Iberica Food & Culture

Love this restaurant! My friend works on Great Portland Street so we often pop across. I keep meaning to review! To me, a good restaurant needs to have great food as a given and the icing on the cake is fantastic service and a real buzzy atmosphere. Iberica has that in spades.

There are so many tapas to choose from - I can never decide! I love the monkfish and secreto. I also love the wine here, really good value and so good. All Spanish of course. Iberica is perfect for people watching too. Lots of people speaking Spanish there. I think its always a good indicator as to whether the food is going to be good if there are lots of "natives" there. It is usually really busy, so I would recommend booking.
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Sara Jones
10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 9
Friday, March 04, 2011

I was out at a business meeting on Great Portland st and it was suggested we pop into "Iberica" afterwards for a bit of tapas and a glass of wine. I was very glad that we did easily the best tapas I have had in London. Tapas tends to be a form of food that talks a good game but rarely delivers. It should be cheap tasty snacks to accompagny a glass of wine, It too often ends up being stodgy and oily or if it is good it is horrendously expensive. I remember one set of tapas and a very average bottle of wine at "Providores" that set me back nearly a £100. My supplier Robin useds Iberica a lot as you can eat light or go for something more substantial. He also noted that the site on Great Portland st had been a white elephant for years with the average tenancy for a restaurant being 9 months, Iberica had broken that cycle and was very buzzy on Thursday lunchtime with a mixture of business people, tourists, families and a few Meeja types.

We ordered a plate of ham, 2 types of croquettes, some squid, some bread and oil and a tortilla. This was washed down with a bottle of light red. The food was excellent. The tortilla in particular was the best I have ever had instead of being a stodgy quiche gone wrong we had a lovely thick omelette that was runny through the middle. Delicious stuff. Again the croquettes were so tasty, not overcooked so you could taste the ingredients. The aioli with the squid was a little harsh but the squid itself was delicious. The ham was top quality with a nice selection. The waiter explained the choices to us and throughout the meal we had very friendly service. The wine was very nice as you would expect. This was ticking all the boxes for me.

The restaurant is built in a sort of duplex so there is plenty of light giving the room a light airy feel. Robin got lunch but I think it all came to under £80 for 3 of us which is really good going for the quality on offer. I can understand why he goes there for lunch regularly. It's a place I am extremely keen to go back to again so I can fully banish the memories of several bad tapas meals I have had in London. a real gem of a place well worth a visit
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david ginsberg - View all reviews by this user
8 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Monday, July 05, 2010

I think the wine is the only positive feedback i can give. we paid over 40 pound on two "trio of ham" selections which was nothing impressive. The baby lamb chops were extremely overcooked and the Padron peppers tasted like plastic.

The atmosphere was not right either, there was a man telling off his waiters all the time which was something rude.

I take clients out for dinner almost every day, and this time I did not close the deal, honestly i believe it was the food.
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Robert Scutler
1 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 1
Saturday, June 12, 2010

Booked a table for me and my girlfriend on Valentines Day. I must say it was a fantastic evening. The interior of the place was stunning. The waiters/waitresses were very polite and the food was excellent.

We dined in the tapas bar and the dishes were well presented and incredibly fresh. I would recommend this place for anyone who loves Spanish food. There is even a Spanish food hall selling all manners of Spanish delights. Shall certainly be going back.
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David Williams
9 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 8
Monday, February 15, 2010

Great restaurant!! First time and i was blown away by how it feels spain but without the tacky bullfighting and flamenco music. As a spaniard i am very proud to say that i have found a great place that makes me feel like i am back in madrid having some callos and a bottle of mahou. Bien hecho senores!!
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Jorge
10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Iberica is one of my favorite spanish restaurants. It is as close to the food I have eaten in Madrid and Barcelona. Good quality products simply cooked with out this foofoo food that looks great and tastes of nothing. Unlike some of the people who have left comments I have only good things to say both about the food and the service. Plus its the only place that you can have a decent selection of good Iberico Ham.

Highly recomend this place if you want to experience as close to Spanish food as you can get in london. I am sure that everybody has thier favorite spanish restaurant. This one is mine by far!!!

Try the croquettes, the squid and if you can the rib of beef !!! Massive!!
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JT - View all reviews by this user
10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 9
Monday, January 18, 2010

We went there last last Sunday. Only downstairs is open with an adapted menu - paella and a short list of tapas.

When we came in the place was reasonably full which surprised us considering the unusual location which is very quiet on a Sunday.

Service turned out to be well meaning but very amateurish:

- We three times had to ask to remove the vast array of glasses on the table - they are keen for you to order wine

- They took our order for soft drinks and after a number of failed attempts finally only brought tiny coke bottles.

- We ordered bread but this was forgotten about.

- It took ages to pay

Now the food, the two tapas we ordered were good, but £8.00 for a normal portion of fried squid is pushing it.

The paella was big disappointment priced at £18.50 per portion. It says on the menu that it takes 40 minutes to freshly prepare. This is a bit of a gimmick, you don't need to prepare every plate of paella from scratch. In any case it was NOT freshly prepared, there was thin film on top the paella obviously where it had been under a hot lamp for a while (I just hope it wasn't microwaved). For two and at that price the number of ingredients and portion was very mean.

All in all a big disappointment, especially considering there are such good Spanish restaurants in London like Barrafina, Lolla Roso, Dehesa, etc.
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Dutch_Food - View all reviews by this user
4 Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 2
Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Great Restaurant, great food, great service, great atmosphere.

Good price range. Marcos (owner) has brought an authentic Spanish restaurant to London, great wine list, and extensive menu. Recommend the Casa de Ermita (Jumilla) decanted and served cool, with the ‘Jabugo’ Ham. Great Value and a great experience. My two French and one English guests loved it, if the French and the English agree about food it is very special!
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Brian McIver (No soy Girri Murcia)
8 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 8
Friday, October 09, 2009

Our first visit we had mistakenly booked into the restaurant upstairs instead of the buzzy tapas area below. Downstairs was full and the 3 of us had a drink before we decided not to stay and eat as we really wanted the tapas. Despite this being in no way the restaurant's fault, they insisted that our drinks were on the house. What lovely service - it ensured we returned quickly with a reservation to eat in the tapas bar. We weren't disappointed - the food was really tasty and interesting and not too badly priced. Some portions were a really good size but others seemed very small - for example the hot chorizo was tiny. We had lovely spanish wine and a complimentary digestif at the end of the meal - the service was very friendly. Still prefer Salt Yard for a romantic meal but this was certainly worth returning to.
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SE - View all reviews by this user
8 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 7
Friday, July 10, 2009

I have to support the views of my fellow Spaniards. This is an absolutely authentic place and I really hope that it keeps as it is. Perhaps I would welcome an extra 2 ham croquetas in the plate (4 is a bit stingy) but that is all.

I found the service friendly and attentive and fortunately we did not have long waits between plates.

I have now made a booking for having a paella on a Sunday and cannot wait!! Mmmmmm.
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Susana - View all reviews by this user
9 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Friday, April 10, 2009