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Please note, April’s Café has now closed. Time Out Food editors, MARCH 2020.
Selling the kind of clothes that cost a month’s rent (but that you’d consider going temporarily homeless for), Boutique 1 is Sloane Street’s latest swish arrival. And this, its in-store eatery, is suitably swanky. With low-hanging lighting, plenty of plants, pale wooden furniture, scattered House of Hackney cushions and an urban garden through the windows, it’s like being in the kitchen of your Scandi dreams.
As much attention has been paid to the presentation of the food as to the interiors, the dishes created in palettes worthy of a Wes Anderson film. The pastel-hued, sculptural crab salad was served in scooped out cucumber columns, equal parts food and architecture. Which isn’t to say it was all fur coat – flavours were well balanced, dishes nicely seasoned and textured. Even a chopped salad, seemingly designed for people who don’t like food, saw the neat addition of pickled grapes.
It’s an overwhelmingly healthy menu, ideal for avoiding existential crises while trying clothes on afterwards. Having said that, the shallot tarte tatin was incredibly indulgent, so sweet it was almost a dessert, with a pastry both sticky and flaky. Order that if you need a shopping deterrent – which, megabucks fashionistas excepted, you almost certainly will.