The Opera Tavern, a tale of two services - Feb 2011

Where: The Opera Tavern, Covent Garden
How much: We spent £50 a head (with our bottle of wine and two coffees comped for the reasons explained below), and ate possibly more than we should have done. You can easily escape for less than £30 a head with a glass of wine if you order well
With who: Miss Jones
Come here if: for small plates of perfection, but book or be prepared to wait


It's an old Covent Garden boozer, converted into a clever, classy little tapas bar. Split over two floors, bar stools predominate the converted pub downstairs, small table informality and big (slightly drafty) windows balance an open glass wine wall in the space up the small staircase. From the team behind one of my favourite restaurants in London, Dehesa and older brother Salt Yard, it's fair to say that the opening of the Opera Tavern had me salivating slightly. 

The strong wine list mirrors the focus at sister restaurant Dehesa. Much of the menu appears to come from their older siblings too. The focus on solid Spanish swine is happily reprised. (Slightly sloppily carved) Jamon Iberico de Bellota is excellent. Salty and sweet with a nutty marbling of divine fat daring your heart to complain. Heads of deep fried courgette flower come next, stuffed with sticky goat's cheese and drizzled with honey. 
Mini Iberico pork and foie gras burgers fall apart without their skewer, the devil's own canapé. Rich little bundles popping with flavour, they feel a little out of place here, slightly too refined and worked, but unbelievably tasty non the less. This also applied to the (thankfully grease free) 'Italian style' Scotch Eggs. A clever take on the dish, soft cooked eggs lightly rolled in a spiced pork blanket served with garlicky aoli, it just felt slightly wrong in a tapas bar. The one bum note of the night came with a Short Rib of Beef served with over-cooked polenta and over-salted cavalo nero. The meat didn't taste of much but as Miss Jones put it, "it tastes slightly of wrong". Shame that. The gnocchi, taleggio cheese and mushroom gratin made up for this side step in the quality of the food. A perfect counterpoint to the meaty dishes served alongside.
We finish our savories with the full set of three different pinchos morunos, squat charcoal grilled skewers, a little pricy at £3 a pop, but stickily well cooked. The Salt Marsh Lamb Leg with smoked paprika stands out as a favourite of the three, cooked to pink perfection within a charred carapace. 
Pannacotta with a tooth-tinglingly tangy tangerine granita was the least lardy of the puds but even that nearly finished me off. I wouldn't have had it, but our waiter was so insistent we try it. A great example of its kind, with creamy vanilla texture and biscuity swirls to give a contrast. Miss Jones had one of the interesting sheep's milk cheeses from the list, perfectly acceptable finishers to the meal. 

A tale of two services... a small note

I feel like I have to take this out of the main review, as it was obviously a ‘once off’ evening that’s unlikely to happen to anyone else subsequently, but still think that it’s a strong enough point to address. We went (unknowingly) on an evening where there were a number of invited critics, bloggers and journalists in the room and definitely felt the chill breeze of favouritism (and it certainly wasn't the slightly open window). When the two tables to either side (seated after us) were sat with groaning platters, checked on every five minutes for their thoughts, and we’d sat for 45 minutes without anything other than a drink in front of us I collared the duty manager to explain the situation. She obviously assured me that there was no special treatment other than a glass of prosecco, and it transpired that apparently our server had just failed to put our order into the kitchen. That being said, with the size of the restaurant and the amount of staff focus on the tables around me, it stuck in my craw a little that they hadn’t noticed the lack of food or bothered to check in with us for such a period of time. If we hadn’t had a bottle of wine and several weeks worth of gossip to get through, we’d have got up and left. 

Other than that (glaring) error, the staff seemed in the main knowledgeable, likeable and gearing up to be a good team. They knew their way around the menu, suggesting confidently and appropriately, and knew their wines too. It’s just a shame we had to spend most of the evening listening to them lavish this knowledge on their more important guests...