The best of both Spanish worlds

Published on Thursday 29 May 2008 18:20

Iggs or Barioja - choose to suit your style

EACH time I have sat in Barioja on Jeffrey Street, enjoying a high quality, authentic tapas meal, I've always wondered what was different about the place next door.

The justifiably popular and busy tapas bar on two floors has been serving tourists and locals alike since 2001, and garnered a consistently high reputation for the freshness and quality of its locally sourced produce.

But the adjacent Iggs was the first culinary venture in Edinburgh of owner Ignatiez Campos from Teruel in Aragon and next year the grand older lady celebrates her 20th anniversary.

While the bustling Barioja always looks busy and vibrant in a relaxed, laid-back manner, Iggs appears more white table cloth, formal dining and comes with a bigger bill.

But with one kitchen and wine cellar in the basement serving both establishments, there would have to be a very different approach to make the dual concept work.

And does it? Well, yes and no.

With a daughter in the hospitality trade as a dining companion, I thought I'd get a bit of an expert's insider view, while checking out the bona fides of the AA rosette award-winning restaurant that is a member of the Edinburgh Restaurateurs Association.

Luckily for us, despite walking in off the street without a booking on a Friday evening around 8pm, there are plenty of tables available at the L-shaped 80-seater eaterie.

Light, clean and airy, with great views to the north of the city through the large front windows, the atmosphere is welcoming and we are shown to a table near the back by the service desk.

First things first, the wine list, exclusively Spanish and proudly collated by Senor Campos, there is a good range of excellent quality wines at reasonable prices.

Just one drawback - the albarino I order, one of three on the list, is not available, and our waiter has to nip next door to Barioja to find a replacement for this excellent grape from Gallicia.

Happily he comes up trumps with a splendid bottle of Vionta.

Next, food, and we decide to share the chef's tapas seafood selection starter at 16. It turns out not quite as we imagined, with six individual dishes, including mousse and fishcake, which, though fine in quality, left me feeling I'd rather be enjoying the jamon, sardines, salmon, and scallops from the range of tapas next door.

With a proud red and yellow flag flying outdoors for encouragement, I go for the Iberico pork and slow-braised pork belly in an apple and cider reduction, with crushed garlic potatoes and caramelised red onion.

Surprisingly it is served without vegetables, and I have to order a portion, which arrives fairly quickly in the shape of mashed carrot and beetroot wedges.

I ask my expert adviser about the service, which she rates as slightly flustered and not fluid, but unless something goes wrong, which it certainly didn't here, then I don't usually hold too much store by these things and concentrate on the matter in hand instead.

And the pork turns out to be a wise and delicious choice accompanied by another fine wine selection in the bottle of Pesquera from the Ribera del Duero region.

Lucy chooses monkfish, mussel and chorizo stew with smoked paprika and toasted ground almonds and is equally pleased with the results.

Fish seems to be the theme here, for apart from the traditional Aberdeen Angus steak and one vegetarian dish of baked vegetables with Spanish cheese, all the other mains are sea-based, including seared herb-crusted fillet of halibut, served with cauliflower veloute and a butter mash; pan-fried fillets of mackerel with an aubergine, tomato and jemon samfaina; turmeric-coated sole fillets with garlic spinach, beurre noisette and baby capers and sea bass fillets, pan-fried and served with roasted parsnips, shallots and potatoes.

Not being big chieftains of the pudding race, we give the dessert selection, cheese-board and coffee a miss, yet the bill still comes to nearly 114.

On balance, then, next time I'll stick to the tapas experience in Barioja, where I can still enjoy the top quality wines and food, and leave the white table cloths to the grown ups.

THE BILL

&#149 Shared tapas starters 16

&#149 Presa Iberica 19.25

&#149 Seafood 18.50

&#149 Bottle Vionta albarino 24.50

&#149 Bottle Pesquera 35.50

TOTAL: 113.75

Quality ****

Menu choice **

Surroundings ****

Service ***

Value ***

&#149 Iggs, 15 Jeffrey Street, 0131-557 8184