Opera Tavern.

Opera Tavern

Four years of Harden's survey summaries read in order describe a slide, ending with regulars saying it has "lost its game".

Why go

For the counter downstairs and the postcode. This is a converted Covent Garden pub two minutes from the Royal Opera House, with quite a lot of its former pub architecture retained (Harden's) and, on the ground floor, striking graphic prints by the likes of Ben Eine over a bar with counter seating and a communal table (venue). Head chef Pavlin Karantatski cooks Spanish and Italian small plates on seasonal ingredients, and the kitchen runs to eleven midweek, which is what most people are actually deciding about here.

Be clear-eyed about the rest. The survey record moves the wrong way over four years, and the current summary says outright that "marks have dropped off in recent years". Salt Yard Group, which built this room, is now inside the Urban Pubs and Bars group, and a format inside a larger pub company has to prove its edge rather than assume it.

Order this / avoid

• Order: the broccoli and courgette tempura, the pan con tomate, and the orange panna cotta. Those are the three reporters keep coming back to.
• Avoid: booking the upstairs room if the counter is free, and any expectation that this is the version people remember.

What locals & experts say

• Harden's survey reporters, current year: dependable tapas-style small plates in an atmosphere that feels both private and buzzing, but Marks have dropped off in recent years, though, and those who remember it back in the day, when it really fizzed along, feel it's 'lost its game'.2
• The same survey, an earlier year, putting it in its group: not the best of the Salt Yard chain, but good for a quick pre-show meal, serving food that's just a bit better than its local competition.2 A third year records that some feel it's expensive for what it is.
• No named critic and no chef has assessed this room in anything reachable on 1 August 2026, and it appears in none of the 622 rows of London industry recommendations held here.

Good to know

• Where: 23 Catherine Street WC2B 5JS, in theatre land.
• Timing: to 22:45 Monday, 23:00 midweek, and 20:00 on Sunday. The Sunday close is early enough to catch people out.
• The room: two floors. The bar, counter and communal table are downstairs; the dining room is above.
• Operator: Salt Yard Group, now part of the Urban Pubs and Bars group. A group format inside a pub company, which is worth knowing when you read a menu that says seasonal.
• Two dishes you may have read about: charcoal cooking and an Iberico pork burger. Neither appears in the venue's current description nor in any of four survey years, so neither is claimed here.
• Hygiene: FSA rating 5, Westminster, inspected 10 November 2025. Components 5, 5 and 5, where higher is worse. Clean and recent.3

Verdict

could-visit — Go if you are at the theatre. Harden's has surveyed this room across four separate years and the sequence tells the story better than any single verdict: it starts with reporters naming individual standout plates, moves to 'keeping up its standards', then to 'not the best of the Salt Yard chain, but good for a quick pre-show meal', and lands on the current one, where 'marks have dropped off in recent years' and people who knew it earlier 'feel it's lost its game'. Weigh craft first and that is a competent kitchen that stopped moving. What is genuinely good is the downstairs half: a bar with counter seating and a communal table under Ben Eine prints, in a converted pub two minutes from the Royal Opera House, open to eleven midweek. Head chef Pavlin Karantatski cooks Spanish and Italian small plates on seasonal ingredients. The broccoli and courgette tempura and the pan con tomate are the plates reporters keep picking out. One thing worth knowing about who runs it: Salt Yard Group is now inside the Urban Pubs and Bars group.