In the slippery parlance of modern restaurant-speak — a world where “viral” means overhyped and “clubstaurant” is usually code for an unbearable, Dubai-honed money pit — the word Basque tends to be a reliable synonym for bustle and smallness. Someone invokes the rich, gutsy food culture of the separatist borderland between Spain and France, and you are already off and away picturing low farmhouse beams, the giddy clamour of squished bodies at a long pintxo counter, and complex, two-bite miniatures skewered onto toothpicks.
Well, at Ibai, a new restaurant near St Bart’s hospital from Lurra founder Nemanja Borjanović, they have essentially taken this understated Basque formula and pumped it full of creatine. Occupying the rattly, capacious former factory space that was once Lino, it is a restaurant that deals in high gloss and unexpected magnitudes of massiveness. The 80-cover, haute-industrial dining room is big. The prices are big. The flavours — inspired by the French side of the Basque border — are so big they often land with the super-sized abandon of an Olympic opening ceremony.
