Barrafina

Whoever said you can't change a person, was wrong. When I first met The Boyfriend,  he knew a grand total of two restaurants,  neither of which took reservations or served food that was unhealthy - Sophie's and Barrafina. The Boyfriend, pre-boyfriend title, was unable to make plans more than three hours in advance, or eat food other than cottage cheese, smoked salmon and blueberries, unless it was only slightly less nutritious. In other words, he was the world's best dinner date. Luckily for our relationship - Barrafina was such a great location for our first dinner date that I didn't mind that no carbs were involved in the whole meal and that he hadn't had to put in any effort. Almost two years later it still serves as "oh-bugger-we-don't-have-a-reservation-for-any-decent-restaurant" - which happens a lot less frequently than 18 months ago. Now of course, he not only knows more than two restaurants, many of which have phone lines, but he primarily eats unhealthy foods.

Barrafina is such a reliable place, provided we don't turn up past 7.30ish when the queue can be a buzz kill, then it consistently provides a great night. Lacking any tables, and consisting of just one beautiful tapas bar, with a small rail to drink or nibble at on the other side - seats are hard to come by. Even better still and something I take as a sign from God, Baraffina v.2 will soon be The Boyfriend's neighbour. 

When The Boyfriend, The Brunch Buddy and I, showed up, a tad too late, a couple of Fridays ago, the standard Barrafina queue was already out the door. One hour, a bottle of cava, three beautiful jamon corquettes later, we finally gained three of the prized seats at the pristine marble bar.

We started with a tuna tartar, which was so good that each of us was reluctant to give up additional spoonfuls of the addictive combination of slippery tuna combined with the buttery sesame oil. Some sort of bread, cracker addition to the dish would have provided some stability and variation in terms of texture but still, a dish I will happily order over and over again.

Lomo was attackted with the vigour of a pack of dogs and was devoured in less than two minutes.

Our first choice of special for the evening, deep sea mussels recieved a mixed review. I was seriously unimpressed finding the sauce far too sweet to work with seafood, but the mussels themselves were as soft and slippery as eating lumps of jelly. The BB on the otherhand, adored the combination.

Deep fried baby artichokes, proved to be bland and uniteresting, the only flavour coming from the sauce. This was the only dish we didn't fight for.

Chips with brava sauce, were not quite as crispy as I would have liked, but the seasoning and the smokiness of the brava sauce proved to be incredibly addictive.

As you can see the arroz negro with cuttlefish was a real looker. The dish felt much more like a proper dish, glorious salty, still al dente rice, absorbing the pools of black ink, crowned with a tender slice of cuttlefish. I could have died happy. 

The bill, for the three of us, a bottle of cava and three or four glasses of wine, came to a grand total of £120.