Iberica is a Spanish tapas restaurant with locations across UK. I love tapas and I’ve been on a quest to find the best tapas restaurant in London for over two years now. Plus, I find that tapas style restaurants are best for group dining. So when Shiima, a couple of my siblings, and I wanted to go for dinner to celebrate Shiima and I’s birthday, among other things, Iberica felt like the perfect restaurant.

Iberica has a few restaurants in London, but Marylebone was in the centre for all of us. Also, Iberica Marylebone is the flagship so thought it’ll be the best restaurant for a first impression. Iberica Marylebone is a stones throw from Great Portland Street and even from the outside the restaurant looks beautiful. Inside, the restaurant is elegant and has a very authentic Spanish atmosphere (even though I’ve never been to Spain lol) with cured ham and bottles of wine prominently displaying around the restaurant. The service was more professional than friendly, which was fine with us.

The menu is fairly substantial and includes most of the classic Spanish tapas and quite a few of their original tapas. They also have larger Spanish classics such paellas and grilled Iberico.

 

What we ordered

We ordered a lot as it was four of us, so just enjoy the gallery of tapas I’m about to unleash on you 🙂

Tapas

For Shiima, the best of the tapas was the Albondigas. Mine were the croquetas, which were oozing with cheese and just enough Serrano ham.

The Grill

The secreto was so delicious that I almost ate it all myself, and my only problem with it is that there wasn’t much of it.

Rice

The Black Rice was really good. I wasn’t really keen on ordering it (you know, I rarely eat rice lol), but I ate the most of it. It was so rich with squid ink and the alioli made it richer and creamier. There were only two pieces of prawn in it though.

Dessert!

We ordered four desserts and I tried all of them.

The caramelised Spanish rice pudding was unquestionably the best, but it’s also the only one we didn’t finish because it’s extremely rich and creamy.

The Torrija was my first foray into brioche desserts and I was really impressed. The brioche was so fluffy and indulgent.

Back to back weeks of churros. Like I said in the La Bodega Negra review last week, I hate churros, but then these weren’t bad, maybe because these were thinner and crispy.

Verdict

We really enjoyed Iberica Marylebone. The atmosphere is elegant, yet relaxed and exudes an authentic Spanish vibe. The food for the most part was excellent and the service was very prompt. I recommend for a relaxed date and delicious tapas with friends, family or colleagues. Iberica Marylebone is also moderately priced. Plus, you can reserve a table, which is not the norm for excellent tapas restaurants in London

Cuisine: Spanish Tapas
Dress Code: Casual
Shiima’s Star Dish: Albondigas
Amen’s Star Dish: Black Rice
Price: £20-30pp (excluding alcohol)
Rating: 4.3 out of 5

Iberica Marylebone
195 Great Portland Street London W1W 5PS
Reserve at OpenTable,
or call 0207 148 1615