Iberico & Co.

he interior is exactly what we envisioned” says Robert Cooper, director “a glammed up version of the Estacio de Franca in Barcelona, with its black metal arched ceiling”. Concrete walls, black iron, recycled wood, lead glass and wire mesh combines stunningly with mosaic flooring, Portuguese flower tiles and plush cyan blue and magenta pink fabrics. Like all Enoteca Group restaurants the focus is on good food designed to share and of course with a Spanish and Portuguese inspired menu, this includes many tastes and tapas, alongside family-style bigger plates such as their range of paellas. Trying not to be ‘just another Spanish restaurant’ though was a top priority and the menu is designed more like an Iberian influenced gastro-pub. Classic Portuguese and Spanish ingredients like Chorizo, Serrano, sardines, octopus & white anchovies are prepared with unpretentious hearty slow cooking techniques. – we jokingly calling it a gastro taverna”. The “& Co” (and colonies) also brings into the menu ingredients and cooking techniques from the rest of the Spanish and Portuguese speaking world like Brazil, American Spanish Creole, Indian Goa, Mozambique, Cape Verdi & Macau – exciting ingredients like peri peri, mojo & vindaloo may accompany the classic and interpreted European tapas. The wine menu features 90% Spanish, Portuguese and South American wines ranging from young garnachas, full Argentinian Malbec’s, Chilean Carmenere’s and well-aged Rioja Gran Reservas. This is interspersed with some Australian and American wines using the classic Spanish tempranillo and garnacha varietals. The menu was awarded best small wine list in 2015 by the China Sommeliers association. Iberico & Co is certainly not just another Spanish restaurant – it’s an interesting mix of the whole Iberian Peninsula food culture that comes with hundreds of years of colonial influence and flavours from every corner of the globe.