Restaurants

A stalwart of Portobello’s slick media dining scene, the Electric delivers quality retro cooking throughout the day and much of the night. On the first floor is the members’ club run by the team behind Soho House. Downstairs, the brasserie has an upmarket hotel feel, with smartly pressed staff wheeling a dome-topped trolley, and a decor of brown leather banquettes and chrome tables. Lighting is appropriately low. Bursting-at-the-seams burgers on wooden boards, pots of fat chips, seafood platters and chateaubriand to share are served alongside tapas-style ‘small plates’. On a blustery winter evening, the partridge with crackling bacon, game chips and creamy bread sauce was a welcome filler, though a limply presented Dorset crab salad with over-salted fennel disappointed. A starter of vitello tonnato (the Piedmont dish of cold veal slices served with a tuna sauce) used top-notch meat. Perfectly squidgy scallops came with an unctuous buttery sauce. There’s a worldwide selection of wines (with 14 offered by the glass), a cocktail list to be proud of, and a range of desserts that extends from comfort nursery puddings like jam roly poly with custard to classic French favourites.

Time Out Eating & Drinking Guide 2009