Say Hello to Dr Gherkin & Mr Cucumber
The dishes and décor at Wormwood seem to have been created with Instagram in mind. Small and unassuming, it’s located on All Saint’s Road but Mediterranean style permeates the whole restaurant. On a summer evening, the colourful tiles and crockery, not to mention the conservatory right at the back, is enough to transport us out of muggy London into a Greek taverna, though the prices are very firmly in the central London range.
This is a tapas restaurant but high quality tapas means that looking at around £11 per dish, rising to £18 for the Lobster couscous. Our waitress recommended 6 dishes for 2 people. We were greedy and hungry and went for 7. They were right, we should have stuck with 6. The restaurant decides which order the dishes emerge, based on which flavours better follow each other. Dishes arrive one after each other, rather than all at the same time. It's like creating your own tasting menu but with much larger portions. Each dish is also a mini masterpiece – so artistically arranged that I almost didn’t want to eat it.
Personally, I have always found Spanish style cooking a little heavy for me and the Duck Berbere was definitely too heavy a dish to finish on. However the Pulpo and the Moorish Tartare were both incredible and beautifully prepared.
We also couldn't resist the Dr Gherkin and Mr Cucumber just for the name alone (though it did taste really good).
The menu is a great mix of meat, fish and seafood with just the odd vegetarian dish thrown in.
They probably have an interesting wine list but we kicked off with a cocktail and then followed that with quite a few more. They were irresistible and unique creations. The bar can also adapt them to individual taste – whether you want it sweeter or stronger, though most of the cocktails already had plenty of kick, in the good way.
We were far too full for dessert but some of the sweeter cocktails beckoned in substitute. Huge thanks here to the Assistant Manager – Alain Herrero who offered those up on the house. Usually free drinks are preceded by complaints about service/food etc so to have something offered purely as nice gesture, was hugely appreciated. Restaurants which insist on charging for the smallest crumb of bread should take note.
It was a lovely relaxing summer evening and I'll definitely be back.