Sandra has wanted to go to tapas for absolutely ages and so tonight, in my last week in London for a month and half, we finally went. Salt Yard had some pretty good write ups/reviews from London Eating so it seemed like an okay restaurant to try out.

From the outside it looks fairly nice – nice décor, though wading through the smokers upstairs were a bit offxputting, fairly intimate and dark, and modern. The service was pretty good with our Aussie waiter fairly attentive and friendly when we needed him but otherwise was welcomingly absent for the rest of the night (it was a pleasure not to feel too much pressure to leave once we’d finished eating.)

Unfortunately the food was a bit of a let down and very pricey. The menu is apparently constantly changing but for tonight we went with:

– Courgette Flowers stuffed with Monte Enebro cheese and drizzled with honey
– Crispy Squid with Alioli
– Chargrilled Beef Rump with Black Pepper Gnocchi and Horseradish Gremolata
– Pan-fried Salmon with Mustard Seed Crust, Jerusalem Artichokes and Blood Orange Vinaigrette
– Chorizo cooked in red wine

Everything was presented beautifully except for the strangely barren Chorizo. Ironically the most simply presented (the Courgette Flowers, Squid and Chorizo) were definitely the tastiest dishes whilst the dishes with the more complicated presentation (the Beef and Salmon) were disappointingly tasteless.

Portion-wise I guess with tapas you can expect to eat quite a few dishes to get your fill and I was just glad that we’d had a gigantic lunch so I was feeling adequately satisfied sharing the above with Sandra. Of course, not having stuffed ourselves on the tapas, we went with dessert. My dessert was absolutely divine and I would definitely recommend the Calasparra Rice Pudding Brulée with Rhubarb ice cream. I’m not sure how Sandra felt about her dessert wine and biscuits though I think she did comment on how very alcoholic her wine tasted/felt.

Salt Yard for me was just okay. Navarro’s is still the number one tapas restaurant for me.

The Courgette Flowers	The Squid	The Beef
The Salmon	The Rice Pudding	The Dessert Wine and Biscuits