there's a lot of enticing items at this modern spanish eatery, a few dirty words such as "jamon iberico" and "bone marrow" was enough to make this my dinner choice. a little nod of approval by fellow foodies hello. imnikki and one piece left the hype train had definitely left!
we start off with some joselito jamon iberico which i admit looked kind of sad not that i know what 20g looks like. take mebackto spain and they'd cover that entire plate. the jamon itself doesn't look like it had been sliced properly to the correct bite size and it was kind of awkward dividing 2 pieces between 3 of us. taking a look back, i've had a look at other people's reviews/photos and i think they may have given us the wrong portioning of jamon. as expected however the flavours were explosive, you want to keep that slice in your mouth as long as possible and gradually release those flavours. at $18 you'd want to.
we also got some bite-sized morsels of duck heart, liver and chicken chicharron. very rich, creamy and crunchy from the chicharron which was suprisingly from chicken, tasted very much like pork rinds. accompanying our meals was complimentary bread which was fluffly and a great vessel for soaking up that olive oil.
the tuna in jamon fat and sesame was also very nice. thinly sliced tuna soaked and glistening from the fat which added some richness and saltiness. they were pretty liberal with the sesame seeds also which gave it a snappy texture and nutty taste.
one of their special items was a veal croqueta, delicate shell with a blob of bone marrow on top. meat was juicy and the marrow just melded with the rest. disgustingly nice. the eggplant tapas was giving me mexican vibes with the addition of fermented green chillies, the eggplant itself was a plump globe and creamy on the inside.
the finely cut raw lamb came with a peppery cracker which was extremely crispy and dense, snapping it actually took effort and the shattered in your mouth. the lamb was soft and not gamy at all. we also had bone marrow with ox tongue and rye bread. another item off the menu to stack your ingredients on top of a crisp, the ratios were a bit off and more ox tongue would have been appreciated. it all worked well together however with the pedro ximenez giving it that grapey sweetness.
for raciones we got the rump steak with strawberry harissa which was great for the most part, a small portion of it had gristle but the rest was perfectly juicy and flavourful. for side we got fennel fingers with smoked egg yolk and crushed hazelnuts. nice char flavour on the fennel, stringy and some parts inedible. nothing to whinge about.
speaking of whinging, i do have a mini rant. we rocked up 10 minutes after our booking time, ordered a wine and took time to peruse the menu. the food flow was great, there was a bit of a break between waiting for our raciones and by dessert time, we were told we won't have time to enjoy dessert. the allocated time block is usually 1 hour 45 minutes and i'm assuming they want to strictly enforce that. what was a bit of a shame was that while they were doing a turnover, it didn't seem like our table was going to be replaced with new patrons any time soon (there were free tables and there wasn't any groups of people waiting).
they did say that we could enjoy a crema catalana (probably easiest to prepare). the crust was thicker than normal and it took a bit of force to shatter the top, we didn't mind it as we enjoyed the sweet zesty shards. the custard was smooth and i wished we ordered more than one.
it was a real shame about dessert though, instead of ending on a sweet note it did leave me a little sour (more so than it should). i think they could have accommodated us, we didn't insist, maybe we should have. i had been eyeing that dessert menu all night and was ready to go all out with dessert and a fat cheese platter! despite some gripes i had the food was delicious and ever evolving (their menu has not yet been updated on their website or zomato).
special shout out to our waitress, not only was she personable but she genuinely wanted to know what we thought of our dishes and was very knowledgeable about the food and wine.