Boqueria

BOQUERIA

http://www.boqueriatapas.com

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Boqueria, 192 Acre Lane, London SW2 5UL %%

Review analysis
food   value   ambience   drinks   menu  

The fairly new Boqueria is named after the famous food market in Barcelona so we had high hopes for this one, also Jay Rayner had tweeted that he’d had a great lunch there recently.

Anyway, we ordered a beer each, a slightly girly Damm Lemon Shandy £2.70 for Ade and Estrella Damm £3.40 for me, there was a good range of Spanish beers and the cheapest bottle of red was £13, a Viña Albali, Valdepeňas 2011, the lowest price we’ve seen for a long time.

The menu has most of the regular dishes, plus a few more contemporary dishes such as Suckling pig with parsnip, sweet potato crisps, apple sauce & lemon sorbet.

The Selección de embutidos (ham selection) £7.95 was delicious, a great range of meats including a token few pieces of chicken (so they do have chicken on the menu!)

We asked our fantastic waiter (his poor little ‘sidekick’ was obviously a trainee) to chose a couple of sherries for us as we had no idea which to go for from the sherry and cava menu, he delivered a Moscatel Torres Floralis £4.50 and a Pedro Ximénez, Reserva de Familia £6.20, the latter was a joint winner, dark and fruity the first lighter and more refreshing which was much needed in the clammy restaurant, a lack of air con or fresh air on a hot night made for uncomfortable eating, especially under the partially glassed ceiling that we were under.

Brixton restaurant Boqueria wins London restaurant of the year ...

Review analysis
food   value  

A Brixton restaurant has been crowned London Restaurant of the Year by the Good Food Guide.

Boqueria was voted the London regional winner at the Guide’s 2016 Readers’ Restaurant of the Year awards.

Boqueria, co-owned by John Scott and Jaime Garcia, won because of its its “exquisite tapas” and “good value” menu.

John Scott, from Boqueria said: “The entire team at Boqueria is delighted to have won the Good Food Guide award for a second time.

Elizabeth Carter, Waitrose Good Food Guide Editor, said: “This award is a celebration of small, independent restaurants that specialise in amazing quality food, often at great value prices.

Boqueria Market Battersea - The pleasures of Catalonian tapas

Review analysis
menu   food   drinks  

Gazing across the expanse of the menu, I realize that many of the dishes are exactly the same as in the original Boqueria – how am I supposed to write a review of this branch, when the food is very similar?

Although the menu is divided into a number of sections, all the dishes share the characteristic of being small sharing plates.

The Market Specials section houses Boqueria’s notable triumphs, while the Pinchos reflect the small, homemade dishes ideal for hand-picking served in Spanish bars.

Representing the Pinchos territory of the menu is Pincho de solomillo de ternera con foie y Pedro Ximenez, strips of rare beef tenderloin soaked in red wine and served perched on long strips of bread.

It justifies Boqueria Market’s aspiration to offer more than just tapas – Boqueria Market Battersea differs from its original template in offering a wider selection of menus to satisfy serial brunchers and those mythical morning people.

Boqueria Tapas Bar and Restaurant in Brixton, London - Review

Review analysis
food   staff   drinks  

We ended up with a slightly unusual mixture of dishes, I think because there were so many meat and fish dishes we wanted to try.

Bunuelos de bacalao were nicely balanced potato and fish based fritters with a tasty garlicy lemon mayonnaise The best of the dishes, Arroz Negro – black rice with squid and mussels was rich and full of seafood, the rice with just the right amount of bite.

I remember the messy, plate of wood roasted cochinillo I ate in Segovia, and this was nothing like the same dish.

Our final savoury dish, another ‘special’ was fabada asturiana, a white bean stew that I seem to come back to time and again.

By the time we left the place was lively and almost full, even relatively early on a Monday evening – it’s somewhere with a lively atmosphere that genuinely did remind me of the bars in Barcelona.

Levanter Fine Foods: restaurant review | Jay Rayner | Life and style ...

Review analysis
staff   food   desserts   value   menu  

10 Square Street, Ramsbottom, Lancashire (No bookings) Meal for two, including drinks and service: £70 Back in 2009 I made a pilgrimage to a restaurant in the Basque hills outside San Sebastian called Etxebarri.

That restaurant is the Basque-influenced Levanter Fine Foods in Ramsbottom, half an hour’s drive north of Manchester, where since June it has been offered as a special on Sundays only.

Muslin-bagged hams and thick lengths of prime chorizo and other charcuterie dangle overhead, resting gently at room temperature in a way that would make health and safety people brilliantly nervy.

It’s the kind of restaurant where you could lose a night to the food and the booze and the vibe, and return home with half your dinner down your shirt.

Levanter Fine Foods is the kind of restaurant so many of us seek, where frill and pomp have been dispensed with in favour of feeding people well.

Boqueria | Restaurants in Brixton, London

Review analysis
food  

Traditional tapas in a contemporary setting create a blockbuster hit for Brixton (and at low prices for both food and wine).

Setting itself apart from your average tapas joint, Boqueria offers a fresh, modern menu that merits repeat visits.

References to the mother country are plentiful: flamenco on the sound system, photos of Spanish market scenes on the walls (Boqueria is named after Europe’s biggest food market in Barcelona), knowledgeable Spanish waiting staff and real-deal Iberian ingredients.

Boqueria combines the traditional and the contemporary to fine effect amid the hubbub of Acre Lane.

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