Onima

Created by international restaurateur Alexandros Andrianopoulos, Onima brings Mykonos chic to Mayfair. You know to put your best shoes on when a restaurant is set in a townhouse with a past life as Cartier’s watchmaking headquarters, and there’s a bar, private members’ club and roof terrace split across five storeys.

But Onima felt more style over substance: black dinner plates, black marble décor and gold features may suit the lush postcode, but it’s just too noughties. The menu has a similar self-conscious vibe as it tries to unite Japanese, Greek and Italian cuisine, but reads more like someone who can’t quite decide where they want to go on holiday. (And while asparagus, courgette flowers and raspberries sound Mediterranean, they felt decidedly unseasonal in the middle of winter when we visited).

Fried saganaki cheese was rubbery, and the accompanying frisée leaf salad was so small it hardly warranted the effort. On-trend cacio e pepe was one of the better dishes, with a smooth, peppery sauce and tonnarelli egg pasta cooked to perfection. Rabbit stew had pleasingly sharp capers dotted against sweet peppers and a rich sauce, but it felt quite ordinary. Still, the namelaka dessert would satisfy any chocoholic, with creamy ganache piping and impressive geometric shards of dark chocolate.

Service was slow and the sommelier looked like he’d rather be somewhere else. When a restaurant promises ‘five dimensions of pleasure’, it’s fair to say expectations are high. Onima, sadly, didn’t quite deliver.