within a charred carapace.

Pannacotta with a tooth-tinglingly tangy tangerine granita was the least lardy of the puds but even that nearly finished me off. I wouldn't have had it, but our waiter was so insistent we try it. A great example of its kind, with creamy vanilla texture and biscuity swirls to give a contrast. Miss Jones had one of the interesting sheep's milk cheeses from the list, perfectly acceptable finishers to the meal.