“Still the go-to place in the West End”; the Hart brothers’ inspired take-off of Barcelona’s famous Cal Pep is an ongoing blockbuster, with “a wonderful vibe” and “zen-perfect” tapas (“zingy seafood” the highlight); NB: only 23 seats, so consider “dining solo” – “you can sometimes jump the queue!”
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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 Ed...
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Press Reviews (1)
Gills Coren (25th June 2007)
8.75 (meat/fish 8, cooking 8, authenticity 9, water 10)
Giles’s review is a hymn of praise to the “staggering” cuisine at this new – but already much-celebrated – Soho tapas bar. Like a lot of this week’s reviews, there seems to a lot of evocation going on. “Beautiful, golden, wet little eggy tortillas fried in their own pans; sizzling croquetas of cheese and ham, light and savoury and better than I have ever had in Spain (where gloopy cornflour stodge balls are ubiquitous); tiny, foetal little squidlings (described to us as chipirones, although Bob says these were really puntillitas), floured, barely stunned in boiling oil, crispy, furtive, wriggling; the freshest razor clams snapping with life…”. It not just bite-sized dishes either. “There’s all sorts of proper cooking, too; lamb cutlets, grilled quail, sweetbreads with capers, morcilla with peppers, all that stuff.”
Gills Coren (25th June 2007)
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