Restaurants: celebrating 10 years of the Barbary, Neal’s Yard, with its countertop-only dining spanning southern Europe to north Africa
Website: https://www.thebarbary.co.uk/neals-yard
Great meal last night at The Barbary, Neal’s Yard (London). It’s one of two locations for this amazing restaurant, with the younger but larger sibling in Notting Hill.
Last night was a celebration of 10 years of The Barbary, and owners Layo and Zoë Paskin were present. Their story is a cool one: for many years they ran nightclubs and DJd, before turning to hospitality.
Back in 1995 Layo and Richard West (aka Mr C. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._C ) started nightclub ‘The End’. Matthew Benjamin was the resident DJ, and from there Layo and Matthew started working and recording together as Layo and Bushwacka!. You can catch a flavour of this here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdq3eAKEU3OaFxuqvUrGR1Q
It was in 2014 that Layo and Zoë turned to restaurants, and they didn’t put a foot wrong. The current portfolio of Studio Paskin includes The Palomar, The Barbary (two locations), Michelin-starred Evelyn’s Table and upstairs wine bar The Mulwray.
The Barbary Neal’s Yard is a special, intimate place. The 24 covers are all arranged around a large, extended-U-shaped counter, with the kitchen in the middle. The centrepiece of the kitchen is a hybrid charcoal/gas grill, and there’s also a tandoor-style oven.
The service is assured and the food is fantastic. It’s all about flavour, but the experience of eating here transcends merely food and drink. There’s energy and vibe, as well as the visual spectacle of the kitchen in action.
The wine list is short and well chosen, offering a lot of variety, with most of the wines available by the glass. We drank the Druida Dão Branco from Mira d’O and a fleshy, perfumed Jura red (Domaine des Carlines Poulsard).
