Tapas.
Get it wrong, and you just end up with pasta.
But get it very right, and you end up with something like Barrafina – the critically lauded, Michelin-starred restaurant that – before they started taking bookings – were famous for out-the-door queues.
Now, brothers James and Sam Hart have opened a fourth Barrafina in the new King’s Cross development Coal Drops Yard. The place has 40 covers at the dining counter, making it their biggest branch yet. There’s also a private dining room, bookable for up to 24.
The menu here comes courtesy of their highly talented executive head chef, Angel Zapata Martin. He’s drawing on his childhood, and later experience at the triple Michelin-starred Can Fabes, to put together an all-Catalonian set of dishes.
That explains the mar i muntanya section of the menu; a traditional part of Catalonian cuisine taking ingredients from the sea and the mountains. Dishes include black rice with Iberian pork ribs and artichokes; sea cucumber and chicken oyster picada; and a cazuela (hotpot) of pig’s trotters and prawns. But the desserts will challenge all your powers of restraint with lionesas (Catalonian profiteroles) served with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce; a rice pudding with tonka bean and cinnamon; and platano canario ice cream, a Canary Islands speciality.
All this is a mere slice of the places they run at Coal Drops Yard: next door you’ll find Parrillan, a sprawling al fresco terrace where you can BBQ your own food. They’ve also launched a spin-off of their Borough taqueria El Pastor with pal Crispin Somerville called Casa Pastor, and a new wine bar called The Drop…
It’s worth dropping by.
NOTE: Barrafina King’s Cross is open for lunch and dinner daily. You can find out more, and book, at their website right HERE.
Barrafina King’s Cross | Coal Drops Yard, King’s Cross, London N1C 4AB
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