The celebrated restaurant expands its reach across London.
Ten years ago, Studio Paskin opened one of the year's coolest and most acclaimed new London restaurants, The Palomar. Inspired by the cuisine and party vibes of Tel Aviv, the tiny Soho restaurant remains the most fun I’ve ever had eating out, a boisterous den where the party music and shots flow all night, and the staff genuinely seemed to be having a blast. The company is fronted by siblings Layo and Zoë Paskin – the former is also one half of the British DJ/producer act, Layo & Bushwacka.
The Palomar was followed two years later by an even more miniscule opening in Covent Garden, The Barbary. Multiple new restaurants and bars and a MICHELIN Star later, Studio Paskin has now birthed a bigger Barbary in Notting Hill.
While the first Barbary is tiny and intense, a mere horseshoe of seats around a central counter and barely room for anything else, this restaurant luxuriates in its roomy footprint on the corner of Westborne Grove and Chepstow Road. It offers navy blue window-side banquettes, a gorgeous marble dining counter and the kind of warm-glow lighting that practically drags in passersby at night. It's a layered latte to the original’s espresso shot.
What remains the same, however, is the sheer conviviality of it all. Every member of staff we encountered was switched-on, friendly and professional. And the dining room buzzes with energy, helped along by a wide, open kitchen area next to the bar. The Paskins know how to cultivate atmosphere.
The restaurant is dedicated to the Barbary Coast, the name given to the shoreline of central and western North Africa between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries (present-day Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya). None the wiser? In practice, this means flames; a cacophony of dips and sauces; a meal of mixing and matching and splodging and sharing; and if you welcome it, many patient explanations from your servers. The Barbary is about culinary discovery. And who doesn't want to know what a Morrocan cigar is? (It's more appetising than it sounds).
The compact menu caters equally to surf, turf and earth, which means you could easily enjoy a veggies-to-the-front meal: datterino tomato salad, garlic-pumped pumpkin, date-glazed aubergine, chilli-roasted cauliflower.
But we're talking about a coast here, so naturally the fish and seafood options are key. On our visit that included oyster aguachile (marinated in lime juice, coriander and chilli), sea bream crudo, and Cornish brill. My friend and I are still talking about the Galician octopus we ordered. It was presented simply, leaving the quality of the animal to do the talking: a row of skewered tentacle chunks sparingly thrust into the flames, each charred piece a pleasing balance of supple texture and subtle flavour, paired with a dollop of shifka pepper aioli and a lightly pickled fennel salad. A bowl of Cornish squid was blessed with a similarly light touch, beautifully tender cylinders browned and tossed with chickpeas, soft onions, chilli sauce and smoked tomato yoghurt.
A Barbary signature, the wood-fired flatbreads are an essential order for making the most of that cascade of sauces and dips. They arrive like puffed-up golden pillows, steaming and sprinkled with za'tar and ricotta, or enlaced with bone marrow. We jealously guarded our seemingly empty plates, mopping up every last slick of sauce. The joy is in the mixing and matching, discovering the very best sauce combinations to apply, like painting for your tastebuds.
The wine list’s geographical reach is wider than the kitchen’s, looking to Kent for its sparkling Gusbourne wine, and the established European wine regions for most of its bottles. The by-the-glass list is succinct but varied, leaving the cellar door cracked open for a snifter of exploration – how about an orange Rkatsiteli wine from Georgia, or, say, Lebanon’s white Château Marsyas Blanc?
As for the cocktails, whether it’s a Saffron Negroni or a citrus-laced smack of mezcal, expect them to be on-trend and on-the-money. I wouldn’t expect anything less from professional party-starters like the Paskins.
GO: Visit www.thebarbary.co.uk for more information.