Smart West End places where it’s ‘all about the food’ are all too rare. So it’s hard not to warm to this Barcelona-inspired newcomer. Hard-edged and marbled – in Continental-style – the dining room has space for just a single counter, and a row of stools.
Its pedigree is encouraging. This is the latest venture from the Hispanophile Hart brothers, whose first venture, Fitzrovia’s modern tapas bar Fino, has rightly met with high acclaim. (Sam and Eddie are – a rarity for Brit restaurateurs – scions of a family with a decent track-record in hospitality. Daddy Hart owns and runs a number of ventures, including pukka country house hotel, Hambleton Hall.) Their new opening takes for its inspiration a well-known Barcelona tapas joint, Cal Pep.
We’d found it difficult sitting down with a menu rather than choosing by eye, but fortunately, one of the owners took pity on our indecision – clearly a Hart with a heart – and did the choosing. The initial salvo of dishes – a platter of delicate cold meats, a flavoursome and crunchy tomato bruschetta and an extremely well dressed green salad – impressed. Clams and squid – both a la plancha – were also good, as were chorizo-based dishes. Weaker items included rather floury patatas bravas (chips ‘n’ tomato chilli sauce), and – at the pudding stage – a crumbly and intense chocolate tart eclipsed a surprisingly uninspiring crema catalana.
Bottom line, though: all pretty good. If there is a catch – and we think there is – it’s that old chestnut, pricing. A generous (but not gluttonous) lunch for two, with one bottle of wine equivalent, was over £90. We know that costs are way higher in Soho than they are in the back lanes of Barcelona, but even so’
