L Restaurant & Bar

We've always enjoyed eating at this contemporary Iberian restaurant, but our recent experience was disappointing. The long, narrow, cathedral-like space, bathed in light on summer evenings, is as we remember it, but the food wasn't. We chose from both the tapas and à la carte menus. Poor-quality bread was the harbinger of a lacklustre meal that reached its nadir with a tapas of tortilla and piquillo pepper, overcooked to sponginess, as if it had been microwaved. Bacalao fritters had a good crunch, but were cold at the centre. At £3.75, a tapa of one tiny piece of mackerel cooked a la plancha with a splodge of dull romesco sauce seemed poor value. Culinary adventurousness has always marked out the kitchen here, so we were looking forward to a tapa of baby scallops and prawns with leeks and 'manchego crumble'. The dish, though well-conceived, was spoiled by under-cooked leeks. A main course zarzuela (what should have been gutsy Catalan fish and shellfish stew) lacked the expected verve and passion. We received a rather polite, bisque-like version, albeit with nice meaty chunks of monkfish, prawns and mussels. Our waitress was clearly new to the trade and service lacked polish.