Restaurants

By Jenni Muir

Parlour is Fortnum and Mason's celebration of sugar and spice and all things ice. The walls look like undulating layers of chocolate and vanilla - a Viennetta writ large - while the shades above the pink-and-white mosaic counter suggest fudge sauce melting into hot milk.

Sundaes, cakes, floats, shakes and ice cream cocktails are the focus - sweet dreams sure are made of this. Prices are butt-clenching, though across the road at La Maison du Chocolat you'll also be asked to pay £2 per scoop, without the luxury of sitting down to enjoy it in an interior designed by David Collins. Included in the cost here too are pleasant glimpses of Piccadilly and the chimes of Fortnum's famous clock.

Savouries are made with prime ingredients such as Highgrove beef (from the Prince of Wales' Gloucestershire estate) and Perroche goat's cheese (one of Neal's Yard's finest), but these are mere diversions from the main event: classy sundaes and other guaranteed sugar-highs. The yellow glass goblets don't show these concoctions off to best effect, but their contents are sound. We particularly liked the dark Amedei chocolate ice cream, though the promised taste of balsamic vinegar was lacking in the frosted strawberry flavour. Apple strudel (served with a terrific flat-topped spoon to aid cutting) was pleasingly light. Coffees came with a charming mini cornet of chocolate ice cream but having ordered plenty of treats already these seemed superfluous.

Service was friendly, though not entirely efficient: we had to chase our ginger beer float and in the end it arrived with boring vanilla ice cream rather than the advertised stem ginger with borage honey variety. Time over we'd opt for the simple flight: a chance to mix-and-match with scoops such as gin and pink grapefruit, or raspberry ripple with raspberry liqueur and a jug of chocolate sauce.

Time Out Issue 1934: September 12-18 2007