Spanish Wine Pairing and Tapas at Harvey's

Last week we were invited to sample the new Spanish menu and wine matching at Harvey's Cellars. We had not been to Harvey's in over 2 years and felt that it was well worth another trip there. Since our last visit Harvey's adopted a Creole spin to their tapas menu, which is not something I have seen before. However for this visit they wanted us to try out an authentic Spanish menu with wines to match.  What is nice that since our last visit, they have changed a few things and made the decor a bit to make it feel warmer and more welcoming. 

Heading into the back part of Harvey's we sat up to one of the giant barrels.  First we were brought a Bristol cream sherry over ice with a wedge of orange and some imported olives marinated in a closely guarded secret recipe, there was heat, citrus and they were wonderful.  This was closely chased by a selection of cured meats and passata, which was matched with a Macabeo Chardonnay. We were advised by our Spanish guide that spreading passata on the bread then topping with the sliced meat was how they did it in Spain so not one to shun food advice we dived on in.

pork loin and chorizo cuts

The passata was an excellent edition to the bread and cured meat standard tapas dish, it really brought out the flavour of the meat but also freshened it up so it cut through the richness.  After hoovering this up we were served a tortilla and some ultra smooth gazpacho with a quail egg and shredded Serrano ham on top, apparently this is traditionally eaten with the tortilla.  The tortilla was soft and creamy and the gazpacho was a heavenly substitute dip for anything to be honest, perfectly chilled for hot summer evenings. 

tortilla with gazpacho

egg mayonnaise with fresh bread sticks

mixed croquettes

Once we were poured a generous glass of rich Cabernet Merlot and had it's origins and matching notes explained, more dishes appeared all of the same excellent quality.  The egg mayonnaise type dish was given a kick and a fresher taste with gherkins, capers and spring onion, apparently this is popular for lunch on a Summer's day as it is chilled and not too rich. There were some tostadas topped with marinated peppers, onions and topped with fresh tuna and anchovy which would have been perfect on holiday for snacking with a glass of wine.  

The three types of croquettes, cod, mushroom and ham both smooth and crunchy were all equally delicious. I was particularly impressed by the seared octopus with salt and paprika, so smoky and meaty it definitely surprised me how good this tasted.  Obviously no tapas meal would have been complete without some baked chorizo and our final dish was chorizo baked in cider which was once again wonderful, salty and yet slightly sweet.  

We finished the meal with a selection of Spanish cheeses with nuts and home baked crackers, not just your standard manchego but some more unfamiliar ones to sample.  For our dessert we were brought some almond cake and a glass of Spanish Cava, much tastier than normal Cava, which I tend to shun in favour of Prosecco.  The cake was wonderfully light and the almond flavour worked perfectly with the poached pear in wine that came with it.

seared octopus with paprika

A selection of pre-dessert Spanish cheeses

almond polenta cake with wine poached pear

The Spanish menu at Harvey's is exquisite, full of new dishes I had not tried but now definitely want to eat again. The menu paired with wine is £35 per head which is such great value, Rich and I were struggling by the end of the meal.  I do think they should offer these dishes as part of the main menu at all times, the food is worth being available at all times it is that good. This menu is not for the fussy as we were not sure what dishes to expect, you basically will be up for enjoying the surprise.  To find out more about this menu and the other food Harvey's serves check out their website.  This tasting menu was offered complimentary by Harvey's but you can see by the high standard of food this did not impact this review,  I would have paid for this in a heartbeat, one of the nicest evenings we have had out in a long while.

Friday Evening Tapas at Brace & Browns

Sarah had organised a little meet up, seeing as it had been so long, and Brace and Browns on Whiteladies was chosen. Brace and Browns offers up a large range of tapas dishes most of which have their origins in British cooking but fused with other countries, such as Italy, Japan and France. Our group of 9 were sat in the upstairs part of the bar and given menus to paw over. 

Each tapas is £4.75 which for most of the dishes is pretty good value, however when you consider that some of these items are salad or chips it becomes less good value. Having said that Rich and I chose 6 tapas to share between us we picked; mozzarella and tomato salad, the mini burger, truffle chips, mini fish and chips, pork three ways and a mixed mushroom dish with parmesan and polenta.

the first board to arrive

our board, a work of food art

This was definitely the most beautifully presented tapas I have ever seen, each board that arrived at our table was a picture. Rich and I were starving so we eagerly tucked in. The burger was the first to be tackled, and it was juicy and flavoursome with a sort of horseradish crossed with thousand island dressing on the top. Sadly this is was the best tapas on our board of the night. The ideas were there but most of the dishes suffered from either over cooking or under seasoning. The black pudding for example, that came as part of the pork done three ways was so hard it took a lot of effort to cut through and the pork medallion lacked salt.

pork cooked three ways

We also found some of the food a little cold, which could have been down to the fact that the presentation had taken so long. It was slightly disappointing that the taste did not live up to the presentation because it did look so good. I think these are problems that Brace and Browns can overcome because some of the dishes were promising and would be even better with some tweaking. Other than the burger my favourite taste was the bright forest green apple puree that came with the pork, best apple sauce I've ever had, so full of flavour I would love to be able to replicate it.

The tapas here has potential so would definitely return after a few months to see what is new. After Brace and Browns we checked out the replacement for The Colour Inn. Charlie's Bar is thankfully mostly unchanged, I was a big fan of The Colour Inn, so was pleased to know I could still go there for the same quality of cocktails. Thoroughly recommend the gingerbread martini it's heaven in a glass.

an old fashioned

To find out more about Brace and Browns visit their Tumblr for a menu and for updates on the latest cocktail mixes and music nights at Charlie's Bar visit their Facebook page. Next blogs will be on curry at the Clove, from Rich and our trip to Boca Bistro.