Restaurants

Sundry media bigwigs, heiresses, chefs and restaurateurs congregate here, paying top whack (starters are £11-£15, mains £14-£29) to eat amid potted plants, their Gina flip-flops and Ralph Lauren deck shoes scuffing the dusty dirt floor. On a summery weekend, not-in-the-know customers tramp all the way from Richmond station to find the teahouse closes promptly at 4.30pm and restaurant tables have been booked up for weeks. You might be allocated a roomy wooden table, or a battered, dinky metal thing hard to get your legs under. Chef Skye Gyngell and Co hope you’ll decide to find the place charming (most do), but Petersham Nurseries is not all as ramshackle as it appears: witness the lavish, centrally heated loos in the shed. Gyngell has a talent for flavour combining, even if the textures aren’t always balanced. Our meal suffered from too many similarly creamy dressings, but otherwise was superb, with tepid main courses suiting the hot weather perfectly. Salt-baked turbot with tarragon and chervil dressing and crushed yellow potatoes was memorably harmonious; lean lamb with Indian spices, chickpeas and flatbread was another winner, all making a copy of Gyngell’s cookbook hard to resist. Drinks are reasonably priced and include French perry, Hop Back Brewery bottled ale, good provençal rosé and own-made amalfi lemonade.

Time Out Eating & Drinking Guide 2009