Coppin' Off

My totally inability to be on the ball has been well documented in this blog, which is why I am sure it will come to absolutely no surprise that I only ate at Copita last week. My first non-detox, interesting restaurant experience of 2012 was going to be 10 Greek Street, but the cold, the possibility of a queue and the fact that my friends and I were drinking in Glasshouse Stores (much closer to Copita's D'arblay Street location), meant that we ended up here.

Tiny, tiled and suitably tousled - Copita could be part of Russell Norman's burgoening empire but is somehow more interesting because it isn't. It feels like a tapas joint, with high stools, long counters and low-hanging urban light fittings. The staff are frazzled but friendly in a 'busy serving tapas' sort of way and the menu is pleasingly short (though sadly not short enough to order everything on the menu between three). We gave it a go though... prompting our kindly waiter to tell us that we had ordered too much. Having sunk a few rums in the pub before and already well into our bottle of wine, we ignored him.

Far too much fun was being had to pay much attention to names of dishes (or even take shots of everything consumed) but off the top of my head... The spiced carrots were brilliant, roasted til sweet with pleasing hints of cumin and chilli. The chorizo was of excellent quality and delicious when consumed with oil laden chunks of bread. The pea, fresh cheese and truffle croquets lacked seasoning (not helped by no salt on the table) but were perfectly pleasant nonetheless. The crunchy, salty maize snacks with roasted broad beans are my new favourite thing to nibble with wine. The duck tart was a bit soggy but looked pretty. The pumpkin ravioli was a bit richly sweet for me, but was happily wolfed down by the others. The ribs with date (melted into a sticky coating) dripped off the bone *mouth starts to water at the memory*

All in all an impressive spread. Everything did taste oddly sweet and some dishes were under seasoned, but a few squirts of lemon and a sprinkle of salt would sort that right out. With a reasonable wine list, a regularly rotating and genuinely interesting menu, nice staff, a pleasing fizz of an atmosphere and close proximity to my favourite pub in Soho, I suspect this is not going to be my last visit of 2012...

Copita
26/27 D'arblay Street
W1F 8EP