Opso: It’s no Greek tragedy on Paddington Street, Marylebone

In the cut throat world of the London dining scene, if you don’t evolve quickly, you rapidly become another tragic extinction story. When Opso opened in 2014 with much fanfare, some hardened food critics didn’t give the venue the best of reviews. Some didn’t understand their take on the modern Greek cuisine, others thought it was unnecessarily high-minded and complicated; so it was with great interest when we were invited to try out their new simplified lunch menu.

With their clean look and modern design, it’s a restaurant that is easy to take an instant liking to. The tables have attractive floral decorations, even the windows are surrounded by green foliage and the light brown wood with the white walls make the space seem much more cavernous than it really is. The owners have invested wisely in a collection of meditative CDs, you feel instantly relaxed as soon as you step through the doors. It was actually a struggle to contemplate heading back to work.

Their new lunchtime menu are based on a selection of light lunches, sandwich lunch boxes and reasonably priced set lunch menus. The light options are an unfussy collection of fresh salads, cheeses and grocer’s spreads such as tzatziki, which is Greek yoghurt spread with cucumber and dill. Their spreads are ideally combined with their freshly baked in-house breads, especially their koulouri bread. This is a sesame covered milk bread with fresh goat’s curd and Greek organic unrefined sea salt.

I tried their pulled pork lunch box option, which is spotlessly presented in a modern wooden tray. Everything from the chips to the addictively tasty aioli tartare sauce is homemade. The sandwich itself is filled with rich beautiful flavours from the pork belly, tzatziki, tomatoes, red onions, parsley and mint. Even then I couldn’t resist adding in some of the tartare sauce. When will the big supermarkets knock on their doors to offer to sell their sauces? The pork belly had just the right amount of meat and fat, although I would still say the quantity is marginally on the low side. However at £7, this is the kind of lunch you should blissfully enjoy a few times a week.Combine your lunch meal with their healthy selection of smoothies for the ideal office lunch time treat. Their pink smoothie with Greek yoghurt, strawberries, thyme honey was instantly soothing to the throat and the ideal drink to ward off those winter ills.
Their new updated lunchtime menu is just what the doctor would have ordered for Opso. This is a restaurant that continues to be a trendsetter for modern Greek cuisine with a London twist.