Iberica
Glasgow
THEY soft-launched for ever at Iberica and this I know because twice when passing I saw lush lights lowly glowing, invite-only snouts pressed into sweet troughs and squadrons of staff a-hovering, yet I am quietly turned away at the door with “Next week, sir, next week”.
Well, it’s next week now and we’re in. At a table near the door with a Spanish waiter proffering smoked San Simon cheese from Galicia, Manzanilla olives stuffed with anchovy, a plate of sublimely fat and firm mackerel fillets in a salty seaweed emulsion, and even spring onion tempura.
“Excellent choice” is a phrase that rings often from the lips of the recently drilled but admirably smooth waiting staff – an extra “ooh” tossed in when ordering the signature dish of ham croquetas.
Sometime Spanish and at all times cool music is played at my perfect restaurant pitch – that being when the Shazam app on my phone panic-repeats: “Sorry, I didn’t quite catch that.” It’s Told You So by Cameo Culture, I eventually learn. And remain none the wiser.
To eat there are salt cod croquetas, wispy and crispy; delicate squares of crust-free oxtail sandwich so rich and unctuous that finishing just one of the four could – make that does – floor a grown man.
And on the bar in the background three Iberico ham legs spectacularly screwed into their instruments of torture, their names so proud and long they alone could fill this column.
Even further on into the undeniably Barcelona-like decor of this vast room, garlics dangle and racks squeal with the weight of massed bottles of fine wines.
I’m going to mention Pep Guardiola at this point. Not because the Premiership’s classiest manager is here in anything but style – neither is Nacho Manzano, the two-Michelin starred chef behind this menu – but because that’s surely who Iberica would like to cater for. And presumably why they took one look at us when we arrived and tried to send us straight to a table in Siberico.
I mention his Pepness because on display tonight is that acme of continental cool, the dark merino V-neck jumper worn under an expensively cut suit and attached to the frame of a suave maitre d’, a look which has been the badge of the officer class of restaurant staff in the finest yet most relaxed joints since long before footballers adopted it. It is all part of the subliminal message in little Michelin cues that whisper: this is no ordinary tapas restaurant.
Moving on to little green padron peppers. “Maybe only one in 10 is very hot,” said the waiter, referring to the heat of these deliciously roasted treats, rolled in salt and served whole and by the plateful.
On again to a bowl of peas, with flecks of ham, a soft poached egg and a tangy tomato base that’s just plain good, while there are even more of those peppers with the crunchy, crispy-skinned and cross-sliced chicken thigh.
At some point a wooden platter loaded with chorizo Iberico de Bellota arrives and the paprika-ish, almost garlicky tang guarantees they’re soon gone. As is green asparagus toast with onion confit, truffle oil and manchego, even if it is just posh Welsh rarebit.
But wait…it’s not all hand-picked perfection. Those signature dish croquetas? Cold in the middle and sent whimpering back to the kitchen.
When they reappear nobody here is quite as excited by the notion of dollops of bechamel sauce in a crispy coating as the staff at Iberica clearly are.
As for the spring onion tempura, it’s good, but why so oily?
Do these blips blot the copybook? Absolutely not. In fact the whole experience from ambience to price to food is so far above the average British tapas restaurant that it’s almost embarrassing. And this is a chain restaurant, too.
Be afraid, freezer-food tapas joints. Be very afraid.
Iberica
140 St Vincent Street, Glasgow (0141 530 7985)
Menu: Chain restaurant tapas but possibly not as you already know it. Michelin chef-inspired and straight from the plains-in-Spain goodies by the not-too-small plateful. 5/5
Atmosphere: In a word: expensive. In three more words: confident, continental, cool. 5/5
Service: There’s an awful lot of them and they do know their stuff. Mildly thrown by a frozen croquetas crisis which wasn’t handled particularly well. 4/5
Price: Tapas from a fiver with many around £6 or £7, yet nine rich dishes were enough to fill and entertain three of us at around £60 in total. 4/5
Food: Flavour, flavour, flavour in every dish. Well thought out, the mackerel being fabulous, the rest merely very good. 7/10
Total: 25/30
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