Follow the neon pink angel to get to Letra, the hidden away Spanish subterranean restaurant and bar with a cosy vibe. Letra House is named after its historic 1860s heritage building, which previously housed the Sydney headquarters of the London based Letraset typography company. The menu features Spanish food and drinks with some standout dishes.
It's a busy Friday night when Mr NQN and I arrive at Letra House. The restaurant is slightly hidden away, down a little stone lined alleyway off Kent Street and is illuminated by neon pink lights. A pink angel signals our arrival at Letra House. Since its opening the angel icon is used to highlight the female-led wine teams and producers on their wine list.
We open the door and there are some little tables and a fire heater keeping people warm. Then the larger door leads to the main restaurant itself and the open kitchen where Head Chef Brandon Jones is busy. Letra House is part of the Love Tilly Group that includes Dear Sainte Eloise and Ragazzi.
The menu at Letra House is inspired by Spanish Iberian flavours and also features around 50 bottles of wine, all available by the glass. We start with two glasses of their house vermouth the Espinaler 120 Vermut Vintage made with over 80 herbs. This sweet aromatic spiced vermouth is a reminder of our travels to Spain and whets our appetites for the snacks to come.
Like many menus most of the most exciting action is in the snack area. And just a warning: while the tables are tiny, they bring everything out so that it just fits on the table. We start with the anchovy draped donut filled with a whole egg manchego custard similar to a bechamel. This umami rich snack is very tasty although it is a donut served cold which is a bit of a surprise.
A must order is the raw scampi toast. The scampi are from Shark Bay in Western Australia and are served on wafer thin toast with paprika and prawn head oil and lime zest dotted on top. The raw scampi is creamy and is flavoured perfectly with chives and lemon on the uber thin crisp bread. A dozen of these please and thank you.
The croquettes are filled with Jerusalem artichoke and San Simon Da Costa Cheese from Galicia in Spain. These croquettes are crunchy on the outside and luxuriously silky on the inside.
There are four types of jamon on the menu and we go with the recommendation of the Paleta Iberico. It comes with a soft bread and thin shavings of the jamon. Like Jamon Iberico, it is made with the black pig but is more robust and intensely flavoured than Jamon Iberico.
One of the more unique dishes is the Socarrat which was inspired by the delicious crunchy bits at the bottom of the paella pan. The rice disc is cooked on the plancha and then topped with a Spanish vinegar beurre blanc with tiny firefly squid, plump but tiny mussels and vongole clams. It has a wonderful contrast of flavours and textures from the crunchy rice, creamy beurre blanc and tender squid.
I'm going to offer you a little bit of advice if I may. When you order the morcilla, and you certainly should, save some of the bread from the jamon for the morcilla or ask for more bread. This is unlike other morcillas or blood sausage that you may have tried which are a charcoal black in colour. This has such a remarkable purple shade to it that it looks almost like it is made with beetroot. The morcilla is entirely made in house by Head Chef Brandon and is made from a blend of pork shoulder, belly and collar, with cinnamon, allspice, clove, caramelised onion and pork blood. They hang for a few days before being smoked over cherry, hickory and apple wood for 4 hours. The key to that glorious purple shade is the temperature as they smoke it low and gentle at 65 degrees C before finishing it on the plancha; any higher and the morcilla would be darker. It comes with a smooth apple puree and a jus made from pork and beef bones. Although Mr NQN can take or leave morcilla this awakens something in his Spanish roots because he devours this appreciatively. As for me, I loved it in a little sandwich made out of the bread and a little of the garlic aioli.
We also try the potato tortilla with quenelle of pungent garlic aioli on top. As we cut into it, the inside spills out while the outside is set.
We're sharing the Wagyu Sirloin from Kimbara in the Kimberleys in WA. This sits in a bed of an incredibly delicious, slightly tangy and sweet tomato butter with guindilla chilies and a fried egg on top. The wagyu is so succulent and melts in the mouth and works perfectly with the tomato butter. The only thing I would wish for was some fries on the side to dip in that divine tomato butter.
A side dish that goes well with it on the other end of the spectrum is the radicchio salad with orange dressing, apple, pear, pickled raisins and smoked almonds. The radicchio's bitterness is tempered by the sweet dressing.
We only have room for one dessert and we go with their recommendation of the rhubarb tart filled with custard in a short crumbly base topped with tender crisp batons of rhubarb. This goes very well with a dessert wine, particularly the Andrew Thomas 2025 Elevage semillon dessert wine.
So tell me Dear Reader, which dish would you like to try?
Letra House
Rear/344 Kent St, Sydney NSW 2000
Phone: (02) 9044 2553
Monday - Thursday 4-11pm
Friday & Saturday 4pm-1am
Sunday Closed
www.lovetillygroup.com/letra-house
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