There must be one of those wonderful German compound nouns for the feeling of delicious unease you get when there's a queue of hungry people behind you in a restaurant, but you're not giving up your seat, no way. Something like the word for the weight you gain when you're unhappy (kummerspeck: grief bacon), or for the fear of missed opportunities (torschlusspanik: gate-shutting panic).
We've been perched on our bar stools at the new Barrafina for hours (the owners say it's in Covent Garden, but it's more like Charing Cross). The backs of our necks are prickling from the hard stares we're getting from the queue. It's a tapas bar, there are no reservations, but that's another of the many beauties of this place: you come in fancying a smattering of expertly cut Ibérico ham and seven courses later you're looking at a sizable bill and ortiguillas (sea anemones) or deep-fried lamb's brain.
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