Restaurant review: Iberica, Leeds

Lee-J Walker is the commercial director of TheBusinessDesk.com, based in Leeds, Manchester and Birmingham. He was invited to the opening of new Leeds Spanish restaurant and charcuterie Iberica. Here’s his verdict.

Housed in an eclectic house tucked away on East Parade in Central Leeds, this restaurant can be accurately described as exquisite.

I’ve sampled Iberica before as a guest of Squire Patton Boggs at its Spinningfields restaurant, and was eager to see if the magic had been captured across the Pennines.

On entering the venue you’re presented with lavish chandeliers, a beautiful conservatory style glass roof and gorgeous décor.

This is quite possibly the nicest space in Leeds and it certainly does not feel like a chain restaurant.

Welcomed by the stylish Italian restaurant manager, Fabio Rua, we were shown to our table and presented with an excellent cocktail menu for our aperitif.

I’ve become quite good recently at making an excellent Dirty Martini so I sampled theirs with a discerning palette – I wasn’t disappointed in the slightest.

The usual olives and bread hit the table with fine olive oil, and the cheese and jambon course topped off the starter menu – it’s never too soon for the queso!

The Blau de búfala cheese, made from the milk of a water buffalo was next up and this lactose free cheese was fabulous. I washed it down with a nice glass of Sincronia, a Mallorcan red that was lighter than your average Spanish vino and complemented the soft cheese and acorn fed jambon well.

Moving on to the tapas starters, it was suggested we took two dishes each. The beef cheek carpaccio was delightful but we both agreed it had a background flavour of corned beef – this wasn’t a complaint as it is served with salty crisps which again was new to me!

The star of meal though was the Iberica pork head of loin. Cooked rare. Yes rare. And I must say this is as fine as any fillet steak. This was accompanied by another tapas favourite, squid ink rice. I never get bored of how it turns my entire mouth black like I’ve been chewing on a biro.

The final tapas was the sautéed razor clams. As a shellfish lover I couldn’t wait to sample these and they was excellent although the flavour slightly drowned out by the other strong-flavoured dishes that had been chosen.

The vino has moved onto a flavoured Reserva to compliment the Taps which was a good choice. I never get disappointed with a Temprinillo and couldn’t have chosen a better wine for the mixture of dishes. Andreus, our waiter, and the sommelier did a grand job of guiding us through the choices.

For main we shared the hake with green sauce served with a sugar snap salad and the Buttifarra with Trinxat Catalan, Catalonian sausage with mashed potato cabbage and Spanish sausage.

To be honest, both of these dishes were good but the tapas starters topped them and the mains for me seemed a step down from the previous courses.

Maybe it was the choice of mains or simply the high quality of the tapas.

The wine that accompanied the meal was so rich, Perelada 5 Finques Reserva. It tasted almost fortified and really did blast out the taste buds. A great wine but maybe on this course we didn’t choose the dishes as wisely.

At this point, too full to move, the executive decision was taken to not go any further to desert. A wise choice.

The venue also has upstairs a beautiful private dining room decorated in a similar theme and downstairs has a more relaxed tapas bar.

Full complements to Cesar Gacia the head chef and Fabio Rua – I would highly recommend Iberica and I can’t wait for my next visit.

Lee-J’s verdict: 8/10

 

Close