Review: The Barbary, Covent Garden

Towards the end of our lunch at The Barbary I was trying to work out whether the likely £90 bill was going to be worth it. We’d had some lovely food (more on that later) and a nice drop of plonk but the price was heading towards fine dining. Then on the bill I noticed a neat little notice at the bottom: “Service & VAT are included in all our prices.” Unsure, I checked with a waitress, but yes apparently their policy is to swallow a fair service charge into the prices of the food.

Now, as far as I’m aware this isn’t without its cost: an optional service charge is tax-free, whereas include it in the menu prices and 20% of it goes to HMRC. But nevertheless, as service charge is always 12.5% in London and I’d tip that myself if it wasn’t, this was actually… mm… bit of mental arithmatic… an £81 bill, at least compared with anywhere else. So that feels okay. And it feels like The Barbary are being quite brave, trying to step out and do their bit to change an outdated and divisive service industry tradition.

So, about the food. We gobble up a beautiful Jerusalem bagel, covered in sesame seeds and both elastic and soft at the same time. With it we order two plates of dip. The first has two generous dollops of harissa and zhug. Which turns out to be a bright green paste of coriander, parsley and mild chilli. The harissa is also mild, but with a really splendid warm flavour of dried chilli. Neat trick. The other dip is Ashkenazi chicken liver. It’s not the smooth pate you’d expect, but a bit more like steak tartare in texture and flippin’ delicious to eat.

Next up are a pair of Moroccan cigars; actually a white fish pepped up with some spicy marinade and then wrapped in a crispy filo case. Massively munchable finger food with the yogurt and zhug dip.

For mains we try salt cod and iberico pork. We’ve been watching the pork getting charred over the flames of the open grill, and sitting at the bar watching the kitchen at work is one of the fun bits of eating at The Barbary. Then again, spending much longer than an hour propped on one of these bar stools is one of the less fun bits. Probably not a restaurant for a long, lingering meal. Also perhaps less fun with 4 or more people as you will be sitting in a line.

I digress. The pork is splendid, nice charring and still pink and meltingly soft inside. But once again I’m caught thinking: skewer of very nice pork, pickled fennel garnish, swipe of minted yogurt… £17? The salt cod has been treated perfectly and eats like soft, flaky and slightly salty clouds. It comes with a chunk of roast aubergine that is silky and subtle perfection.

You can have a meal for about £40 each before drinks at The Barbary (although that’s really £36 if you want to compare with restaurants that add a service charge or leave you to tip!). Taken for its individual elements, that doesn’t really stack up. Taken for the whole experience, the buzz of the kitchen, the unfamiliarity of the names and flavours on the menu, I’m happy to recommend everyone take at least one visit to The Barbary.