10 questions with Sam Hart of Barrafina

Sam Hart co-founded Barrafina with his brother Eddie in 2007, inspired by the legendary Cal Pep in Barcelona. The brand has since grown to six locations, with five tapas bars across London, and one in Dubai.

With Barrafina now live on the CODE app with up to 25% off food, we hit Sam with ten quickfire questions.

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What’s the most underrated dish on the menu at Barrafina?

Let’s go with the banderillas. I love them. They’re not the most glamorous dish on the menu. They’re quite a simple thing, just some olive, piparra, quail’s egg, anchovy. There’s quite a few variations. You can sort of fiddle about, and have tuna instead of anchovy, or with or without quail’s egg, with or without a pepper, and so on and so forth. They’re one of those things you can eat every day and I do, almost every time I’m in Barrafina.

Where’s your favourite place to go after hours?

You may or may not believe this, but I’m very, very rarely out after hours these days. But if I am, I’ll almost always be in QV [Quo Vadis]. There’s always nice people that I’m happy to see there.

What’s your secret London tip?

I like avoiding public transport where possible because that doesn’t fill my day with very much joy. So I find that either walking or cycling is, for me, easily the best way to get around town. The opinion on Lime bikes, and Forest and others, is a bit divided but I’m very firmly in the camp that they have transformed city travel and have the ability to keep doing so. I always prefer to be above ground rather than below it. London is such a beautiful city and there are plenty of amazing things to see en route between the restaurants and none of them is further than 13 minutes away on a bike.

What’s the best thing you can do with £20 in London?

With £20, I would have lunch at Koya Udon on Frith Street. It’s been serving amazing value udon noodles for years.

Where do you go when you want to splurge?

It feels like anywhere is a splurge, going out at the moment! The River Cafe has always been a huge favourite for a special occasion. It’s a splurge but, I think, always worth it.

Which CODE offers are you going to be snapping up?

Dove in Notting Hill. It’s not far from where I live and the food is fantastic.

What’s your favourite thing to cook at home?

I’m probably not meant to say it given where my restaurants are from, but I actually love cooking risotto. I love the magic of starting with nothing much, ie plain uncooked rice, and ending up with a dish that’s full of flavour.

Which element of your job do you like most and like least?

What I like most is working alongside such nice and talented people. I’ve been doing this for 23 years or something and we’ve got a lot people who’ve been with us a long time. The thing I like least? I’ve never enjoyed conflict very much and sometimes in our job we have to have difficult conversations and as much as I was just singing praises of our team which is great, on the other hand, because we do have a great relationship, having those harder conversations is never something I love.

What’s your favourite and least favourite ingredient?

Least favourite, Aperol! Favourite, Campari!

When you’re not working in a restaurant or eating in one, where will we find you? I’ve lived in Acton in West London for the last 14 years or something. We have a local pub which we love, The Rocket on Churchfield Road. We know the people who run it and a few of the regulars so you’ll quite often find me there.