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For my first meal back in London, I wanted something warm and lively.  Something the opposite of Boston’s cold Puritannical image. Tapas sounded ideal, but the prospect of queuing in the cold to eat at my beloved Barrafina was highly unappealing. So Jon and I decided to try Iberica Food & Culture, which opened in October 2008 but seems to have gotten a lot of generally-positive blogger coverage over the last few months (see these posts by Londoneater, Tehbus, and Londonelicious for example).

The food fell into two buckets, really.  “Pretty Good” and “Kind of Disappointing.”  There was nothing spectacular and nothing horrible.

Here’s the “Pretty Good”:

Sweet pigs trotters with a sharp Mahon cheese and Iberico ham, all served on a crisp pastry.  I enjoyed all the textures and flavors (salty, citrusy, meaty) but what held the dish back was the somewhat gluey texture of the trotter.  I’d hoped for something more melt-in-your-mouth.  But overall a tasty dish.

Black rice with cuttlefish prawns is one of my fave dishes to order in Spanish restaurants.  First, there’s the color – squid ink makes everything seem special.  Then there’s the intense seafood flavor soaked into the risotto rice.  Iberica’s version had a texture that struck the right balance between al dente and creamy, but what would’ve made a great dish would have been more cuttlefish and fewer prawns.  An entirely arbitrary preference, I know.

Fried artichokes with pear alioli have been much written about at Iberico.  And yes, they’re good (unlike my blurry photo).  Crisp with a hint of sourness that artichoke lovers crave.  For me, the appeal was mostly in the accompanying slightly-sweet, garlicky alioli.

And rounding out the “Pretty Good” list was our trio of cheeses (Mahon, Manchego, Ibores) for £4.95.  It was a generous portion and well priced for the quality.  Maybe we could have a little more quince paste next time, though.

The “Kind of Disappointing” dishes:

Marinated tuna loin with mustard, apples and chives tasted mealy.  Why serve raw fish if it’s not going to be fresh and refreshing?

And “broken egg with Iberico ham and fried potatoes”... sounded so promising!  Breakfast at dinner.  Who doesn’t love that?  Admittedly, part of our high expectations stemmed from our memory of the wondrous “carpaccio huevos fritos” that we’d had at Barcelona’s Bar Mut last May. Setting aside the camera/lighting issues I had at Iberica, just compare the above photograph of Iberica’s dish with the photo of Bar Mut’s version below. Iberica offered us limp fries with a smattering of yolk. Bar Mut, in contrast, gave us crispy shoestring potatoes in an ocean of egg yolk. You understand my disappointment in Iberica’s version, then.

Iberica’s list of Spanish wines was long, but I was again a little disappointed that there were only two choices from the Ribera del Duero. Too much Rioja on the list.

The service was efficient, but not especially friendly or helpful (e.g., we had to guess what cheeses we were eating and it was difficult flagging down a server for sherry to go with our cheese).

Without hesitation, though, I’d recommend Iberica for the atmosphere, which was warm and lively. It was exactly what I was looking for on a Saturday night. I had a lot of fun, and the food was good enough. The kitchen’s no threat to Barrafina’s, but then again, it’s nice to be able to make a reservation in advance and sit at a table.

Dinner for two with wine and sherry came to £115.

I’d heard from two different steak-loving friends that Le Relais de Venise was worth a visit, but with so many places to eat in London, and the fact that Le Relais is a bit of a chain (starting in Paris, it now has two locations in London and one in New York), I never got around to eating there. Last Saturday, though, I was meeting a friend who craved steak, and as Hawksmoor was closed for refurbishment and Goodman was disappointing when I ate there, I figured it was time to try out Le Relais.  The New York Times’s Sam Sifton, after all, had taken the time to give the New York location a full review, so the place had to be more than an imported tourist trap.

Having not read up on Le Relais’s Marylebone location before getting there, I failed to realize that (1) the queues are enormous (thanks to the restaurant’s no-booking policy); and (2) the place operates much like a fast-food joint. Don’t be fooled by the vaguely-Gallic interior and think you’re there to linger over your meal. So we queued outside in the cold for about an hour, and once inside, the only choice we made was from the eight-bottle wine list.

The minute we sat down, salads arrived which were tangy and spicy from a classic mustard-and-lemon-juice vinaigrette. Pretty good but would’ve been better if a few walnuts hadn’t tasted stale.

Then the raison d’etre arrived: steaks served ultra-thin and served French style (i.e.,table side). The meat wasn’t bad, but honestly, it was hard to tell because of “the sauce.” Apparently much has been written about this sauce, which is unbelievably rich and as meaty as the steak itself.  he sauce’s green-going-on-gray colour is entirely unappetizing, and it’s clearly comprised of at least 50% butter (the other half is probably offal of some sort), so your doctor’s not going to be pleased. But it’s pretty delish.

You get two servings of steak and as many servings of frites as you like. The portions of steak are rather paltry, but I suppose I’m a big eater. If you’re a frites lover, this is the place for you. Le Relais should re-market itself as a frites-and-super-sauce restaurant.

£19 included the salad and steak frites.  For a little extra, you could order desserts and cheese.  The cheeses were pretty wimpy, which was disappointing for a French resto.  And the profiteroles looked a lot better than they tasted.  The pastry was flavorless and stale, but luckily chocolate sauce and ice cream saved the day (as ever).

With two bottles of wine, a cheese course and dessert, our tab came to £41 a person.  We were in and out in under an hour, and as we left at around 9:30, we saw that the queue outside was as long as ever.

Overall, the steak frites are pretty good, but don’t go to Le Relais if you’re looking for a giant slab of meat or if you want to linger at a table. In fact, the place seemed perfectly designed for families.

Although it was late for lunch, the pub’s tables were packed. Jon and I found a table in the pub’s skylighted annex and ordered off the blackboard in the back.

Despite having been to the Duke of Cambridge once before in March 2009, I’d forgotten that (1) the place is all-organic; and (2) the prices are high. Chicken liver pate with chutney and gherkins, for example, was deliciously creamy — as chicken liver tends to be — but a rather expensive £8+. I know it’s organic, but chicken liver is supposed to be one of the cheaper ingredients in the world, no?

beef mince pie and mash (£15ish)

My beef mince pie was delicious and tasted made-from-scratch. The crust shattered at the tap of my fork, and I liked that the pie filling was neither too runny nor too thick. In fact, the gravy tasted like the result of a long braise.

Jon’s fish and chips was similarly well-prepared and flavorsome, though I wondered what was up with the oven-baked chips. Can they still be called chips if they’re not fried?

Service was friendly; tap water not a problem; and the food was pretty good. The place has all the makings of a fine local — except for the price. At £45 for a starter, two mains and a pint, our lunch at the Duke of Cambridge was too expensive for it to be a regular habit. Luckily, this side of Upper Street appears to be packed with pubs, so we’re looking forward to exploring the other local options.  Recommendations warmly welcomed!