Tag Archives: tapas

Ember Yard, Soho

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The festive season is about feeling full, all the time. A strange time perhaps for the newest Salt Yard restaurant to open. But loyal to my favourite restaurant Opera Tavern, I felt compelled to try this new member of the collection ASAP. This Christmas, Ember Yard joins the Salt Yard family of Italian-Spanish tapas restaurants alongside Salt Yard (Goodge Street), Opera Tavern (Covent Garden) and Dehesa (Carnaby Street).

And so, after much haggling for a table, my best friends and I arrived at Ember Yard for our special Soho Supperclub Christmas meal. Much like the other eateries Ember Yard focuses on high quality, utterly irresistible Spanish produce (think divine Manchego and rich Iberico ham) and little plates of delectable fish, meat and vegetable recipes. As the name suggests, Ember Yard has an emphasis on chargrilling.

It is a familiar feel… dimly lit restaurant, cosy tables closely packed together and atmospheric bar stools for those who want to be closer to the action. The menu is much like the other restaurants, with a few of its own signature dishes. At Opera Tavern they pride themselves on their mini Iberico pork and fois gras burger, and rightly so, it is unbelievably good. In an effort to repeat this success Ember Yard have created their own interpretation: Smoked Basque Beef Burger with Idiazabal and Chorizo Ketchup. I loved it, though not quite as much as the sweet and indulgent Opera Tavern original. Other highlights included the silky tender Grilled Iberico Presa with rich Whipped Jamon Butter and Grilled Salt Marsh Lamb, with roasted aubergine and salsa verde which was an earthy and exquisite combination of ingredients. We found the Iberico Pork Fat Chips with Chorizo a little disappointing, the tangy ketchup is delicious but the chips were a little too dry and needed more seasoning. For a green kick the Seasonal Italian Greens with Chilli are a fresh accompaniment to the meat mains.

Desserts were tempting but we managed to resist on this trip, they will have to be a treat for next time. As expected the wine list is thorough and fine, the house white and red were both were exemplary and priced very reasonably.

Salt Yard Group have done it again. Unlike the locations of its other members, Soho is already filled with tapas style venues vying for your custom, but with food this good I have no doubt that Ember Yard will be a favourite in no time.

More information and book here.

www.emberyard.co.uk

Camino, Monument

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Camino celebrates the flavour and vitality of Spanish life. The restaurants, which can now be found in four locations across London offer reasonably priced authentic tapas and delicious wines and sherries. We visited the most recent addition to the group in Monument. Satisfying the hungry bankers working in this area on a Thursday night, the bar area was rammed full but the restaurant was less busy. The atmosphere is upbeat and feel-good with expressive music and colourful decoration.

There are plenty of staff around to assist, we had several waiters checking up on us to ensure everything was okay throughout the meal. The spacious main room is ideal for large groups and the attentive service means you are unlikely to be forgotten, service is quick and efficient. It is worth noting too that on Tuesdays Camino have Tapita Tuesday from 5-8pm, you receive a complimentary small tapa when you order any drink from the bar.

The menu is made up of all the typical traditional tapas dishes: strong vibrant flavours, lots of meat, fish and fresh vegetables to choose from. We tried a range of the small plates on offer. Our waiter suggested 3-4 per person, we opted for seven to share which suited our appetite perfectly.

Pan Con Tomate: Coca bread with garlic, tomato, extra virgin olive oil and sea salt £3.25
Escalivada: Charcoal-grilled shallot, red pepper and aubergine with sea salt and olive oil £4.50
Chipirones a la Andaluza: Crisp-fried baby squid with alioli and lemon £5.75
Chorizo: Riojan chorizo with roasted piquilli peppers £4.75
Solomillo: 5oz fillet steak with Cabrales cream sauce and roasted winter vegetables £15.75
Manchego: Pasterized ewes’ cheese with sweet and nutty flavour, with quince jelly £4.25
Jamon Pata Negra (36 months): Hand-carved ham from acorn-fed Iberico black pigs, free to roam in the oak forests £12.75

Interestingly I preferred the simpler dishes… the tomato bread was wonderfully light, slightly grilled spritzed with olive oil and topped with lovely finely chopped marinated tomato. Chorizo with peppers was grilled and seasoned to perfection and the Manchego was exquisitely fresh and delicious. We found the fried squid a little bland but the grilled shallots and aubergines were surprisingly yummy, especially with a sprinkling of salt. The fillet steak was lean and full of flavour, served withcaramelised chopped vegetables and a heavenly rich and creamy sauce.

Fine Spanish wines are available to pair with your food, but if you are really in a Spanish mood, I’d opt for a glass of sherry to add a little sweetness to the meal.

After our tapas feast we skipped pudding, though the crispy churros served with dense hot chocolate did almost manage to persuade me!

I can imagine this restaurant will be a great addition to Monument in the summer months, but even when the weather is so freezing outside, the warm character of Camino has a very appealing allure.

More information here.

www.camino.uk.com/monument

THOROUGHLY MODERN MISS: Indie Dhaba, Dublin

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I have to admit that as much as I love going out to eat, I suffer from that well known condition which can sometimes spoil the occasion: Menu Panic. There have been many times when I have left my companions waiting as I dither over my choice, only to spend the rest of the meal enviously eyeing up their plates and subtly suggesting that it would be nice to share. Tapas restaurants do offer a solution to the problem, but there’s only so many patatas bravas a girl can eat, so news that a restaurant bringing ‘Tapas style dining to Indian food’ had opened in Dublin city centre, was music to my ears.

Situated in an innocuous building on St Anne’s Lane in the centre of Dublin, two floors below ground level, Indie Dhaba is a surprise to all the senses… low lighting in a range of colours matching the brightly coloured crockery (and as we were soon to find out, also the mini pappadums and fryums), lively music creating a very buzzy atmosphere and smells to tempt even the most unyielding of taste buds.

Once seated, and with menus in front of us, we began the epic task of choosing what to have. My hopes of quick decisions were swiftly dashed (in the end, we had to ask a passing waiter for some help with translations), but the structure of the ‘tapas style’ menu meant that I wasn’t going to be stealing from my companion’s plate when she wasn’t looking. After some deliberation, we chose Pappadums and Fryums topped with Indian Vegetable Ratatouille, and some mathari sticks with a selection of four dips to nibble on while we sipped on a Ginger Rogers and a Pineapple and Cardamom Martini. Unfortunately, there was little of our Small Plates left by the time the cocktails arrived – a sign of how moreish they were but also an illustration of the slow service which continued throughout the evening. However, both cocktails were very refreshing and the use of spices was a pleasant change from the often overly sweet syrups used in so many drinks.

It was hard to tell whether the ad hoc arrival of our Large Plates was deliberate or not, but it allowed us to savour the taste of some truly delicious dishes. A simply served whole sea-bass, in a marinade of shrimp, green chilli, coconut, coriander, turmeric and kokum paste was stunning. Without overpowering the delicate fish, the marinade was warming yet fresh, and with a squeeze of lemon juice, the dish was complete; no other accompaniment necessary. We were slightly more conventional with our second Large Plate, picking from the Old Favourites section a Lamb dish cooked with apricot and plum sauce with whole Indian spices. Eaten with Brown Onion Pulao rice and a truly indulgent fig and goat’s cheese naan, this was comfort food with a twist, at its best.

The continued lack of attention from the waiters actually had one advantage as we had plenty of time to digest and make room for desserts. The dessert list didn’t disappoint in its display of authenticity and ingenuity, but with not quite enough room for more rice (this time in the form of a chocolate rice pudding), we opted for Rose-petal and Gulab Jamun Cheesecake, and a selection of Ice creams. The cheesecake was heavy but had a delectably creamy flavour and the rose water sorbet provided a welcome contrast. The ice creams themselves were very tasty – the chocolate in particular was a good balance of richness and sweetness – but what we had assumed to be a chocolate sauce on the side of the plate, turned out to be a caramelized balsamic glaze, which overpowered the ice cream and left an unpleasant aftertaste – a step too far in experimental cooking.

For three courses and two cocktails each, the bill came to just under €100 (£84), more reasonable than many of the restaurants of this level in Dublin. If the benefit of the doubt is given to Indie Dhaba, and the undeniably poor service is put down to teething problems, then it is certainly a place that deserves recommendation (maybe a few weeks down the road). The atmosphere is ideal for dinner with friends, and both the food and cocktail menus step away from the norm and nine times out of ten succeed in delivering interesting and delicious taste sensations.

More information on the restaurant here.

http://www.dhaba.ie/

Written by a Thoroughly Modern Miss, Lucy Freedman