Opera Tavern

Great Venue

This is a favourite of the team at work. The food is excellent… We a particularly in love with the Iberico pork and foie gras burgers. The menus are updated regularly and always filled with everything you want to order making it very difficult to choose.

The service on occasions has let the side down. Most of the waiters and bar staff are really great but I have had a few incidents where I have left extremely disappointed with one or two; however the good still outweighs the bad so I will definitely return and would recommend others to check it out too.

Sitting at the bar you get such great service and can really appreciate the amazing buzz this place has to offer.

Opera Tavern

Opera Tavern is a fantastic spot to meet before a trip to the theatre in the heart of the West End of London. Offering a comprehensive selection of Spanish and Italian wines with a delicious tapas menu to boot. The bar downstairs is comfortable and if you're a fan of sitting up at the bar like me then you won't be disappointed. The staff are on point and very helpful, they will guide you through the wine list with ease and make personalised recommendations from the tapas menu. An obvious favourite amongst guests and staff alike is the Jamón Ibérico de Bellota, aged 5 years, sliced fresh from the leg to order.
While we waited for our guest to arrive we ordered a bottle of the Sela, Bodegas Roda Rioja and some bar snacks; Nocellara del Belice olives, Guindilla peppers, boquerones and rillions. Our waitress also told us of the day's special which was a pig head rillette served with some lightly toasted focaccia bread, pickled cucumber and fennel, we couldn't say no! Great combination of flavours and textures. Once our party was complete we turned to the tapas menu, we were recommended by our waitress to choose 2-3 dishes per person. The food really does speak for itself and if you bear with me i simply must list the dishes that we chose, in full, in all their glory…
Smoked haddock and leek croquettes with orange and saffron aioli
Steamed red mullet and gurnard with clams, Spring vegetables and wild garlic Braised oxtail with bone marrow, truffle mash and Pecorino
Chargrilled Tropea onions with buffalo mozzarella, new season garlic, capers and fig balsamic Courgette flowers stuffed with goats’ cheese and drizzled with honey
…and of course the Jamón Ibérico de Bellota.
It was just the right amount for three ladies dining early before the theatre, but i would go back again making sure i had no plans for the rest of the evening in order to work my way through the scrumptious menu.
The service was lovely, attentive but not invasive and always with a smile. My only negative comment on the Opera Tavern would be the prices of the bar snacks, they are incredibly steep for the portion size that you get.

Although the bar downstairs is very nice and probably a bit more atmospheric and authentic for the Tapas feel, I prefer the comfort of the restaurant above. I also like that this isn't just Spanish Tapas but that flavours from France and Italy have also been combined into the format. This amalgam makes Opera Tavern pretty unique and the choice of dishes very interesting. The wine list is also very good and reasonably priced. The only snag with this kind of dining is that it's easy to get carried away ordering lots of great dishes and quickly rack up a large bill. It's also ideally located in Covent Garden where there lots of people but not many decent restaurants.

What a pity this little place would have a much needed addition to the ever problematic dining scene in Covent Garden… but it just doesn't hit home. The menu is complicated, it over-promises and under-delivers and service is not up to scratch either. It is rare that a good location plus very good produce add up to so little on the bottom line. Should we all become wary of ‘third restaurants’ from successful restaurateurs?

judging by the other reviews perhaps this place is better ala carte however our group of 9 were forced into a set menu – overall food was ok but with pitiful servings barely sufficient for a spoonful each- w wine it was over £60 each, and we left hungry- not impressed

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.