Restaurants

It may be attached to the Sloane Square Hotel, but this smart bar-restaurant doesn’t feel like a fusty corporate appendage. The vibe is buzzy and the room upbeat, with colourful abstract paintings setting off white-painted and bare brick walls, and a striking copper-sided bar. Service was attentive; tablecloths were starched to perfection. The food (courtesy of head chef David Karlsson Moller, formerly of exemplary French restaurant Racine) was pretty impressive too. Influences are wide-ranging – British, Italian, French, Scandinavian, Japanese, North African – but a Mediterranean mood dominates. The menu isn’t short, and many starters are available as main courses too: a useful ploy that other restaurants could adopt. Octopus can be chewy and tasteless, but not this wafer-thin carpaccio version with smoked paprika oil; equally delicate in texture and taste were large, yellow ravioli stuffed with pumpkin and sprinkled with amaretti. No complaints about mains of peppered yellow-fin tuna with pak choi and ginger and lemon grass dressing, or pan-fried calves’ liver with caramelised onions and pancetta. A salad of melon, blood orange and mint made a refreshing, zingy dessert. Bar snacks, Sunday brunch and a short pre-theatre menu are available too.

Time Out Eating & Drinking Guide 2009