Lurra

Lurra

Lurra takes its influence from the traditional charcoal and wood grills "Erretegia" found all over the Basque Country.

Lurra means "land' in Basque.

http://www.lurra.co.uk

Lurra, restaurant review: Addition to London's Spanish restaurant ...

You could fill a hotel ballroom with the staff of London's superb Spanish restaurants, and three new tapas joints would have sprung up by the time they'd scrambled out.

Like Donostia, Lurra, newly opened just over the road, is a restaurant with its feet in Portland Village and its heart in the Basque Country.

This time, the Donostia team – owners Melody Adams and Nemanja Borjanovic, plus head chef Damian Surowiec – have looked to the region's traditional charcoal and wood grills for inspiration.

In the interests of giving the menu a proper shakedown, we focus on the smaller dishes, rather than the star attractions: large sharing plates of aged Galician beef, and whole grilled turbot, which as co-owner Borjanovic explains, is "slow-cooked in white wine, so the skin isn't crisp, it's gelatinous".

As if designing and running two restaurants wasn't enough, they're also responsible for importing the wines, and, through another side business, for introducing London's high-end restaurants to this year's fetish dish, beef from those venerable Galician cows.

Lurra Restaurant Review: Authentic Basque Dining in Marylebone ...

From the heavenly selections of meat and fish, vast array of unique wines and during the Summer whole (almost) of Spain is completely sun-drenched.

The real difference between Basque and Andalusian cuisine is more about the mixtures of ingredients, family traditions, different cuts of meats and seasonal differences in seafood and vegetables.

Lurra is a high-end Spanish restaurant focusing on Basque cuisine (especially cooked over a grill), all housed in a rather lovely looking restaurant.

There were so many fantastic dishes here at Lurra, and this piece of grilled octopus with piquillo sauce was absolutely stunning.

A little Grappa later (not quite sure why) and we were on our way, into the night after consuming far too much delicious wine.

Lurra, London

Lurra, Marylebone: restaurant review - olive magazine

That aforementioned beef, also £65/kg, comes as a sharing plate, with meat to marvel and fat to fight over.

Grilled peppers are the perfect marriage of sweet and smoky, and top accompaniment alongside super-crisp fries with smoked paprika and an aioli that we were talking about for days.

There are some seriously good smaller plates to try, too.

There are floor-to-ceiling windows throwing natural light on the oak flooring, as well as a marble-topped bar, open kitchen, a wall clad with wood from old wine barrels, and a secluded courtyard.

You can sit at the bar and overlook the kitchen team, or tuck yourself away in the corner and fight over that last piece of steak… Small plates range from £3 to £20.50 for a plate of three-year-old jamon ibérico, but most average around £7, sides £5, and the larger dishes a tenner.

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Yes, this may sound flippant, but restaurant names are important and Lurra’s was sealed in my mind before the fitters had even carried in the stoves.

Also interesting to me was that this Basque restaurant has popped up on Seymour Place, W1, adding to that marvellous foodie cluster of The Lockhart, Vinoteca Marylebone and its own sister restaurant Donostia.

I visited Lurra in perfect Seymour Place conditions: the final burst of summer; diners and drinkers milling about the various bistros after dusk.

Delights include whole grilled turbot, Galician Rubia Gallega steak, kokotxas (cod tongues) and ceps with egg yolk and grilled red peppers.

It’s peculiar, with all this going on, that one of the things I recall strongly from my night at Lurra was the bowl of excellent crisp paprika-titivated almonds and another full of the plumpest, sweetest green olives I’ve ever seen in London.

Lurra, London W1 – restaurant review | Life and style | The Guardian

The beef served at glamorous new Lurra isn’t so much about the current cult around length of ageing as actual animal years: the Galician rubia gallega they dish up here can reach 17 years old (typically, UK cattle are slaughtered at 18 months).

And it’s one of Donostia’s owners, Nemanja Borjanovik, who’s responsible for supplying that meat – and spreading its fame – not only to Kitty Fisher’s, but also to Goodman and Pizarro, all outfits that know a good beast when they chomp it.

Now Borjanovik and partner Melody Adams have launched Lurra (it means “land” in Basque), which puts that meat centre stage.

This creates my only criticism: the precious meat (£42 for 650g) continues to cook in the scalding dish’s residual heat, so by the time we’re halfway through, it’s well done.

Up until its frazzling, this rubia gallega (not a milker, bred only for beef) is the most ambrosial piece of meat, almost sweet, with the length of flavour of an aged Parmesan or a fine, full-bodied wine; it makes cavemen of the pair of us.