Eyre Brothers

Spanish Tapas are a little on the overload in London at the moment, and since I left New York City about six years ago, I have been personally overloaded, as we started the trend several years before that…but for good reason, as Spanish food is particularly good for sharing, small portions, and quick cute little bites without an epic sit down situation. Eyre Brothers sets itself a part in that it leans more to Portugal than to Spain, So there is a slight difference and a slight edge to the menu. There is more than just padron peppers here.

The decor is very masculine and wooded, but the deep heavy bar and front small tables on top of old school Spanish tiles is where to be. The almost hotel-like dining area is a little off putting and makes you feel like you are set apart from the lively atmosphere of the front bar area.

We started with sweet pickled whole radishes, served with little bowls of salt and sherry vinegar. Simple, elegant, adorable, cool. Really good wine list- we drank a Portuguese Red from the northern Dao region by Quinta da Garrida which was excellent. We were impressed by Eyre’s extensive Portuguese selection. Next we had very thinly sliced Bacalau, or salt cod, which was home cured and seasoned with orange and thyme. The olive oil on this dish was beautiful- rich, deep, and heavy. The Kalamata olives balanced the sweetness of the orange perfectly. An excellent dish. The bartender even gave me the curing recipe (never would have known Portuguese olive oil could be so amazing).

The Octopus was slightly disappointing as it was ever so slightly chewy, almost bouncy, and a little under seasoned with the salt and paprika, that is if this were to be true a la Gallega style. Also this dish could have really benefitted from the olive oil used on Bacalau.

We also tried the sardines, in which my Portuguese date said, “A nice mix of Spanish and Portuguese, with Portuguese style bread underneath for the juices and Spanish style tomatoes and capers on top for the twist”. They were super fresh, perfectly cooked, and with a nice back taste of smoke. Everything elegant, whilst remaining peasant-like.

The Piri-Piri Squid was served over a bed of pickled red onions and coriander, and had a wonderful back taste of smokey dried piri-piri chillis. It was a huge portion, actually, even shared between two of us, but really lovely and soft…perfectly cooked.

I’d say this place is sort of like the Portuguese version of Bocca di Lupo, I enjoyed it that much. Could help to be a little more lively and the white tablecloths made it seem to formal in the dining area. Overall I was really impressed.