London these days hosts some truly great Spanish tapas offerings with Jose and Tierra Brandisa amongst our favourites. With Canary Wharf offering too many chains and too few genuinely good eateries, it was with high hopes that we visited Iberico. Sadly, those hopes were dashed and our meal there was a disappointment.
The restaurant itself is surprisingly spacious with double height ceilings: it's generally office terrain around here and the high ceilinged ground floor design provides an impressive first impression reception area that's been nicely embraced here as a restaurant. That said, despite the vertical space, our table for two was just 12 inches apart from two other tables, and with both occupied, it felt like we were all uncomfortably sitting together. The youngish banker couple seated alongside us might well have left the restaurant silently complaining about the food bloggers with a camera next to them, though in turn, we had very little desire to know about the state of their bed linen.
Foodwise, to start, it had to be the plate of ham, which can be ordered as individual plates of one of three hams available (being from Salamanca, Huelva and Cordoba) or as a tasting plate of all three. Here it was the ham slicing, too many pieces cut far too thickly and therefore rendering them difficult to eat that caused the problem. Instead of melt in your mouth, it became instead an epic chew.
The Grilled prawns with chilli, garlic and sherry vinegar dressing which you'd expect to have real knockout flavours on tasting delivered none of their promise and were essentially bland.
The croquettes were soft and squeezy like plump pillows rather than crispy, and inside, it was bechemel only rather than cheese or ham that the croquette delivered. The tempura of spring onion was something that didn't immediately strike us as traditional Spanish but what's not better deep fried eh? Spring onions seems to be the answer. Even if they hadn't been too greasy (which they were), a whole spring onion in tempura simply doesn't work.
Finally, the Crispy confit Segovian suckling pig, apple puree & frisee salad. The suckling pig fell apart and had great texture but little taste. Like everything else here, it lacked any impact.
The restaurant itself is surprisingly spacious with double height ceilings: it's generally office terrain around here and the high ceilinged ground floor design provides an impressive first impression reception area that's been nicely embraced here as a restaurant. That said, despite the vertical space, our table for two was just 12 inches apart from two other tables, and with both occupied, it felt like we were all uncomfortably sitting together. The youngish banker couple seated alongside us might well have left the restaurant silently complaining about the food bloggers with a camera next to them, though in turn, we had very little desire to know about the state of their bed linen.
Foodwise, to start, it had to be the plate of ham, which can be ordered as individual plates of one of three hams available (being from Salamanca, Huelva and Cordoba) or as a tasting plate of all three. Here it was the ham slicing, too many pieces cut far too thickly and therefore rendering them difficult to eat that caused the problem. Instead of melt in your mouth, it became instead an epic chew.
The Grilled prawns with chilli, garlic and sherry vinegar dressing which you'd expect to have real knockout flavours on tasting delivered none of their promise and were essentially bland.
The croquettes were soft and squeezy like plump pillows rather than crispy, and inside, it was bechemel only rather than cheese or ham that the croquette delivered. The tempura of spring onion was something that didn't immediately strike us as traditional Spanish but what's not better deep fried eh? Spring onions seems to be the answer. Even if they hadn't been too greasy (which they were), a whole spring onion in tempura simply doesn't work.
Finally, the Crispy confit Segovian suckling pig, apple puree & frisee salad. The suckling pig fell apart and had great texture but little taste. Like everything else here, it lacked any impact.
trio of hams
prawns
croquettes
tempura spring onions
confit suckling pig
Spanish food should never lack impact but here it mostly did while no dishes fell into the 'must return to have that again' category. Service was uneven, showing a little surliness at times laced with an underlying hint that you might be putting them out in them having to serve you. Possibly the curse of Canary Wharf strikes again, but sadly, in our opinion, this is another Canary Wharf venue that is not worth jumping on the DLR to try.
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