Fun fun fun - just a delightful wine bar. Greats elections and a very intimate setting. Food menu was a pleasant surprise and well executed.
I visited as part of a private party and we had booked the private dining room in the cellar. This is a lovely, intimate space with a full view of all the wines in storage. We were even able to play our own music and there is a buzzer to call for your waiter when required. There was a three course set menu available which contained some really interesting dishes. The food was incredibly tasty but was let down by sloppy errors. My starter of a crab and shrimp open raviolo was lukewarm, verging on cold, and contained hard bits of shell. My main course of stuffed rabbit was under-cooked. Such a shame because there is clearly a talented chef at work here.
As expected, the wine list was epic and the service was excellent. I'm definitely coming back to work my way through a few more bottles!
Why Waste Annual Leave?
+4.5
I took a bit of a gamble booking this restaurant for a large group booking. There were 15 of us dining and I'm not usually one to take a chance on a retaurant I've never been if I'm arranging a party. But having read about how flexible and friendly this restaurant was, I took a punt.
From the word go, when it came to arrangements, they were so helpful. They made it so easy not requesting any deposits, allowing me to change my numbers as and when I needed, not expecting any room hire charge for the private room and allowing us to stay put until midnight when the restaurant finally closed.
What I also enjooyed was the fact that they don't just have a small limited set menu and diners in the private room dine from the a la carte menu as well, with 3 courses for 38.50.
The downstairs basement room also seemed to be where they stored the wines that they are famed for. We were asked to place our order for each course at the start and then were free to mingle and enjoy ourselves. The staff were so friendly and helpful, accommodating all types of requests for tweaking details in different dishes.
I chose a smoked salmon starter, which was so fresh and light and with a rather generous portion and knew instantly that for main course, that I would be optin for the pasta with wild boar ragout and crisp Iberico ham. I have tasted so many average pasta meals in restaurants in London that I have all but given up on them but this was easisly one of the best pasta dishe I have eaten anywhere - Italy included!
The seasoning was just right, the proprotion of ragout to pasta planned to perfection and the crisp Iberico ham gave the dish a lovely contrast of textures. My only problem was that again, they were so generous with the portion, that I couldn't finish it. I was the only one with this problem though as almost everyone else managed to polish off this beautiful dish.
Seeing that Oreos and Baileys are 2 of my favourite ingredients in a dessert, the Baileys Oreo cheesecake was my instant choice. I'd have liked slightly more biscuit and slightly less cheese (that's always my cheesecake preference) and it was a tad too alcoholic for me but otherwise, this was a lovely dessert. I had serious food envy at those who ordered the chocolate mousse. It isn't normally something I like but here they served it on a bed of red frui and totally covered in fresh pistachios so it had a tang from the fruit and a nuty texture on top making it a real winner in the dessert stakes.
This was such a great little surprise of a bistro and I couldn't recommend it highly enough for anyone wanting to plan a party or meal in a private room without any of the hassle or fuss that often accompanies it!
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