London - January 08, 2007

Rich Pickings

Barrafina Opens

Your idea of a decent lunch: a lengthy four-course feast, complete with amuses-bouches, continental cheeseboard, heaving sweet trolley and multiple petits fours.

Perhaps the Spanish tapas thing isn’t for you.

But if it is, you’re in luck. Sam and Eddie Hart, the charming brothers behind Fino, open Barrafina on Frith Street today. With just 23 seats at one stainless steel and marble counter, this new Barcelona-style spot serves the fast and the furious, as well as the laid-back and casual, from midday to midnight, six days a week.

Choose from traditional Spanish dishes like ham croquetas; assorted tortillas; pimientos de Padrón; jamón ibérico; and morcilla-fried black pudding with piquillo peppers. Fresh seafood includes grilled mackerel and sardines, mussels a la plancha and tuna tartare. Pudding? Santiago (almond) tart or crema catalana, washed down with Spanish sherry.

Fancy a little fast food?

It’s a great way tapas the time.

Barrafina, 54 Frith Street, W1D 4SL (020 7813 8016).

  Light Bites, Walk-Ins, Worth the Wait