Restaurants

A long, low-ceilinged dining room with a skylight and romantically curved banquettes for two give Pied à Terre the feel of a luxury yacht. At the stern are various glass decanters, which sommeliers select according to the wines chosen from the international list. Down in the engine room, chef Shane Osborn doesn’t shy away from challenging ingredients – even on the set lunch menu, which offers a choice of just two dishes for each course plus French farmhouse cheese or dessert. You might find Hereford snails, duck hearts with crayfish, or veal sweetbread ravioli. We’ve enjoyed the most tender slices of lambs’ tongues. Meals kick off with exceedingly good canapés, such as foie gras mousse sandwiched between ultra-thin poppy-seed crisps, and a mouthful of potato jelly with sweetcorn foam. On our last visit, lamb fillet came with fennel-flavoured spätzle, meltingly soft roast fennel, whole roast garlic cloves, and sweet cherry tomatoes. A tiny cup of thin, creamy walnut soup with passion-fruit foam was a suitably exciting prelude to the signature bittersweet chocolate tart. More like a rectangular block of mousse, this was divine, served with macadamia foam, the welcome crunch of deep-fried macadamias, grown-up stout ice-cream and a ‘bite and it’s gone’ stout-flavoured candy crisp. Staff are friendly though we’ve found service slow, especially at lunchtimes, when customers range from besuited businessmen, to in-town-for-the-day couples and (rather surprisingly) gaggles of babes ordering plate after plate of salad.

Time Out Eating & Drinking Guide 2009