The Observer
Jay Rayner confessed to being “completely besotted” by a meal at this new Spanish joint that had reduced him to “heavenly raptures”.
Everything was wonderful, from the décor – “the joinery! It’s an orgy of tongue and groove, dovetail and pocket” – to the cooking from Irish chef Luke Ahearne, who managed to transform the simple tapas pan com tomate into something extraordinary. “Sure, there is a touch of gilding of the well-polished lily. Except, by God, each piece is a brilliant mouthful: salty, sweet umami-rich tomatoes, the bare-knuckle punch of the anchovies, the toasty
bread beneath. It’s a metropolitan, deluded take on the humble beach life.”
There is, sad to report, a catch. “Those dovetail joints don’t come cheap,” Jay warned. “The two mouthfuls of tomato bread are £9,” while the cheapest bottle of wine costs £54 and 1.2kg of barbecued Galician cow will set you back £160. Lita “sells itself as a sweet neighbourhood bistro. And it is, much as Buckingham Palace is a convenient townhouse.”
Jay Rayner - 2024-04-21
