Restaurants

By Susan Low

The wine list here is a corker. With about 100 wines to choose from it’s not the longest in the capital, but it’s exceptionally well chosen, with a mix of established names and up and coming finds from lesser known regions in Portugal, Spain and France.

From the New World there’s a mix of contemporary classics, such as the silky textured Ata Rangi Pinot Noir from Martinborough in New Zealand; or newly fashionable varietals such as the spice-scented Tin Pot Hut Syrah from New Zealand’s Hawkes Bay. This stunning kiwi syrah does a great impression of a wine from the northern Rhône, but does so for a bargain price of £6.45 for a glass.

We were equally impressed by a beeswaxy, viscous and seductively perfumed Condrieu (£9.35 per 125ml glass). This viognier, from one of France’s smallest appellations, seldom makes its way onto by-the-glass listings. Likewise, Terras Gaudas’ O Rosal, from northern Spain’s trend-setting Rías Baíxas region (£6.45 for 125ml), was as clean and crisp as starched white linen.

Classicists may well find the prospect of being able to try a glass of 1999 Bordeaux from Château Margaux (£63.65 for 125ml) or Clos St Denis red burgundy from Dujac (2001, £50 for 125ml) very tempting but, unlike MPs, most people’s expenses don’t have the elasticity to stretch that far. Yet most of the wines seem to have been chosen to deliver great value as well as excitement, regardless of price.

The 40 wines sold by the glass are dispensed from five Enomatic machines lining the walls of the cosy front room. These wonders of modern technology are like gumball machines for grown-ups, dispensing liquid pleasure by the measure. The bottles are kept behind glass cases and the wine in the opened bottles remains fresh for days under a blanket of inert gas. Push a button and the Enomatic pours out the exact measure at just the right temperature. To heighten the kid in a candy shop effect, customers can buy a plastic smartcard with a set amount of credit, then self-serve their way to vinous nirvana.

Bottles are also available to buy to take home.
Walk through the arches and you find the dining room, with close-packed tables of well-to-do locals. The food served can seem a bit of an afterthought after the joys of the wine list, but the short menu is nonetheless appealing (and each dish comes with a wine recommendation).

Starters of grilled calamari with rocket and finely chopped walnuts, and pan-fried chorizo with crisp pan-fried potatoes were both starters were well conceived. Our bavette steak with chips was on the chewy side, as it can be when ordered, as we did, rare. The only dish which disappointed was a ‘ceviche’ of sea bass, which came smothered in a thick blanket of pineapple-flavoured gunk – not the light, fresh, citruous dish were expecting.

Kensington Wine Rooms is already popular. Its Facebook site currently has 141 fans, yet it only has 18 followers on Twitter. So, wine lovers may not be early adopters of technology; or maybe they know that sipping is preferable to texting any day.

Time Out London Issue 2029: July 9-15 2009