Restaurants

By Charmaine Mok

The Serpentine Bar & Kitchen has a prime location, perched next to the glorious Serpentine lake in Hyde Park. With the sound of lapping water and braying fowl, the clinking of wine glasses and happy chatter, you wouldn’t dream of being anywhere else on a sunny London day. Yet it’s had a succession of contract caterers over the years, none of whom have seemed able to match the standards of the food to the delightful setting.

The Benugo group is the latest incumbent, and has worked its magic with its signature quirky styling. Inspired by an urban take on rural life, the new look uses rustic wooden crates, baskets and jute carriers holding ripe bananas, floral lampshades and Cath Kidston-esque bunting; tin buckets on every table hold fresh herbs and flowers.

The menu reads well, with plenty of appetising seasonal items – on our visit, the asparagus and broad bean risotto had sold out quickly, and other options such as whole roasted mackerel with green beans or courgette and feta croquettes with purple sprouting broccoli go well beyond the park café norm. Our salmon fishcakes with herb salad and coleslaw were a treat – the golden-brown pucks loaded with plenty of fish, chunky potato and the welcome aroma of fresh dill. The coleslaw was pleasant, too, with additions of fennel and pomegranate to the usual mix.

Potted brown shrimp and crayfish was a wonderfully presented dish, using extremely covetable floral-patterned Burleigh crockery that would not look out of place in Country Living. However, the seafood, served in a dainty teacup, resembled prawn cocktail in a mayonnaise-rich sauce, rather than properly potted shrimps with butter and mace. The accompanying radish and cucumber slices were just that – with no dressing to lift the veg – while the toast fingers were more like bread.

Perhaps the heaving crowds on our visit had stretched the patience of the kitchen, because our spinach, caper and anchovy pizza was forlornly undercooked. The toppings were delicious – slicks of fresh tomato sauce and juicy capers and not too much salty anchovy – but the crust was barely tanned in its short time in the impressive wood-fired oven.

The café is about two-thirds there. It’s a lovely place to perch (and there are plenty of seats, with 300 covers in total inside and out), and the ingredient quality is high. Visit off-peak and perhaps you will enjoy the kitchen’s full attention to detail.

Time Out London Issue 2022: May 21-27 2009