Canela on Carnaby

My friend and I arrived at Canela, a Brazilian/Portugese restaurant near Carnaby Street, to be greeted by confusion.

They didn’t know we had booked. Five minutes of red-faced entreaties ensued, but the accommodating co-owner eventually sat us down at the table. Flustered, we under-ordered, but what we did eat gave us enough of a taste of the place.

To start, we plumped for the Canela board snack – £9.90 for a platter of mainly deep-fried snackettes and probably quantity enough for a meal. Good hangover food: fries, cheese balls, coxhina (a Brazilian tear-shaped morsel of shredded chicken), parsley and onions in breadcrumbs.

I had a typical Portugese dish called Bacalhau a Bras for my main: salted cod with crisp potatoes, onions, egg and parsley. Its intriguing texture stemmed from the thinnest deep-fried potato matchsticks that spiked the flaked fish like a yellow hedgehog. It had a gentle, not-too-fishy flavour, and provoked mild excitement when we discovered the golden egg yolk pooled at the bottom.

Salad heaped on the same plate sadly leaked its honeyed dressing into the dish which caused temporary sensory confusion. My friend’s feijoa, black bean stew with smoked meats, rice and farofa (powdered cassava) had a beautifully rich liquor while proving a bit bland simultaneously. There was bayleaf in there, and bits of unidentified pork (my friend thought it was lung, but that was pushing it), yet I was yearning for a bit more definition within the generous portion.

We then shared a wonderful Brazilian crème caramel whose body was crystalline and toffee-esque. As we ate, we watched the Carnaby crusties breezing past as part of that weekend’s Swinging Carnaby Festival. Gothic, large-chested women in zebra-print spandex leggings, latterday mods in parkas, all contrasted nicely with Canela’s understated décor of black wood benches, olive walls and low-slung pendulum lighting.

Saying goodbye to our attentive and chatty waitress, we paunched around Carnaby Street looking for the party. But apart from the rows of Lambrettas and Vestas, there were only bemused looking casualties from every decade since the 1960s. A folorn stage belted out tinned music at 3pm – surely the best time for a spot of swinging live band action in the summer sun? Alack we went off to make our own fun with not a jot of spandex in sight.

Canela Carnaby
1 Newburgh Street
Soho
W1F 7RB

Tel: 020 7494 9980