In March I started working on the same road (Great Portland Street) as one of my closest friends, and so naturally, we’ve been meeting up regularly for lunch to try restaurants in the area, and play at being ladies who lunch for an hour or so! I’ve heard great things about Iberica, and I never miss a good deal (3 plates for £15 with Bookatable) so we decided to give it a go one afternoon!

The interior is large and airy with floor to ceiling windows that flood the restaurant with natural light that is especially lovely on a sunny Spring day! It’s split into the ground floor and a second-floor mezzanine, and both floors are beautifully decorated with Spanish tiles and lanterns, and the hanging chillies, spices, and meats gave it a wonderful authenticity. We were seated next to the glass ‘wine cellar’ type room, and after taking a look at the tempting wine menu I was seriously craving a full-bodied red with my lunch, but decided to be good and resist the temptation for once! While the glass of wine may have got my creative juices flowing, I thought purple lips at work might not be a great look!

They brought us some incredible olives to start with that I wished I had got the name of, they packed with flavour, salty and delicious and I couldn’t get enough of them (I congratulated myself for choosing to go for lunch with someone who didn’t like olives..). After umming and ahhing for a while over what to order (a staple when going to any restaurant with me), we decided on our dishes. 2/3 dishes we got were the same and for the third, we chose one of each so that we could try both, oh and we got an additional plate of Potatas Bravas of course…

The Patatas Bravas (a classic that seems to be found in any restaurant that has a remotely Spanish theme), were golden and crispy on the outside with soft fluffy centers and came with a delicious spicy brava sauce and alioli that was generously portioned and seriously yummy!

We both went for the Crispy Aubergine, fried in a light batter and served with ‘miel de caña’ which translates directly as ‘cane honey’, a sort of Molasses that is typical of regions of the Canary Islands, Granada, and Malaga. This was probably my favourite dish, the soft aubergine and batter went perfectly with the sweet miel de caña, and I even scraped the last of it up with my fingers…not my finest table manners moment, but delicious nonetheless!

We also both went for the Tortilla, which was a thick Spanish omelette with sweet onion and potato which was tasty but nothing to write home about as they say, and in hindsight, we could have shared one between us as it was very stodgy!

Neither of us could decide whether to go for the Chorizo lollipops or the Asparagus Toast, so we got both to share so we could taste both of them and neither of us would get the dreaded food envy!

The Chorizo lollipops were not to my taste, although I’ve seen lots of people rave about them so this is definitely an unpopular opinion.  They’re balls of chorizo deep fried in a tempura batter that is light and golden and served on a stick with an unusual pear aioli dip. The dip was delicious, but the chorizo was too salty for me, a little tough, and all a too overpowering for my taste!

The Asparagus toast, however, was my favourite of the two dishes we shared, as it combined a lot of my favourite flavours and ingredients together. The asparagus came on a bed of deliciously nutty melted Manchego cheese and a brilliant combination of sweet onion confit and truffle oil, all on soft fluffy toast!

All in all, we left our lunch at least a stone heavier than we had arrived, bursting at the seams even after having been unable to even finish the food we had ordered, but very satisfied! The food was tasty, the atmosphere had a great buzz, and I will definitely be back to order off the main menu…and order that glass of wine for sure!