Bars & Pubs

Leffe Best New Restaurant | Best Gastropub | Best British Restaurant | Best Family Restaurant | Best Local Restaurant | Best Cheap Eats | Best Bar | Best Design | Best Traiteur | Best Coffee Bar

Best Design

Skylon

WINNER
Skylon
Set at the front of the refurbished Royal Festival Hall (in what used to be the People’s Palace), this lofty space – with floor-to-ceiling windows affording a fantastic view of the Thames – is divided into three separate destinations: a raised bar in the centre separates the formal restaurant area from the more casual brasserie. Skylon is named after Powell and Moya’s celebrated metal sculpture that was considered one of the highlights of the 1951 Festival of Britain. Designed by Conran & Partners, the room is dominated by five enormous bespoke bronze chandeliers, their lozenge shape and ring of fins one of many subtle references to design details around the recently refurbished main building. Feature continues

Chef Helena Puolakka’s menus contain the likes of Swedish classic Jansson’s temptation, and Finnish-style hot-smoked-to-order fish dishes, but stretches to appealingly familiar dishes such as hamburger, eggs Benedict and chocolate brownie on the grill menu. Sadly the wine list offers little under £5 per 175ml glass. The grill-brasserie is expensive, but the restaurant (with olive green carpet, leather banquettes and dining sofas) is even dearer for dishes such as fricassee of morels and young vegetables, or sea bass en papillote with Spanish ham, fennel, olives and puy lentils. However, staff are friendly and their ‘Star Trek’ uniforms are a fashion sensation.
Skylon, Royal Festival Hall, Belvedere Rd, SE1 8XX (020 7654 7800/www.skylonrestaurant.co.uk) Waterloo tube/rail.

RUNNERS-UP
High Road House
One-time Elle Decoration editor Ilse Crawford of Studioilse has created a softly sumptuous interior for this west London outpost of private members’ club Soho House. A muted colour palette gives a clean, fresh feel to the first-floor dining rooms, but the talking point is the collection of hand-printed wallpapers by local artist Marthe Armitage. The basement bar is a sexier proposition, more intimately lit and accentuated with blood red upholstery; one small anteroom comes entirely cushioned, used as a playpen during the day and as a grown-up den after dark. Opening on to the pavement is the public brasserie, with all the trappings of a bustling Parisian café, and some wild ceramic floor tiles.
High Road House, 162-166 Chiswick High Rd, W4 1PR (020 8742 7474/www.highroadhouse.co.uk) Turnham Green tube.

L’Atelier de Joël Robouchon
An increasingly-rare example of no-expense-spared haute-design befitting the fanfare-opening of this celebrated French chef’s London eatery. Spread over four floors (one of offices) the layout makes intimate open kitchens on each floor part of the show, thus taming some otherwise unfriendly spaces. Designer Pierre-Yves Rochon knows how to do opulent, throwing in red leather armchairs, crocodile-skin bar tables, an ornate gold-fronted bar, plenty of lacquered wood, and a fantastic floor-to-ceiling wall of growing greenery. But the aerodynamic Ercuis cutlery is difficult to use and, while a design rigour that stretches to the exact placing of each tiny cube of tomato on your plate has to be admired, for the diner it can sometimes be oppressive.
L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon, 13-15 West St, WC2H 9NQ (020 7010 8600) Leicester Square tube.

Meals @ Heal's
A witty and imaginative café for an otherwise extremely serious furniture store, Meals comes courtesy of the entertaining folk at architectural practice FAT. Effectively an exercise in what you can achieve with digital cutting techniques and some gloss paint, the cupboards suggest a fairy tale landscape of foliage and stars, while fake wooden ‘tablecloths’ and marshmallow pink chairs are the ironic side of twee. This is an uplifting setting in which to consume Oliver Peyton’s upmarket comfort-food classics. And if you’ve no time to stop, grab a pie, cake or salad from Peyton’s shop by the store entrance, also designed by FAT.
Meals, first floor, Heal’s, 196 Tottenham Court Rd, W1T 7LQ (020 7580 2522) Goodge St tube.

Pearl Liang
Chinese restaurant Pearl Liang takes its cues from the ancient Oriental philosophy of feng shui, with attention to the five elements of fire, wood, earth, water and metal. A sumptuous black marble bar, floor-to-ceiling bamboo poles, a dark wooden screen and a giant wooden abacus greet diners when they arrive, as well as the all-important fountain and fish pond, a portent of money (ie customers). A long mural of mui blossoms dominates the dining area, its colours echoed in the fuchsia furniture throughout the restaurant (a softening of the Chinese lucky colour red), and the fibrous paper sandwiched in the glass walls screening the private function rooms. Mirrors are strategically placed throughout, keeping the energy, or chi, flowing round the space.
Pearl Liang, 8 Sheldon Square, Paddington Central, W2 6EZ (020 7289 7000/www.pearlliang.co.uk) Paddington tube/rail.

Leffe Best New Restaurant | Best Gastropub | Best British Restaurant | Best Family Restaurant | Best Local Restaurant | Best Cheap Eats | Best Bar | Best Design | Best Traiteur | Best Coffee Bar