Tierra Brindisa, Broadwick St, W1

Jen (that’s my mum by the way) was down for the evening on Friday so we had some tapas at Tierra Brindisa on Broadwick Street. Normally she’s reluctant to look beyond Le Pain Quotidien on Great Marlborough Street but I managed to twist her arm this time.

I’ve had a disappointing meal at this branch of Brindisa before but I must have chosen badly on previous occasions as the dishes were really good. Brindisa in Borough is always heaving and used to have a no-booking policy but still had buckets of hungry eaters through their doors.

Whenever I go for tapas I have to have Padron peppers with sea salt. You can get the occasional hot one but generally they’re very mild - these weren’t quite as good as those I’ve tried at Saltyard and Dehesa but were nice enough, perhaps could have done with 5 minutes more roasting time.

Next was some iberico loin, one of the more reasonably priced charcuteries with country toast with aioli. Then roasted butternut squash with pancetta, wild mushrooms, pine nuts and Manchego cheese and seared foie gras with lentil stew and PX vinegar - never heard of the variety and thought it sounded like some sort of blue-rated vinegar.

The foie gras had the perfect melt in the mouth factor and the pancetta had a satisfying salty crunch which complemented the sweet squash really well. Only gripe would be that the lentil stew was quite soupy so either could have done with being reduced down to a thicker consistency or they should have equipped us with a spoon!

Grilled rack of lamb with oven potatoes and green olives was good, cooked to perfection as it was medium rare.

Deep fried Monte Enebro goats cheese with orange blossom honey was nice though came as a rather intimidating large hunk with a few beetroot crisps - I prefer less of it - Saltyard serves it in deep fried courgette flowers as a trademark dish and that is far superior.

Desserts were ok but didn’t bowl me over. I had the soft vanilla meringue with blood orange sorbet and passion fruit. The sorbet was refreshing and a real palette cleaner after the tapas gorging that had gone before but the meringue was average.

Jen had the Spanish flan with rhubarb compote which was a bit like a crème caramel, nice enough but no wow factor and Robert had the chocolate fondant with vanilla and flaked almonds- by far the best out of the three.