Restaurants

His profile is lower than it was during the 1990s, but Oliver Peyton is busier than ever. These days, though, he’s opening his restaurants in partnership with others: Royal Parks, Heal’s, the National Gallery and now the Wallace Collection, which invited him to revitalise its catering in 2006. It’s a curious endeavour: unusually for a Peyton place, it seems rather unsure of itself. The glass-topped courtyard space is undeniably dramatic, but it’s ill served by furniture that can’t decide whether it’s built for the garden or the dining room. Service wanders between helpful and distracted. Even the menus strike a precarious balance between casual informality and old-world Marylebonian haughtiness (ice-cream desserts for £6.50, afternoon tea with champagne for £27), and the pricey, French-slanted food is almost as variable. Some ingredients were beautifully sourced, as with a starter of asparagus and poached egg served with a slightly gloopy mustard emulsion; others, though, were poor, as with the very drab beef tomato served with a more impressive fillet of sea bass. A tasty starter salad of frogs’ legs, chorizo and artichoke was rather better, as was an appetising tomato tart, but this isn’t Peyton’s finest hour.

Time Out Eating & Drinking Guide 2008