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Cadogan Arms
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© Rob Greig
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By Guy Dimond
Tom and Ed Martin, who have opened a string of acclaimed gastropubs and restaurants in London (including The Gun in the Docklands and The Botanist at Sloane Square), have done it again. Yet another smooth, good-looking, Hugh Grant of a gastropub with great food and a proper beer list. That much we’ve come to expect. But a good pub on the King’s Road? Now that’s news.
The Cadogan Arms is a spacious boozer dating from 1869, now rebuilt and beautifully decorated. Not really restored – some artistic licence has been used with the huge stock brick fireplace and the ceramic tiling – but with its dark wood panelling, antlers on the walls and candelabras on the dining tables, it’s a looker, even if having a stuffed rabbit head watching over you is a little disconcerting.
Simple dishes done well currently include a fillet of pan-fried trout, balanced on a firm risotto studded with broad beans and coloured with garden peas; and the roast vine tomato soup (pictured above), a bit sweet, but with good intensity of flavour. Some of the desserts read like school favourites, such as the gooseberry and apple crumble, but a shallow dish of crème brûlée would make any French pastry chef proud; a just-set warm custard, delicately flavoured with lavender, with a crisp, wafer-thin sugar lid.
Having eaten in a few Martin Bros places, I’m seeing a pattern. Seamless cooking, great attention to detail, exquisite presentation. And this is a mid-priced gastropub. Which makes me suspicious. Are they using a central kitchen to prep the dishes, in the way that some Gordon Ramsay Holdings gastropubs have done? I’m assured not – it’s all made on the premises.
Although a gastropub, this is still a boozer with a bar built for drinking, a few real ales (Fuller’s London Pride; Adnams’ Broadside or Bitter), and a commendable selection of wines by the glass (an Alsatian riesling and a gamay among them). And if bending your elbow with a pint isn’t exercise enough, there’s a billiards room on the first floor.
The staff are smooth operators too, gliding around as efficiently as polished billiard balls on baize; our French waitress was as charming as could be. If only all neighbourhood gastropubs were this good.Time Out July 2009
Time Out reviews restaurants anonymously and pays for meals. Of course, we cannot guarantee the accuracy or independence of user reviews.
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Details
- 298 King's Road, Chelsea, SW3 5UG
- Area: Chelsea
- Tel: 020 7352 6500
- Website
- Category: Gastropubs
- Travel: Sloane Square tube
- Times: 11am-11pm Mon-Sat; 11am-10.30pm Sun
- Price: Meal for two with wine and service: around £70
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I'm Romain, a 20 years old french guy who's just arrived in town. I'm here for working, actually it's an internship, part of my engineering...
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I really like The Cadogan Arms. It's a welcome addition to the area. I find the atmophere always warm and welcoming, and staff lovely. It's not a 'cheap' pub, but it is in Chelsea, and I don't think it's expensive for the quality of food. I LOVE the artichoke soup here, and nearly always have it as my starter, especially now it's getting chilly. I generally pick some seafood or a salad for my main, depending on my mood, but mostly to leave room for something from their delicious dessert menu... My current favourite being the cheesecake, which is sublime.. but the sticky toffee pud gets a look in at times too. Oh, and there are, last but not least, some really fantastic wines.
The bar is lovely and all the staff are very friendly. The meal left much to be desired for the Time Out 2009 Gastro Runner Up. I had the Steak & Kidney Pie { special of the day }. It came out luke warm at best . I sent it back and the pie came back hot but the mash and the green beans remained cold. Am unsure whether the food was prepared onsite, it tasted more like it was prepared off site and reheated on the premises.Very disappointing after expecting so much.
I went here a few evenings ago with my best friend and we had a really lovely evening. The food was all very, very good. We shared the scallops for a starter, and then both had the mussels for our mains - all delicious. The service was of a high standard, and the manager's wine suggestion perfect. We were both very pleased with our first visit to the pub, and will definitely be back.
What a wonderful pub. I dined here only this week with my in-laws, the food and service not only met with their standards, it surpassed them. Well done to all concerned in making this company what it is. I'm frequently visit the Botanist in Sloane Square, another venue owned by the same chaps and although the surroundings in the Cadogan are wildly different the standards are much the same.
My husband and his father took full advantage of the 8 ball pool in the old billiards room whilst my mother in-law and I enjoyed the classic cocktail list.
With a comprehensive wine list to suit all tastes and budgets, a menu of delights and a host of charming staff I'm sure the latest addition to the ETM group will follow the family trend and flourish
Food pretty good and half priced offer made it all the better but let down by the children running around in the dining room on the sat evening I visited - this really put me off and I certianly wouldnt pay full price - the food wasnt that special.
Completely underwhelmed by the place, the food and the staff, who managed to give my reserved table away despite letting them know I was there 1/2 hour before. Small portions, especially my starter fishcakes - mere mouthfulls, and the fish and chips was just OK. Felt better having been given a 25% online booking discount. I feel misled by the review and the 5 stars. Adequate but not great - yet. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.
My heart sank slightly on arriving here as it did not look as good as I thought it would, but then it does suffer from being at the wrong end of the Kings Road. The service was very good and we were made to feel very welcome. The food was good quality gastro pub fair. The only thing that was disappointing about our visit was the presence of loud children in the restaurant (8.30 on a Saturday night) which reiterated my belief that children should NOT be allowed in pubs or restaurants. We took advantage of the 50% off offer which was great value, but couldn;t help feeling that there was no way we'd ever pay full price...
Sorry that was a bit of a rant earlier (see below). The food is probably worth three stars not two. I was just very disappointed!
Didn't know there was a special on, so it was VERY expensive, and while the food is good, it's not THAT good. Maybe that's just the Kings Road, but I think there's so much choice these days that £50/head for Sunday lunch is outrageous (incl Bloody Mary + sml glass of wine). Service was very friendly, but we seemed to have two waitresses serving us, which meant we kept getting asked the same thing twice. Great Bloody Mary's though.
A warm welcome from the Maitre De, a five star review from Time Out - and 50% off food when you book online - This is going to be good. I love a good gastro pub. But this isn't it. A beer and a (pricey) glass of wine at the bar, and we're waiting for friends at our table... and when our friends turn up we're waiting for service. There are 4 small plates and 4 knives in from of us - lovingly stacked in a designer-ish way. Maybe they are for a platter for sharing, maybe they are teasing us with the temptation of freshly baked bread in front of us. We order (eventually). Two courses, a starter and a main course, from a rather uninspired menu. Slow roasted tomato soup, or tuna with slow roasted tomatoes, or... (you get the picture). But hell maybe it doesn't have to be extensive the food will just be sooo good. And the four plates and the four knives are taken away. What the hell were they for?. A decent bottle of Sauvignon Blanc replaces it and then a pastrami-ish duck follows (with honey and almonds and a green bean salad) and it is all rather disappointing. The half-pint of prawns looks half full. (1/4 pint of prawns anyone?). Next the main course, haddock and chips is overworked, a veal chop is huge - but the mash reduced to mush, and a burger that passes by looks like it is in a supermarket bun. The trout on risotto looks good but isn't. We press on foolishly. The creme brulee gets a thumbs up but comes with the same honey and lavender that came with the duck salad. The apple and gooseberry crumble is - quite literally an "old school favourite" - lacking in flavour and bite that you'd expect as a grown up. And the special cheesecake (maybe we should have guessed when the waitress said it was cheddar with passionfruit on it) was dry. We didn't ask for the bill. But got it thrown at us. And it didn't add up. I'm glad we didn't pay full price - and maybe £25 quid is a bargain for 3 courses. Just if it was £40 (as it would be normally) it would be a floppy-haired rip off. So which restaurant did Time Out go to?