Restaurants

After four years of deserved popularity, Salt Yard spawned a second branch in early 2008. It’s a wonder this didn’t happen sooner, and just as surprising the culinary concept hasn’t been emulated elsewhere. This is tapas, but not as we knew it, bringing Spanish and Italian ideas and ingredients together with brilliant results. The setting is sophisticated, smart, yet relaxed. Fine selections of charcuterie and cheese front the menu. It’d be easy to blow a fortune on the acorn-fed black-foot ham (£17 a plate) before you’ve started. But best concentrate on the delights emanating from the kitchen. Confit of Gloucester Old Spot with cannellini beans is always a sensation, and one of the only perennials on the frequently changing, always alluring menu. Other recent winners have included cavolo nero with chestnuts and farro (a type of wheat), clams with black rice, and smoked monkfish with apple vinaigrette and pancetta. In several visits we’ve never had a dud dish, just the odd plate that doesn’t quite rival its table-fellows. The wine list follows the food: a connoisseur’s choice of Italian and Spanish bottles, including some splendid sherries. Book well ahead, and try to get a table upstairs.

Time Out Eating & Drinking Guide 2009