Ember Yard

A Spanish and Italian Tapas Restaurant & Bar in Soho, London, Ember Yard offer a range of Private Dining options for your private event or party in London.

Ember Yard | Tapas Bar & Restaurants Soho

Ember Yard is the fourth restaurant from Salt Yard Group and has been influenced by our travels around Spain and Italy and their methods of cooking over charcoal and wood.

We commissioned and custom built a bespoke, Basque-style grill and sourced some amazing single species sustainable charcoal and wood from Kent to cook with.

We use only the finest seasonal produce, and introduce – as has become our style – our spin on flavours of Spain and Italy.

Ember Yard is located in the heart of Soho and is a lovely two storey restaurant and bar, with an open plan kitchen on the ground floor and a cool and cosy bar on the lower ground floor.

http://www.saltyardgroup.co.uk

Ember Yard: Restaurant review - the team behind Salt Yard, Opera ...

This, the fourth restaurant from the Salt Yard group, is the very emblem of the capital's ever-burgeoning food scene.

There are large plates to share, bar snacks, charcuterie, cheese and tapas split into five fish, five meat and seven vegetables dishes.

The padron peppers (£4.25) are similarly sweet and spicy, and the grilled flatbread with honey, thyme and smoked butter (£2.95) has a charcoal flavour without being properly burnt, like much of the stuff here.

It's the messiest dish that I like best: a smoked beef burger with Idiazabal (a cheese from sheep's milk) and chorizo ketchup (£7).

A few weeks after launch, there is the unmistakable buzz of a new opening; and though it's not yet scaled the culinary heights of its three siblings, Ember Yard gives every indication of being a pleasing fixture for years to come.

Salt Yard Group | Tapas Restaurants & Bars in Central London

Ember Yard, London W1, restaurant review - Telegraph

And then things got serious: a lovely piece of oak-smoked and (hazel-) chargrilled cod (£7.25), on top of cannellini beans, samphire and clams, splattered with the greenest parsley dressing ever, dusted with cayenne, had it all.

All the seasons – from autumnal beans to summery freshness – and all the textures, the smoothness of the herbs and pulses, the flaking sheen of really fresh fish, chewy little clams.

Roasted Iberico pork ribs with a quince glaze (£7.50) were ginormous and had the perfect sumptuous, almost gluey consistency of meat cooked tightly round a bone, with depth of flavour and a delicate, appley sweetness.

My stepmother had a brown butter panna cotta (£5.95) with spiced shortbread and a raisin ice cream.

The views remain spectacular, and the chargrill turns out excellent steaks, hickory-smoked ribs (£15.95) and spiced Moroccan lamb served with lime-scented couscous (£15.95) This buzzy, urban diner gives the barbecue treatment, via a charcoal-fuelled Inka grill, to everything from the bourbon-glazed salmon steak (£13.50) to the pair of 6oz burgers in the signature Big Manc, which are served between brioche buns with home-made pickles (£15.90) At this 16th-century coaching-inn even the locally caught seafood is given a stint on the Josper charcoal oven.

Ember Yard, London W1, restaurant review - Telegraph

The restaurant occupies the ground and basement floors of a nondescript building at the top end of Soho, yards south of Oxford Street, London’s least alluring thoroughfare and yet a magnet for misinformed teens from all over the world.

The serving staff, though stylishly Spanish in appearance, were more upbeat, and keen to emphasise that we could structure our meal as we wished from an array of tapas-scale bar snacks (four or so mouthfuls, £3-£4.50), sharing plates (eight or so mouthfuls, £7-£9) or large plates (socking great hunks of lamb or pork, £32.50 and £30).

We ordered a scattergun selection of tapas and small plates, and kept a close eye on the Japanese ladies at the next-door table as they gamely tackled a suitcase-sized hunk of Gloucester Old Spot pork belly.

One table of phone-prodding males demolished a rapid succession of little plates and a bottle of Rioja within an hour and departed, babbling of scripts and options; a party of tanned women trilled their way through a leisurely birthday; while the Japanese ladies chewed gamely on.

Roasted and chargrilled pork ribs with celeriac puree at Ember Yard (JEFF GILBERT) It was great, in an indulgent, shamelessly gratifying manner.

New Restaurant Review: Ember Yard | Londonist

As in their other restaurants, Ember Yard blends together Italian and Spanish influences to create a buzzy tapas bar and restaurant where you can pop in for a wine and a few plates or choose to feast the night away.

Dimly lit with low-hanging lights (yes, we did bump our head), exposed beams and closely-packed distressed wood tables, this is the most rustic of the group’s restaurants; the atmosphere conjures romantic notions of a stumbled-across rural Spanish tapas bar, even though we all know that really it’s a slickly designed, on-trend Soho hotspot.

The menu is large, divided into bar snacks, charcuterie and cheeses, and then meat and fish dishes – with around four plates recommended per person.

Another dish of cuttlefish served with pumpkin and spicy ‘nduja sausage (a bit like soft chorizo), may seem tame in comparison to those two meat feasts, but it shines through nonetheless for the tender, creamy-soft seafood and bursts of light, fresh flavour given by whole oregano leaves.

A must-have is also the Salt Yard Group’s signature dish, available at all their restaurants: a courgette flower stuffed with goat’s cheese, deep fried and served drizzled with honey.

Ember Yard: Restaurant review - the team behind Salt Yard, Opera ...

This, the fourth restaurant from the Salt Yard group, is the very emblem of the capital's ever-burgeoning food scene.

There are large plates to share, bar snacks, charcuterie, cheese and tapas split into five fish, five meat and seven vegetables dishes.

The padron peppers (£4.25) are similarly sweet and spicy, and the grilled flatbread with honey, thyme and smoked butter (£2.95) has a charcoal flavour without being properly burnt, like much of the stuff here.

It's the messiest dish that I like best: a smoked beef burger with Idiazabal (a cheese from sheep's milk) and chorizo ketchup (£7).

A few weeks after launch, there is the unmistakable buzz of a new opening; and though it's not yet scaled the culinary heights of its three siblings, Ember Yard gives every indication of being a pleasing fixture for years to come.

Ember Yard, London W1, restaurant review - Telegraph

And then things got serious: a lovely piece of oak-smoked and (hazel-) chargrilled cod (£7.25), on top of cannellini beans, samphire and clams, splattered with the greenest parsley dressing ever, dusted with cayenne, had it all.

All the seasons – from autumnal beans to summery freshness – and all the textures, the smoothness of the herbs and pulses, the flaking sheen of really fresh fish, chewy little clams.

Roasted Iberico pork ribs with a quince glaze (£7.50) were ginormous and had the perfect sumptuous, almost gluey consistency of meat cooked tightly round a bone, with depth of flavour and a delicate, appley sweetness.

My stepmother had a brown butter panna cotta (£5.95) with spiced shortbread and a raisin ice cream.

The views remain spectacular, and the chargrill turns out excellent steaks, hickory-smoked ribs (£15.95) and spiced Moroccan lamb served with lime-scented couscous (£15.95) This buzzy, urban diner gives the barbecue treatment, via a charcoal-fuelled Inka grill, to everything from the bourbon-glazed salmon steak (£13.50) to the pair of 6oz burgers in the signature Big Manc, which are served between brioche buns with home-made pickles (£15.90) At this 16th-century coaching-inn even the locally caught seafood is given a stint on the Josper charcoal oven.

Ember Yard, London W1, restaurant review - Telegraph

The restaurant occupies the ground and basement floors of a nondescript building at the top end of Soho, yards south of Oxford Street, London’s least alluring thoroughfare and yet a magnet for misinformed teens from all over the world.

The serving staff, though stylishly Spanish in appearance, were more upbeat, and keen to emphasise that we could structure our meal as we wished from an array of tapas-scale bar snacks (four or so mouthfuls, £3-£4.50), sharing plates (eight or so mouthfuls, £7-£9) or large plates (socking great hunks of lamb or pork, £32.50 and £30).

We ordered a scattergun selection of tapas and small plates, and kept a close eye on the Japanese ladies at the next-door table as they gamely tackled a suitcase-sized hunk of Gloucester Old Spot pork belly.

One table of phone-prodding males demolished a rapid succession of little plates and a bottle of Rioja within an hour and departed, babbling of scripts and options; a party of tanned women trilled their way through a leisurely birthday; while the Japanese ladies chewed gamely on.

Roasted and chargrilled pork ribs with celeriac puree at Ember Yard (JEFF GILBERT) It was great, in an indulgent, shamelessly gratifying manner.

Ember Yard, London W1: restaurant review | Marina O'Loughlin ...

Some might like to wallow in a series of one-night stands with joints that seduce with head-turning tasting menus, dizzying winelists, obsequious staff and acres of starched linen, the kind of sensual experience you'll hug to yourself over long wintry evenings.

The small Salt Yard Group has never created a restaurant I haven't had the immediate hots for.

OK, so maybe Dehesa is a bit cramped, but on a summer's day, sitting outside with the parade of Carnaby Street floating by, it turns into a beauty; and I would happily go to Opera Tavern every week of my life if I were allowed to neck at least three of its bijou Ibérico pork burgers (voted the finest in the land by, er, me).

The burger is smoked Basque beef, with sticky idiazabal cheese and frilly fried onion rings.

There is one dish – presa (a shoulder cut) of Ibérico pork, served rare but crusted with char, with blobs of butter laced with jamón – that is one of my dishes of this (or any other) year.

Ember Yard | Restaurants in Soho, London

Salt Yard, Dehesa, Opera Tavern: three of London’s most enjoyable new-style tapas bars, and they’re all run by the same young company.

Ember Yard is the fourth in this growing chain, and builds on the strengths of its forebears, using Italian as well as Spanish dishes and techniques as their inspiration.

If you’ve eaten in a charcoal grill restaurant in the Basque country – or even in a Turkish grill in Dalston – Ember Yard should feel oddly familiar, especially if you’re sitting near the glowing coals.

Smoked chorizo oozed flavour, and was served hot with a smooth saffron alioli.

Ibérico pork ribs were grilled to melting softness, the flavours of the quince glaze and smear of celeriac purée melding into the warm fat.