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Olea has an April tasting menu that sends you to the map with its innovative plays off of Spanish cooking. Octopus, smoked salmon, anchovies, caviar, codfish, quail, goat cheese, and lamb make appearances in a progress of six plates.
Here Chef Manuel Romero, a native of Galicia on the coast of northwestern Spain, distills arid grazing uplands surrounded by the North Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea into plated miniatures.
The first three courses feature the ocean.
A tapas plate begins with codfish mousse and ends with tender grilled octopus submerged into a salty sweet-peppered potato foam, something like a straight up draught of the North Atlantic.
Next, smoked salmon is mounded over a generous piece of focaccia, ornamented with Osetra caviar, dill, crème fraîche, and a sunny-side up quail egg — a combination that makes a satisfying “breakfast” near the start of the menu.
The bacalao plate is a taste of tradition: Atlantic codfish bathed in pil-pil, a northern Spanish Basque sauce emulsified from the cooking liquid of cod and olive oil, over a bed of paprika-potato puree. Pickled carrots and sherry vinegar add nice touches of brightness.
The next two plates move inland.
Codorniz, or Spanish quail, is the surprising standout dish on this menu. Quail, the smallest game bird in Spain, offers petite but meaty legs cooked with crisp skin eaten finger-style with sweet-savory piquillo pepper, raisins, Brussel sprouts, scallions, and pea greens. It is served with honey-sweetened corn bread.
The final plate is a tender boneless shank of lamb served au jus with pert squares of goat cheese ravioli and finely-chopped vegetables.
The dessert plate, citrusy wafers of Pavlova sandwiching créme brûlée ice cream with berry compote, is light and fantastical, including a row of caramelized crumbled hazelnut — something like eating a deconstructed Butterfinger.
Other standouts from April’s tasting menu include a goat cheese panna cotta with beet glaze and balsamic pearls, and a yellowfin tuna tartare with sesame and soy.
The clean contemporary look of the dining room, and the gracious service, keep the attention on the dishes. But because the restaurant occupies a house on High Street in downtown New Haven, Olea maintains a family feel. In fact, Romero’s wife Andrea Romero manages the dining room with another couple, Juan Carlos and Maria Gonzalez.
Celebrating its ten-year anniversary in August, its restaurateurs met while working at Ibiza, a Spanish restaurant that began its life as Café Pike Tapas, one of the first tapas restaurants in the United States. And the teamwork shows. Olea runs smoothly. The dining room, filled with couples, parties, and a wine tasting party in one corner, seems like a well-ordered family reunion.
New Haven Restaurant Week starts this week April 16-19. Olea is offering a prix fixe menu for $55, with a number of the dishes mentioned above and more, a great opportunity to try Olea and other restaurants in New Haven.