Succulent Prawns And Exploding Egg Parcels: We've Found A Tapas Treasure
Victoria isn’t shy of eateries, but new Mediterranean tapas restaurant Omar’s Place has sprung up in the relative quiet back streets behind the station.
The decor is simple and the terracotta walls remind us of trips to Southern Spain.
We order a variety of small cold and hot plates, plus a few meatier mains — unintentionally focusing on a lot of seafood options as they're the most tempting.
We whet our appetites with a tasty servings of beetroot hummus served in long crispy rolls and some squid and seawater foam served on lemon. We’re not entirely sure what’s in seawater foam, but it tastes like the sea, without overwhelming us with salt.
The burrata works well alongside the salmon and salmon roe, the salmon's strong flavour acting as an excellent counterpart to the burrata’s smooth texture. Throw in a small helping of succulent prawns and we're ready for more.
Moving on to the more substantive dishes the octopus tentacle is charcoal grilled to perfection, it’s the best we’ve had outside the Mediterranean region. The parcels filled with raw egg yolk explode in our mouths and are at just the right temperature to ensure it’s a pleasant sensation.
The fried turbot gets top marks for presentation, the fried fingers being delivered to us within the uncooked parts of the fish so we get to look the turbot in the eye as we eat it. In retrospect that sounds macabre, but it never felt so when we were dining. Unfortunately the taste is a little bland and it would benefit from more garnish or a fiery sauce. Thankfully, this is the only dish throughout our meal that didn't win us over.
We finish off with Torrua, a bread and butter pudding where the addition of coffee ice cream means that there’s a whole medley of sweet and savoury flavours working in harmony.
There’s a lot of experimentation in how the food is prepared and presented, yet it’s never to the detriment of taste — at Omar's Place the tapas goes down a treat.
Omar's Place is at 13 Cambridge street, SW1V 4PR, nearest station is Victoria. The reviewed meal would cost circa £40-45 a head excluding drinks.
Last Updated 25 April 2018