Our friends said to meet at the tapas bar by the Galleries of Justice. I thought I knew the place that they meant - it had to be La Tasca on Weekday Cross. Dreadful, the last time I visited but our friends assured us that under the new management of World Service the restaurant had been transformed into a world class venue.
We arrived in good time and told the waiter that a table for 4 was booked in the name of Jim Waters. He consulted his paperwork and then guided us to an unset table in the corner. We passed a sign which said "ALL YOU CAN EAT!! £10!!!"
I began to suspect that I had made a grave error and reached for my mobile...
"Are you mad?" yelled Jim down the phone. "It's called Iberico - it's underneath the Galleries of Justice! It's round the corner!"
There is indeed a restaurant underneath the Galleries of Justice - I had no idea. Apparently it's been there for a year but I never heard about it. World Service have applied the same eye for design that worked so well in their main venue. The vaulted ceilings, Moroccan tiles and wooden lattices creating a pleasing Moorish simplicity.
I have not encountered this food concept before - "World Tapas." There are no "starters" or "main courses" as such. You graze from a menu consisting of small dishes from Spain or from "The World".
We had a charcuterie board from Spain and a cheese board from The World to get us going. These, together with the sourdough bread and olive oil with distilled balsamic vinegar dip were excellent and raised our expectations for the dishes to come.
We were not disappointed. A saddle of rabbit with girolle mushrooms, razor clams in a lime jus, black cod (almost as good as from Nobu), pumpkin risotto and wonderful stuffed courgette flowers followed in qiuck succession.
As foodies we shared everything but the fact is that this is not sharing food. The dishes are too small and difficult to divide by four. It's not bad value - you just need to make your choice and keep it to yourself. The ladies loved their desserts while the gents took Armagnac and coffee.
The bill came to £117 for four, with two bottles of wine and including a tip. Definitely a place to go back to.
2 comments:
The best food in central Nottingham - it's as simple as that (and Sat Bains says the same thing, as it happens). I think I've been four times so far, and no dish has ever been less than superb. Hell, they even have churros in chocolate sauce for afters! It's BLISS!
And yes, good value for what you get, and spot-on service, to the extent that when you order your tapas dishes, they have a little think behind the scenes and then bring them out in exactly the right sequence, at exactly the right time intervals. Now, that's class.
There is no restaurant I love more in central Nottingham than Iberico. Simply brilliant. In the last year I have eaten there on average once a month... and goodness the churros are AMAZING. I miserably failed at re-creating these at home.
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