Camino - Tapas in King's Cross

During a Spanish wine tasting and a private view of Picasso at the National Gallery last month, I met Richard Biggs, who owns Camino. Cards were exchanged, a generous offer of dinner accepted, and off I went to the Regent's Quarter of King's Cross along with a fellow food blogger and a wine blogger friend. It was a beautifully sunny evening, and the bar area was bustling. The dining room was arranged in a circular shape, with banquette booths around the circumference and a few tables sunken in the middle. We were sat directly underneath the above roof, bathing us in perfect light for photos.

While we browsed the menu, we had some Pan Con Tomate, with Manchego and Jamon, washed down with a light and crisp Jaume Cordoniu Brut cava. A glass of Oloroso sherry was reminiscient of almonds, so much so that we ordered some to accompany it. The menu consists of all the tapas dishes you'd usually see in Spanish restaurants with a couple of twists. I got very excited when I saw that veal belly was on the menu, as Richard quite rightly said pork belly is a bit ubiquitous now. Dishes were duly ordered, and we settled back and awaited the food.

Pimentos de Padron were delicious as always and I am developing a fast-growing addicition to them, though I didn't get a spicy one. Decently dusted with salt as they require, I spotted more little Padron stalks on my plate than was polite when sharing. A mammoth portion of Pulpo was drenched in rich, fruity olive oil with the kick of paprika. It was the perfect texture; soft, slightly gooey and yielding to the bite.

Chorizo was suitably spicy and pungent and complimented a bottle of fruity Baboix Montsant 2004. Croquetas de Jamon had an excellent crunch, were silky smooth within and was served with a fruity chilli sauce that packed a kick. Nuggets of salty ham in the bechemel made them extremely moreish.

Scallops were prettily served in the shell with a saffron and Idiazabal sauce. Caught off the British coast like all their fish, these are hand dived, which perhaps explains the £4.75 price tag per scallop. Very fresh and perfectly cooked, though I wondered what had happened to the coral. The sauce, slightly cheesy with the subtle fragrance of saffron, begged for bread to mop it up with, or just tipped straight into a hungry mouth.

A dish of Arroz Negro, rice cooked in squid ink, was a revelation to me. Tiny pieces of squid lurking within the rice provided a great texture contrast with the rice, while the very garlicky aioli coated the mouth and brought the mouthful together. It's one of those dishes that I can believe I haven't before. Later on, looking it the mirror I was more surprised than I should have been to find it's turned my lips slightly black.

We decided to share a few mains between us. Fillet steak and rib eye steaks are offered by the 100gr - this is cooked on a grill especially imported from Spain. Many believe the Spanish are best at their seafood, but Richard believes they are also excellent at cooking their meat.

The rib eye steak, cooked perfectly cooked to medium rare had decent charring on it. While the meat was well hung and had a deep beefy flavour, I found it a little dry and thought it lacked the fat I so love about the rib eye cut.

Star of the show for the mains was the pan fried veal belly with chickpea mash. This, unlike the steak, was riddled with gorgeous fat, melting on the tongue with tender and succulent meat. I would go back there for this alone. I must find a supplier of veal belly to experiment with.

Desserts were solid in execution and a little unexciting. The creme Catalan had a caramel crust that broke pleasingly beneath the fork, and vanilla ice cream with sweet Pedro Ximinez poured over it was suitably boozy.

A night cap of rum and an espresso finished me off properly and I staggered off into the night with the afterglow of having spent over 3 hours in excellent company, and sampling delicious food. True, I haven't been to many Spanish restaurants in London (Barrafina, Dehesa, Fino) and some might argue that I don't have a good point of comparison, but Camino impressed me greatly. The Arroz Negro was a thing of great beauty and I was raving about the veal belly for some time afterwards.

Camino

The Regent Quarter,
King's Cross
London N1 9AF

Tel: 020 7841 7331

Full set of photos of the feast we had are available here