Review: Navarro's Spanish Restaurant

Last Monday evening was spent giggling over TV shows and grilled octopus with my friend Penelope at Navarro's.

The Spanish restaurant proved true to its previous form, offering excellent fare with a couple of problem spots. We decided to start off with four tapas for our main - two meat and two vegetable. The first to arrive was the Bolitas de espinacas y queso, creamed spinach,herbs and Manchego cheese cubes with croutons - delicious but lukewarm.

This was closely followed by Pimientos ('Asaos'), the second vegetable dish, a cold salad of roasted capsicum and aubergine on tomato and onion. This was nicely balanced, well-cooked, and slid down easily (my digestive system is not a big fan of undercooked capsicum).

The first meat dish turned up about 10 or so minutes later (not a problem for us as we were gabbing away ninety to the dozen, but I can imagine it would irritate others). This was the Pulpo a la gallega Galician-style grilled octopus on a sizzling iron hotplate with sliced boiled potatoes liberally sprinkled with pimentón, sea salt and olive oil, which proved a hit the last time I ate there. Just as much a hit this time; the octopus was perfectly grilled and succulent - little rounds of sheer gastronomic heaven.

The second meat dish,Tartaleta de cordero con orejones, or strips of honey-roasted lamb on potato mash & dried apricots, arrived another ten minutes or so later. The lamb was piping hot but the potato was lukewarm, which didn't impress me at all. The lamb was delicious, tender and with a tasty but not overwhelming sauce made from eucalyptus, honey and wine. The mash was also good, but like I said, lukewarm.

By this stage we were actually quite full, so decided to finish off with a shared dessert and coffee. Penelope chose a heavy sponge cake, laced with chocolate and coated with honey syrup and pinenuts. The dense but savory richness of the cake was offset by the sweet syrup, and we thought it an excellent match. Our espresso was very good quality and we were both feeling very replete and satisfied by the time we left.

Overall, the food quality at Navarro's is very good. Next time I think I'd send the spinach and the potato back to the kitchen to be properly heated however. The service was friendly and helpful (if rather slow with the bill), and deserved their tip.

The bill - which included 4 good-sized tapas, 1 dessert, a 750ml bottle of water, 2 glasses of house wine (one red, one white, both pleasantly quaffable) and 2 double espressos - came to £41 excluding tip. For a meal of that quality, definitely a bargain!

My conclusion: Wonderful tapas restaurant with a good wide selection, quality food, pleasant staff, and extremely good pricing. Very popular (warning: can get a bit noisy) so it's a good idea to book.

Navarro's Spanish Restaurant, 67 Charlotte Street (off Goodge St), London, W1T 4PH. 020 7637 7713. Tube: Goodge St

Comments

[Jeanne]

Sounds good - and not a million miles from where I work. I am always on the lookout for good tapas places :)