12 Cabot Square, E14 4QQ www.ibericalondon.co.uk
Still I don’t have to work there, all I have to do is get to the new Iberica for 1pm, not all that easy as it’s a something of a maze around there. It’s rather like early video games where every doorway seems to lead to a near identical set of corridors and spaces, you think ‘have I been here already?’ and try a different route.
The kitchen is on display and I can see head chef Cesar Garcia beavering away, one of the sunniest chefs in London he seems extra happy today with plenty of people at tables and every sign of success just one week into opening.
The food resembles Iberica Marylebone; the menu is the same but with more ham. We have a plate of three types, from sweet to salty and to be eaten in that order. The sweet, fatty, first one is the best for me having all the attributes of jamon I love with fat that dissolves on the lips.
I’ve had Iberica’s remarkable Gazpacho of red berries, beetroot and anchovy before and it’s still stand-out; the balance of the sweet and the savoury is perfect, a real appetite inducer. More delicate is Pan fried scallops, cauliflower puree, escabeche, fennel and apple. I like the contrast of apple and fennel, the acidity versus the liquorice, the scallops are perfect but the dish is almost too good, more a restaurant starter than a light bite.
Things come down to earth with the next dish, ‘Sailor stew’ with clams and battered potatoes “a la importancia”. This is simple and, to use a rotten but apt word, hearty. The clams are sea-sweet and the broth has been thickened by the potato particles. The mini spud fritters have just enough of a waterproof fried egg coat to keep their heads above water and be a texture in their own right.
And so was dessert, “La tarta de la abuela” an interpretation of a traditional chocolate, vanilla and biscuit cake all done in a glass jar. The layers made sense when you dove your spoon down to the bottom and came up laden like a happy dredger.
All the Iberica food is available as takeaway, and so are the wines. I’m not sure if the majority of people at the Wharf deserve such niceness, but Iberica deserve to do well out of them. Greed can be good, if it involves food and not money.