Opera Tavern 23 Catherine Street, London WC2B 5JS

"We came here for dinner on a Saturday before an evening performance. We loved the atmosphere and found the staff very welcoming. The food was nice enough but nothing really stood out as spectacular except the fried courgettes. It’s obvious the food is fresh and it was all prepared beautifully. The wine we had was delicious and fairly reasonable at £19 for a bottle. Nothing was bad, it just didn’t blow us away like we were hoping."

"We were seeing a matinee, and this was around the corner from the theater. We slipped in for a quick bite and were very pleasantly surprised. Spanish and Italian tapas and wine are served in a chic ambience and a warm setting. Octopus was tender and served on top of black rice cooked in squid sauce. It was excellent. Wines are served by the glass or by the bottle. This was a very nice find directly across the street from the royal theater."

"The food was really nice. Small plates / med tapas kind of vibes. Had mostly veggie plus some meat and fish. Stand outs were the courgette, hake, and burrata. Tiny downside is that the alcohol seemed ever so slightly over priced compared to average for the area."

"Amazing meal. We had 8 plates between 2 and every single one was great. Great recommendations by the staff (who did an impeccable job considering there were only 2 front of house). 10 out of 10 meal. Octopus was incredible"

"Wonderful Spanish tapas in this unsuspecting looking pub in Covent Garden! The menu is very inviting, some really interesting ingredient pairings and great sounding dishes. Overall the food was delicious, exactly how I'd expect Spanish type tapas to be cooked. The seafood dishes are the stars of the show here, really fresh tasting dishes and beautifully cooked seafood. Would highly recommend the chargrilled octopus which was my favourite dish and the roasted Jerusalem artichokes vegetable dish - both fantatsic. Only reason for the 4 stars and not 5 is that a couple of dishes just lacked a bit of flavour. The sea bream ceviche I would have expected to have bit more zing/citrus to bring the dish alive and the barbary duck breast was a bit tough and lacked seasoning, the duck leg pancake however was absolutely delicous! Desserts were great, and would highly recommend the pistachio doughnuts and ricotta cream, so damn good and moorish! The staff and service were fantastic, really friendly staff with a great atmosphere in the room. Will definitely come back to try the other dishes on the menu."