You have to do something pretty special as a restaurant to be as popular today as you were when you opened 14 years ago. The Providores and Tapa Room in Marylebone do just that though. A restaurant/bar downstairs and a larger restaurant upstairs, The Providores and Tapa Room was set up in 2001 by Peter Gordon, Michael McGrath, Jeremy Leeming and Anna Hansen and is now run by just Peter and Michael. Anna Hansen moved on to The Modern Pantry, which I'm already a fan of.
I visited The Tapa Room restaurant on a Thursday a couple of weeks ago after I was invited to review it, and it was heaving. We arrived at 6.30 and there was already a queue outside the door, with others waiting inside, armed with a drink but not yet seated. A real mixture of people filled the room, from gents in suits, to sons treating mothers, to tourists who'd stumbled upon a great spot for a bite to eat. We were seated in the corner, on a table for 3 though there were only 2 of us, which was great as we ordered a lot of food, so there was room for all of that, plus cameras etc, on the table.
The Providores and Tapa Room boasts an ever changing wine list with the largest selection of premium New Zealand wines in Europe. However we didn't fancy wine, so chose a jug of sangria to share instead, in the hope of pretending it was warm and sunny outside. We were there for small sharing, tapas like plates after all. And it turns out that the scrumptious food was all that was needed to make us think of sunnier climes. Gorgeous plate after plate of food came out, each dish as delicious as the next.
I visited The Tapa Room restaurant on a Thursday a couple of weeks ago after I was invited to review it, and it was heaving. We arrived at 6.30 and there was already a queue outside the door, with others waiting inside, armed with a drink but not yet seated. A real mixture of people filled the room, from gents in suits, to sons treating mothers, to tourists who'd stumbled upon a great spot for a bite to eat. We were seated in the corner, on a table for 3 though there were only 2 of us, which was great as we ordered a lot of food, so there was room for all of that, plus cameras etc, on the table.
The Providores and Tapa Room boasts an ever changing wine list with the largest selection of premium New Zealand wines in Europe. However we didn't fancy wine, so chose a jug of sangria to share instead, in the hope of pretending it was warm and sunny outside. We were there for small sharing, tapas like plates after all. And it turns out that the scrumptious food was all that was needed to make us think of sunnier climes. Gorgeous plate after plate of food came out, each dish as delicious as the next.
