Spanish and Italian might sound like an unlikely hybrid but it works beautifully at this restaurant in Goodge Street, London.
I had lunch with an industry contact today. His secretary asked me to choose the location since he was away when she was making the arrangements. I never like to do this when I’m the guest as I find it so hard to pitch it – you want to choose somewhere nice and appropriate to the occasion but you don’t want to look grasping by choosing somewhere too expensive.
After a little research, I opted for Salt Yard Charcuterie Bar & Restaurant in Fitzrovia. It’s billed as Spanish and Italian and it is, but I think it veers more towards the Spanish end of things, with a tapas menu, a selection of Spanish cheeses and hams and even a full sherry list alongside the wines.
We followed the advice to order three dishes per person and we got a basket of bread as well. This was more than ample – we couldn’t fit dessert and were feeling really quite full by the end. We started with cheeses with quince paste and a lovely tender San Daniele prosciutto. Our hot dishes included tangy balls of black olive gnocchi, crisp salt fried squid with aioli and garlic prawns with nibbly mushroom bits. The final dish, and the winner for my money, was exquisite zucchini flowers stuffed with white cheese, lightly battered and fried, then drizzled with honey.
We stuck to water and soft drinks through the meal and followed with fresh mint tea. It was still really quite a lot of food and although I didn’t see the bill, I did see the menu and I can’t imagine it was cheap. It’s good value though as the food was wonderful and you can scale up or down according to appetite.
It’s called a charcuterie and serves a large range of meat, including six different types of ham alone. However, there is also quite a large selection of vegetarian tapas and some of the best dishes such as the gnocchi and zucchini flowers came from that menu. Highly recommended!
Salt Yard
54 Goodge St, London W1T 4NA
Tel: 020 7637 0657
www.saltyard.co.uk
info@saltyard.co.uk
Open: Monday-Friday noon to 11pm. (3pm-6pm bar snacks only).
Saturday 5pm-11pm
[...] reviews Salt Yard, a London tapas restaurant serving Italian and Spanish fusion cuisine. (I have also written about Salt Yard in the [...]