The hunt for a private dining experience that is truly worth the time and money can feel like a mammoth task. Fortunately, there’s a lesser-known restaurant in Farringdon with an exceptional menu, upscale but welcoming decor, and a brilliant wine list. Private dining at Ibai is all about experience, it’s the chance to immerse yourself in the criminally underrated cuisine of French Basque Country.
Set within a former factory on a cobbled backstreet between Barbican, St Barts Hospital, and Smithfield Market, Ibai is an 80-cover restaurant designed to lean into the industrial bones of the space. And yet, there’s an intimate quality to the decor. The private dining room seats 12, in a secluded room with polished concrete floors. This is a contemporary steak house.
Headed up by Richard Foster, former Chiltern Firehouse head chef, Ibai's produce comes direct from local farms, offering the team control over the supply chain in a new style of farm-to-table cooking. Working in collaboration with the founders of beef supplier Txuleta, Ibai specialises in thick, bone-in cuts from ex-dairy cows known for their superior meaty flavour.
The Ibai menu is both casual and refined. Starters include La Noir de Bigorre ham served atop crisps with smoked piparra peppers; croque Ibai toastie with carabinero prawns, boudin noir blood sausage, and melted Tomme de Brebis; and tender peas with broad beans and black truffle. For the mains, steak is the main attraction, but alongside a kilo t-bone of Galician blond you’ll find octopus and piperade marmitako (a traditional tuna stew), and chargrilled cauliflower with Ossau-Iraty cheese. Desserts include a faultless gateau Basque with summer berries and an intriguing mountain cider sorbet.
Alongside flavourful dishes, private dining at Ibai involves wines drawn from a well-stocked cork-panelled cellar curated by sommelier Hugh Jones. Which alongside classic Bordeaux and Piedmont varieties, includes Txakoli, a slightly sparkling very dry white.